Energy Dept. releases Climate Change Technology Program Strategic Plan

WASHINGTON (09/26/06) --The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has 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.

“Through this Plan, the Climate Change Technology program provides a framework for getting the broad range of government experts involved in climate technology research pulling in the same strategic direction,” Stephen Eule, DOE Director of CCTP, said.  “The technologies outlined in the Plan – hydrogen, biorefining, clean coal, carbon sequestration, nuclear fission and fusion, and others - have the potential to transform our economy in fundamental ways and can address not just climate change, but energy security, air pollution, and other pressing needs.”

The Plan is the outcome of coordination through government working groups, expert review, and public comment.  A draft Strategic Plan was released in September 2005 and over 250 comments were received during the public comment period.  Through public comment, the Plan’s ambitious goals for advanced technology, both near- and long-term, are more clearly stated and, within a wide range of uncertainties, summarize both quantities and timing.  Further, the final Plan seeks to outline transformational ways through technology to reduce the costs of addressing climate change.

The CCTP Strategic Plan is available online.