Seven EESI Briefing Panelists Leading on Climate Policy and Practice | Article

This Earth Day, EESI is highlighting a few of the many tremendous leaders advancing solutions to climate change. From U.S. grid modernization to international climate finance, EESI briefings cover a wide range of key issues that federal policymakers consider when designing policy to advance a sustainable, resilient, and equitable world. Here, we bring together some of the innovative tools, recommendations, and ideas brought forward by recent briefing panelists, demonstrating the significant opportunities we now have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Tina Johnson on Stakeholder Engagement in Policymaking

When shaping policies that can help mitigate and adapt to climate change, it is crucial to consider who is at the table. Taking a look back at climate policymaking over the last several decades, Pattern Change Lab Founder Tina Johnson discussed the impact of civil society on federal policymaking during EESI’s briefing, Lessons Learned from Past Congresses and Current Attitudes on Climate. Stakeholder engagement is not just a box to be checked, but rather a process through which policy ideas are improved and refined. Johnson highlighted, “government and civil society cooperating together are able to achieve a lot … conducting scientific analysis, agenda- and norm-setting for policy, the direct pressure that we have come to really appreciate and value around mobilization and the moral force to get things done, and the narrative shaping—the media storytelling, that communications aspect. These are all key components of how, in the realm of governance, we can influence the policy pieces.”

Johnson elevated the example of the environmental justice movement, which continues to influence the Biden-Harris Administration's focus on equity and justice. The movement has also driven the broader environmental movement to respond to systemic injustices within environmental work and embed environmental justice as a core tenant of environmental policy.

Climate policy will be more effective when you “expand the ‘brain trust’ that you draw from to inform policy,” Johnson emphasized.

Emily Broad Leib on Food Waste

Tackling food waste is one of the many solutions available right now to reduce emissions. In the United States, up to 40 percent of all food is wasted. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that food waste results in annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 42 coal-fired power plants and uses enough energy and water to supply 50 million homes.

Emily Broad Leib, director of Harvard Law School's Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC), highlighted several ways law and policy can be used to reduce food waste during EESI’s Reducing Emissions by Reducing Food Waste briefing. For example, Broad Leib explained that the U.S. federal government does not have a definition or requirement for date labels, which usually indicate peak quality. However, consumers widely believe those dates are safety indicators and end up throwing away food that is still safe to eat. According to Broad Leib, standardizing date labels is one of the most cost-effective opportunities for reducing food waste. This is just one of many recommendations from the FLPC’s U.S. Food Loss and Waste Action Plan, developed in partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council, ReFED, and the World Wildlife Fund and supported by dozens of government, industry, and nonprofit organizations.

Eilyan Bitar on Electric Vehicles

The widespread adoption of electric vehicles can help drive down emissions by decarbonizing the transportation sector while also helping shape the future of the grid. Electric vehicles are more than just a way to get from one place to another, they also hold potential as a form of energy storage that can increase the power system’s efficiency and reliability. As Eilyan Bitar, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University, noted during EESI’s Leveraging Grid Edge Integration for Resilience and Decarbonization briefing, “the big question among policymakers, utilities, and others is if the grid is ready for the increased electricity demand electric vehicles will bring. The short answer is, it depends on how we manage this increase in demand.”

In collaboration with New York State Electric and Gas, Bitar designed a pilot program, OptimizEV, to study residential electric vehicle charging. The goal of the study was to understand charging behaviors and identify how different incentive programs or charging schedules impacted demand on the grid. As Bitar highlighted, there is potential to “coordinate how all electric vehicles charge to minimize their impacts on the grid while ensuring that everyone’s vehicles charge by their deadlines. Everybody gets their energy when they need it and the loads can be coordinated in a way to minimize their impacts on the grid.”

Bitar made sure to emphasize that for an electrified transportation sector to actually reach net-zero carbon emissions, the energy generation must come from renewable sources.

Juan Torres on Modernizing the Energy Grid

Renewable energy generation is a linchpin to reducing greenhouse gas emissions across the economy. The grid plays a critical role in moving renewable energy from where it is generated to where it will be used. Juan Torres, associate laboratory director of energy systems integration at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), studies the integration of renewable energy with the grid. NREL is working to understand and forecast how different sources of energy impact energy flows across time and space, as Torres explained during EESI’s briefing, Towards the Energy System of Tomorrow.

Coming from a national lab, Torres emphasized the role of research in implementing renewable energy goals. In one case, NREL worked in collaboration with Los Angeles, California, to study “the pathways and costs to achieve a 100 percent renewable electricity supply while electrifying key end uses and maintaining the current high degree of reliability.” NREL designed a specific tool which, Torres explained, “helps us to understand how all the different devices being added to the grid … impact how the grid operates…. We are able to model this so we can plan and predict better to maintain resilience and meet the load demands as the system evolves.”

Duanne Andrade on Climate Banks

Green banks, also known as climate banks, can help unlock capital for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects that decarbonize the power sector. Because of their unique, mission-driven mandates to address social and environmental issues, these entities are well-positioned to provide targeted investments in rural areas, low- and moderate-income communities, and communities of color that are disproportionately affected by polluting facilities and climate change impacts and are often unable to access traditional funding sources.

Over 20 green banks currently exist in the United States, providing flexible and affordable financing for a wide range of clean energy projects that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and boost climate resilience. One of these green banks is the Solar Energy Loan Fund (SELF), the first and only non-profit green bank in Florida. During EESI’s Unlocking Capitol for Climate Solutions: The Benefits of a National Climate Bank briefing, SELF Chief Financial Officer Duanne Andrade explained that her bank provides “green” loans which do indeed mostly go towards energy efficiency and clean energy projects in low- and moderate-income communities. Andrade dove into the copious social, economic, and environmental benefits provided by SELF and other green banks and explained how they can serve as a model for national efforts.

Bella Tonkonogy on International Climate Finance

In order to reach international climate mitigation and adaptation goals, climate-aligned investments need to increase not only in the United States but around the globe—by more than 590 percent. In 2019 and 2020, the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), an independent nonprofit that supports funders, found that climate finance investments amounted to $632 billion on average annually. CPI's U.S. Director Bella Tonkonogy presented their flagship study at EESI's briefing, The Role of International Climate Finance. It breaks down climate investments by source of funding, funding instrument, funding use, and sector.

Tonkonogy noted that mitigation finance continues to dominate globally, with over a 90 percent share of total climate finance. Renewable energy represents the highest share of that mitigation finance, a majority of which is privately sourced, while low-carbon transportation is the fastest growing share, driven by the increasing uptake of electric vehicles. Tonkonogy emphasized, “There are significant opportunities to increase finance for adaptation and resilience, which now receives only about 10 percent of climate finance, to address the impacts of climate change that communities are already experiencing around the globe.”

Anna Weber on Planning for the Climate of Tomorrow

On the topic of climate adaptation, Anna Weber, policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council, explained during EESI’s Protecting Vulnerable Communities from Climate Impacts briefing that many federal guidelines and standards are based on past climatic conditions, making it more challenging to implement effective adaptation actions. For example, Atlas-14—a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tool that estimates how much rain is expected in different places—is used to inform infrastructure decisions. Atlas-14, however, is based on past precipitation patterns and does not consider the impact of climate change on future patterns. Similarly, Weber noted that building standards and Federal Emergency Management Administration flood maps are also based on historical data.

“There are relatively straightforward, tangible changes that we can be making to ensure that the decisions we make today account for changing conditions and correctly identify and protect those that are most at risk,” said Weber. According to her, one of those changes is ensuring that flood maps account for future conditions in addition to representing past risk. Weber also recommended that the federal government increase the funding available for pre-disaster hazard mitigation and ensure that lower-capacity and low-income communities can access the funds.

Authors: Savannah Bertrand and Anna McGinn