MARRAKESH, Morocco — Just over a year ago, at the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a group of 20 countries launched Mission Innovation, an effort to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technologies worldwide. Now, at the 22nd COP, the United States and other member nations are touting the initiative’s first year as a success. “I think after one year we are making significant progress in mapping out the science and technology challenges, including those for long-term major breakthroughs, and in forging the links to the private sector that we will need for accelerating the introduction of those technologies into the marketplace,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said here Monday at COP22.
Mission Innovation is comprised of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Norway, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Commission, the Netherlands, and Finland
Under Mission Innovation, member states have pledged to double their clean energy research and development funding. The initiative was announced as an informal public-private partnership with the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a private-sector investment effort led by Bill Gates. Notable participants include Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Richard Branson of the Virgin Group, Tom Steyer of NextGen Climate, Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard, and Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan of Facebook and the Primary School, respectively. The Breakthrough Energy Coalition has committed to increasing investment in clean energy startups and breakthrough technologies.
Moniz provided an update on the Mission Innovation activities over the past year. “The MI countries, now up to 22 plus the EU, have really come together in a very good way to start planning the path forward,” he said. “We in the United States will host a first technical workshop on the carbon capture challenge next year,” he said, promising that more information on the workshop would be released shortly.
The initiative has outlined seven key challenges to be addressed: smart grids innovation; off-grid access to electricity; carbon capture; sustainable biofuels; converting sunlight to create storable solar fuels; clean energy materials; and affordable heating and cooling of buildings.
Breakthrough Energy has also made some progress, though the initiative has been quiet since COP21, according to Moniz. “They will be announcing their fund in a few weeks,” he said. “They’ve pulled together and they will have an international board. So [for] that private sector track, not only the Breakthrough Energy Coalition and others as well, that will be a very visible step forward.”
Mission Innovation is one of few results of COP21 to garner bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress. House and Senate appropriators voiced support for a fiscal 2017 Department of Energy budget request seeking a doubling of clean energy R&D funding, though ultimately they could not justify the cost. “Republicans and Democrats agree that government-sponsored research has and continues to be important for our continued prosperity and job creation,” Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said during a March budget hearing, adding the tax increases and funds shifting proposed were not feasible.
President-elect Donald Trump has been vocal about his opposition to U.S. involvement in any international climate change initiatives. However, he has throughout his campaign expressed support for energy technology innovation, particularly in the coal industry, and has said his energy policy will support a diverse energy mix. Such statements could suggest Mission Innovation might not be on the chopping block in the upcoming administration, though much remains to be seen.