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In the news
January 20, 2021
Joe Biden will be sworn in today as the 46th President of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts. He and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in outside the United States Capitol in Washington DC. In an opinion piece initially published Dec. 2 on Foresight Climate & Energy, EIT Climate-KIC Chief Strategy Officer Tom Mitchell and its Chief Investment Officer Dominic Hofstetter reflect on how the president-elect’s climate agenda it could drive new forms of innovation. beyond technological advances.
The United States is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world after China and has the highest CO2 emissions per capita. Thus, the election of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States in November has brought renewed hope that the world can avoid the direct consequences of global warming. Biden’s climate plan, crafted with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, is a pragmatic recognition of the challenge ahead and a fiery manifesto for building a more resilient and sustainable economy. Meanwhile, the nomination of John Kerry, who signed the Paris Agreement on behalf of the US in 2016, as the first US climate envoy also underscores the president-elect’s commitment to making climate one of the top priorities of his presidency.
Innovation is widely recognized as key to achieving the goals set out in the Paris Agreement. However, it is telling that Biden’s climate agenda uses the term only in relation to the development and commercialization of clean energy technologies. This reflects a traditional understanding of innovation, which has dominated climate action for the past two decades. However, it may no longer be appropriate to address the problem before us.
The need for groundbreaking innovation
As many call the “decisive decade”, climate change is no longer primarily a problem of technology development but of technology deployment. The world has all the building blocks it needs to reduce emissions from the economy and strengthen the resilience of society. That’s not to say that cheaper batteries and more efficient solar cells wouldn’t be helpful. But unlike ten years ago, when President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act boosted traditional research and development, our most urgent priority now is to accelerate the expansion of what we already have.
The challenge, however, is that even when compelling technology is available, its path to market is not guaranteed. The UK Green Deal, a building renovation funding mechanism launched in January 2013, offers a warning. Although the government at the time heralded it as “Europe’s most innovative and transformative energy efficiency program,” it was a spectacular public policy disaster, achieving a meager 0.3% of its original ambition.
The president-elect’s climate plan wants to upgrade four million buildings over four years to make them more energy efficient. How can this be done? There is no simple answer, but what is clear is that technology alone will not do it. Single-point technical solutions designed to gradually improve existing economic systems will not be able to unleash change at the required scale and pace. What we need is to weave a new fabric of society with a thread not only of technological advances but also of cultural, political, social and economic innovation. This requires a radical change in the innovation paradigm, moving from single point solutions to systems innovation.
Change of the paradigm from innovation to systems
In systems innovation, technology continues to play its part, but so do policy and regulation, education and requalification, consumer behavior, and finance. Systems innovation also emphasizes the need for new narratives and other forms of social and cultural innovation, particularly in those communities for which fossil fuels are a source of identity and belonging.
In addition, the innovation of the system prioritizes the involvement of citizens through new mechanisms of participation and innovation in governance. This is essential to ensure the local effectiveness of climate action and to strengthen its buy-in. It will also help instill a sense of agency and environmental justice within communities most affected by transformative change, a key goal of the Biden-Harris plan. An example is provided by the American Just Transitions Fund, which supports New Mexico’s coal communities in creating equitable, sustainable and inclusive economic futures.
The implications of embracing systems innovation are manifold. It requires a marriage of top-down policies with bottom-up interventions that enable the inclusion of citizens and the emergence of optimal climate strategies at the local level. And it ensures different partnerships, with enterprising governments leading the way and joining forces with the private sector and with innovation actors outside of mainstream R&D.
Take, for example, Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent announcement to ban the sale of new diesel and gasoline cars in California by 2035. Over the next 20 years, the world’s fifth-largest economy will have to build a zero-emissions transportation infrastructure. carbon. Simply replacing each of the 15.1 million carbon-emitting cars on California’s roads with electric vehicles will not achieve this goal. The state will also have to aggressively build public transportation, reduce urban sprawl, reduce transportation demand, and improve its electrical grid. It should also trigger a mindset shift among its citizens, moving away from individual car ownership towards walking, biking, public transportation, carpooling, and virtual mobility. To achieve this, the government will need to engage all the levers of change at its disposal in a concerted and connected way.
Go back to the roots (of innovation)
In Europe, the paradigm shift from single point solutions to mission-oriented systems innovation is already underway. Horizon Europe, the bloc’s new multi-year research and development framework, has been designed with a missionary mindset and applies systems thinking to a diverse set of topics ranging from conquering cancer to protecting oceans and waterways to restoration. soil health.
Before following his example, the US may have to overcome its firm belief in the dogma of “technology will save us” and its romance with the Silicon Valley entrepreneur that characterizes its current economic-cultural identity.
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