Climate Policy and Cartelization Risk for Critical Minerals
The demand for critical raw materials, such as copper, nickel, and cobalt, is surging due to the global shift toward cleaner energy systems. However, this growing demand raises concerns about potential market cartelization, as resource-rich countries could organize to control the supply. A new CEEPR Working Paper focuses on the copper market and assesses the potential consequences from cartelization.
Small Changes, Big Impact: Nudging Employees Toward Sustainable Behaviors
In a new Working Paper, the researchers designed and conducted three randomized control trials in partnership with a large biopharmaceutical company operating over 160 plasma donation centers, with the aim of promoting sustainable behaviors in a workplace setting.
Challenges to Expanding EV Adoption and Policy Responses
The expansion of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure is essential to accelerating both EV adoption and the broader decarbonization of the transportation sector. This Working Paper investigates the incentives and policies at the federal, state, and utility levels aimed at promoting the widespread deployment of EV charging stations alongside encouraging EV adoption.
The Efficiency of Dynamic Energy Prices
The marginal cost of electricity fluctuates hour-by-hour, yet retail customers typically face flat prices. Using data from all seven US wholesale markets and a new method to evaluate alternative rates set in advance that accounts for equilibrium price effects, a new CEEPR Working Paper estimates efficiency gains from time-varying price schedules that better align price with cost.
Choosing Climate Policies in a Second-best World with Incomplete Markets
A new Working Paper considers how optimal climate policy choices depend on the completeness of long-term contracting in liberalized electricity markets. Surprisingly, the researchers observe that renewable subsidies can be more cost-effective than a carbon tax if electricity generation investors cannot sign long-term contracts with consumers. This occurs because, by increasing investment in renewables, subsidies can reduce exposure to unhedged risk from uncertain gas generation costs.
3 Things to Know about the Next 4 Years of US Energy
How will the next four years under President-elect Donald Trump impact climate policy? All eyes are on the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark climate law enacted by President Joe Biden that Trump has said he wants to repeal. The law offers subsidies for electric vehicles, batteries, and other clean energy technologies. On a recent episode of the “What If It Works?” podcast, hosted by the MIT Energy Initiative, MIT Sloan professor and economist Christopher Knittel offered a few early predictions on the potential short- and long-term climate and energy impacts of the second Trump presidency.
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Leading the Charge: Best Practices for EV Charging Programs in Cities Upcoming Webinar for City Officials
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that urban electric vehicle (EV) owners will rely on public charging for 62% of their needs, compared to only 32% for suburban residents and 16% for those in rural areas. Despite the growing popularity of EVs, some city residents remain hesitant to buy one due to concerns about publicly available charging. A recording of a recent webinar is now online that includes a conversation with three early adopter cities as they share insights into the successes and challenges they’ve faced while building their EV charging programs.
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Catherine Wolfram: High-energy scholar
The MIT Sloan professor has become a leading energy economist through original studies that can inform our global climate response. An accomplished scholar and policy expert, Wolfram has been on the faculty at Harvard University, the University of California at Berkeley — and now MIT, where she is the William Barton Rogers Professor in Energy. She has also served as deputy assistant secretary for climate and energy economics at the U.S. Treasury. Learn more about Catherine in this article on MIT News.
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Clean Investment
Monitor
The Clean Investment Monitor (CIM) is a joint project of the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR) and the Rhodium Group. The CIM tracks public and private investments in climate technologies in the United States. Through this data and analysis, the CIM provides insights into investment trends, the effects of federal and state policies, and on-the-ground progress in the U.S. towards net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
The CIM covers dozens of different technologies and their input components across all sectors of the economy, including for clean electricity and transportation, building electrification, low-emission industrial production, and carbon management.
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Climate Action
Through Education
The MIT Climate Action Through Education (CATE) program, directed by Professor Christopher R. Knittel, has developed an MIT-informed interdisciplinary, place-based climate change curriculum for U.S. high school teachers in the following core disciplines: History/Social Science, English/Language Arts, Math, and Science.
Curricular materials – labs, units, lessons, projects – will be aligned with Next Generation Science Standards, and MA education standards. The solutions-focused curriculum aims to inform students about the causes and consequences of anthropogenic climate change, while equipping them with the knowledge and sense of agency to contribute to climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience.
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Driving Towards
Seamless Public
EV Charging
Widespread electric vehicle (EV) adoption is critical to confronting climate change – but a lack of sufficient public charging infrastructure is holding many potential EV drivers back. A team of researchers from Harvard and the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research will work to accelerate progress on public EV charging as a gating requirement to achieving widespread EV adoption. The team will contribute by working directly with stakeholders and stakeholder groups to identify barriers to seamless public EV charging, build consensus for solutions, and advance those solutions.
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The Roosevelt
Project
Transitioning the United States economy toward deep decarbonization will have unequally distributed effects, positive and negative, across socio-economic groups, geographies and economic sectors. The concerns of workers and communities adversely affected by the transition must inform the discussion around decarbonization, associated policy changes and institutional development. The goal of the Roosevelt Project is to provide an analytical basis for charting a path to a low carbon economy in a way that promotes high quality job growth, minimizes worker and community dislocation, and harnesses the benefits of energy technologies for regional economic development.
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