UN-Linked Plan Charts US Course to Net-Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050

by Rebecca Beitsch (The Hill) The Zero Carbon Action Plan (ZCAP), crafted by roughly 100 individuals spanning academia and think tanks, would help the U.S. reach the goals of the Paris Climate Accord and hit net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The research found that a transition to almost entirely clean sources of energy would only cost 0.4 percent more of the U.S.’s gross domestic product (GDP) than sticking with fossil fuels, while creating 2.5 million new jobs by midcentury.

The plan calls for reducing the carbon footprint of the electricity sector by 60 percent by 2030 and ratcheting up from there. But while the proposal would end the use of coal, it does not fully transition away from fossil fuels, citing a need to rely on natural gas to help with the intermittency of renewable sources.

The ZCAP plan, like others, calls for electrification of vehicles and public transit to reduce emissions from the transportation sector as well as other efforts to reduce the impact of buildings and industry while reimagining land use to both reduce carbon output and find new ways to store it.

But it also lays out specific actions at every level of government that must be taken over the next year, even down to a more local level where decisions about infrastructure, building codes and land use are made.

“All these different layers of government need to move in the same direction in order to achieve these goals,” said Vicki Arroyo with the Georgetown Climate Center, who helped author the report’s transportation section.

At the federal level that means establishing a White House Office on Climate Change to coordinate efforts, along with a minimum $2 trillion in funding. It calls for federal-level plans to decarbonize both the electric and transportation sector as well as a financing mechanism for green projects.

On the state level, governments must create their own implementation plans for reducing carbon from cars, buildings and electricity. Local government would be tasked with developing zero-emission building codes and pushing efforts to retrofit older buildings. READ MORE