A strategy for putting Americans back to work based on advanced technologies, good jobs, clean energy, climate safety, and economic security.
Climate change represents a profound policy challenge to America and the world – requiring a response at a sweeping scale and with unprecedented speed centered on remaking the energy foundations of our society. The move to a clean and renewable energy future must be advanced at the same time America works to recover from the most serious pandemic in a century and the parallel economic collapse triggered by Covid-19.
In response to this challenge, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network USA (SDSN USA), has released America's Zero-Carbon Action Plan (ZCAP), a comprehensive policy framework that presents a strategic plan to create a carbon-neutral economy for the United States by 2050. In addition to an overall framework, the Plan offers detailed chapters on the solutions for reducing emissions in power generation; transportation; industry; buildings; food and land-use; and materials. The Plan focuses largely on the required decarbonization of the energy sector but also includes specific strategies for land use and the materials sector as well as suggestions for addressing other powerful greenhouse gases (GHG) including methane.
The ZCAP lays out a strategy for putting Americans back to work building a vibrant 21st century U.S. economy based on advanced technologies, good jobs, clean energy, climate safety, and economic security. The strategy for transitioning from the fossil fuel status quo to a low-carbon energy future builds on four pillars: (1) using energy more efficiently (2) decarbonizing electricity; (3) switching from fossil fuel combustion to electricity in most current uses; and (4) carbon capture and storage (CCS).