Challenges to Substantial and Sustained Reductions in Greenhouse Gases: Opportunities for the United States from the Bottom-Up

Abstract

National leaders are calling for substantial reductions in anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from industrialized nations in order to avoid dramatic climate change. Doing so raises significant challenges in technology, policy and organizational realms, and at international, national, regional and local scales. While the current debate is focused on national and international policies to reduce greenhouse gases, such as cap-and-trade and R&D in low-carbon technologies, reduction targets on the order of 80% will also require significant parallel capacity building at local and regional scales. Cost-effective, rapid deployment of efficient and low carbon technologies requires both localization and the leveraging of economic and environmental co-benefits. This chapter outlines a three part strategy that builds upon an understanding of local energy resource and demand dynamics, essential to cost-effectively achieve climate and other sustainability goals.