U.S. Climate Change Technology Program Strategic Plan

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today released the Climate Change Technology Program (CCTP) Strategic Plan, which details measures to accelerate the development and reduce the cost of new and advanced technologies that avoid, reduce, or capture and store greenhouse gas emissions. CCTP is the technology component of a comprehensive U.S. strategy introduced by President Bush in 2002 to combat climate change that include measures to slow the growth of greenhouse gas emissions through voluntary, incentive-based, and mandatory partnerships, advance climate change science, spur clean energy technology development and deployment, and promote international collaboration. "This Plan was inspired by the President's vision to harness America's strengths in innovation and technology to transform energy production and use in ways that significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the long term," U.S Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman said. "This Strategic Plan is unprecedented in its scope and scale and breaks new ground with its visionary 100-year planning horizon, global perspective, multi-lateral research collaborations, and public private partnerships." The CCTP Strategic Plan organizes roughly $3 billion in federal spending for climate technology research, development, demonstration, and deployment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase economic growth. It provides a long-term planning context, taking into account many uncertainties, and establishes principles for formulating research and development portfolios to identify areas for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and highlights an array of technology strategies and investment criteria. This Plan complements other Administration efforts including short-term measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity, advance climate change science, and promote international cooperation through partnership including the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, Methane to Markets Partnership, and the International Partnership for a Hydrogen Economy. The Plan sets six complementary goals: (1) reducing emissions from energy use and infrastructure; (2) reducing emissions from energy supply; (3) capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide; (4) reducing emissions of other greenhouse gases; (5) measuring and monitoring emissions; and (6) bolstering the contributions of basic science to climate change. The Plan outlines approaches toward attaining these goals, articulates underlying technology development strategies, and identifies a series of next steps toward implementation.