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Title: Carbon Lock-In: Barriers to Deploying Climate Change Mitigation Technologies

Abstract

The United States shares with many other countries the objective of stabilizing greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous interference with the climate system. Many believe that accelerating the pace of technology improvement and deployment could significantly reduce the cost of achieving this goal. The critical role of new technologies is underscored by the fact that most anthropogenic greenhouse gases emitted over the next century will come from equipment and infrastructure built in the future. As a result, new technologies and energy sources have the potential to transform the nation’s energy system while meeting climate change as well as energy security and other important goals. Given the need for large-scale GHG emission reductions, the challenge is to move toward actions that go beyond technology R&D to strategies that target the rapid and large-scale absorption of low-carbon technologies into the economy. Most technological innovations do not survive the transition from invention to marketplace success. While they may be technically feasible, various obstacles prevent them from gaining market share. In addition, best practices representing already proven cost-effective approaches to GHG mitigation are significantly underutilized. The longevity of much of the energy infrastructure – frommore » power plants to the building stock – prolongs the operation of obsolete technologies, and other impediments cause suboptimal choices to be made when technologies do finally turn over. The result is large-scale “carbon lock-in.”« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States). School of Public Policy
  2. Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  4. National Univ. of Singapore (Singapore)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE; U.S. Climate Change Technology Program (CCTP)
OSTI Identifier:
1424507
Report Number(s):
ORNL/TM-2007/124
DOE Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; 29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY

Citation Formats

Brown, Marilyn A., Chandler, Jess, Lapsa, Melissa V., and Sovacool, Benjamin K. Carbon Lock-In: Barriers to Deploying Climate Change Mitigation Technologies. United States: N. p., 2008. Web. doi:10.2172/1424507.
Brown, Marilyn A., Chandler, Jess, Lapsa, Melissa V., & Sovacool, Benjamin K. Carbon Lock-In: Barriers to Deploying Climate Change Mitigation Technologies. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1424507
Brown, Marilyn A., Chandler, Jess, Lapsa, Melissa V., and Sovacool, Benjamin K. 2008. "Carbon Lock-In: Barriers to Deploying Climate Change Mitigation Technologies". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1424507. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1424507.
@article{osti_1424507,
title = {Carbon Lock-In: Barriers to Deploying Climate Change Mitigation Technologies},
author = {Brown, Marilyn A. and Chandler, Jess and Lapsa, Melissa V. and Sovacool, Benjamin K.},
abstractNote = {The United States shares with many other countries the objective of stabilizing greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous interference with the climate system. Many believe that accelerating the pace of technology improvement and deployment could significantly reduce the cost of achieving this goal. The critical role of new technologies is underscored by the fact that most anthropogenic greenhouse gases emitted over the next century will come from equipment and infrastructure built in the future. As a result, new technologies and energy sources have the potential to transform the nation’s energy system while meeting climate change as well as energy security and other important goals. Given the need for large-scale GHG emission reductions, the challenge is to move toward actions that go beyond technology R&D to strategies that target the rapid and large-scale absorption of low-carbon technologies into the economy. Most technological innovations do not survive the transition from invention to marketplace success. While they may be technically feasible, various obstacles prevent them from gaining market share. In addition, best practices representing already proven cost-effective approaches to GHG mitigation are significantly underutilized. The longevity of much of the energy infrastructure – from power plants to the building stock – prolongs the operation of obsolete technologies, and other impediments cause suboptimal choices to be made when technologies do finally turn over. The result is large-scale “carbon lock-in.”},
doi = {10.2172/1424507},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1424507}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2008},
month = {Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2008}
}