The Breakthrough Institute

Bjorn Lomborg -- the famous "Skeptical Environmentalist" -- wrote an op-ed today for the Washington Post, A Better Way Than Cap and Trade, calling for a global investment of $33 billion per year in clean energy research and development (R&D).

"The answer is to dramatically increase research and development so that solar panels become cheaper than fossil fuels sooner rather than later...

The United States has an opportunity to lead the world on research and development, which would give it the moral authority to demand that everyone else do the same. The world's sole superpower could finally provide the leadership on climate change that has been lacking in the White House.

Even if every nation spent 0.05 percent of its gross domestic product on research and development of low-carbon energy, this would be only about one-tenth as costly as the Kyoto Protocol and would save dramatically more than any of Kyoto's likely successors."

In the United States, this approach would open up new avenues for the nation's creative, innovative spirit and leave behind the political mess of Kyoto-type negotiations.

A low-carbon energy, high-income future is possible. Unfortunately, the political battles we just witnessed in Washington have done nothing to make it a reality.

0.05 percent of global GDP for R&D -- or $33 billion per year -- is a good start for reducing the price of clean energy technology below that of fossil fuels and stimulating mass commercialization. However, R&D is insufficient to accomplish this goal. Public investments in demonstration and deployment are also necessary to spur the innovation process and capture the benefits of "learning by doing."

An immense and ever-growing number of energy experts are calling for massive public investments in clean energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D). In December 2007 a group of over 30 energy scientists, including several Nobel Laureates, called upon Congress (PDF) to invest $30 billion per year in clean energy RDD&D.

In a recent landmark report, Energy Technology Perspectives 2008 (summarized here), the International Energy Agency recommended $45 trillion total global investments in clean energy technologies and infrastructure -- and $4.5 trillion for clean electricity technologies alone -- between now and 2050. "A global revolution is needed in ways that energy is supplied and used," the 600+ page IEA report concluded.

The Breakthrough Institute has carefully documented the growing body of evidence that challenges the efficacy of carbon pricing and calls for massive public investments in clean energy RDD&D: time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time again (and again).

Lomborg is on the right track, but if he truly aims to reduce the price of clean energy below that of fossil fuels and achieve a prosperous clean energy future, he should support our calls for investments in demonstration and deployment as well as R&D -- and agenda which would call for a much larger global investment.  Nevertheless, Lomborg's support of large-scale public investments is yet another indicator that such an agenda has the power to rally massive levels of public and expert support -- even from skeptical environmentalists.