A new report has called on governments to use public investment and regulation to rapidly scale-up clean energy technologies to bring down costs.
The Ten Principles for Policymaking in the Energy Transition: Lessons from experience report is based on an analysis of the last three decades of global energy policy.
Among the reports key recommendations is that governments should aim to replicate the current successes of the energy transition, such as offshore wind and solar PV, by proactively using the three levers of policy: investment, tax and regulation, to accelerate innovation and cost reduction in clean technologies.
It also says that authorities should go beyond just providing a ‘level playing field’ where technologies are left to compete against each other, by targeting ‘tipping points’, where clean technologies gain an advantage over fossil fuels, leading to a rapid reallocation of investment.
In addition, they should urgently reshape their policy approaches to accelerate innovation, job-creation, and cost reduction in the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.
The report provides evidence of how and where policy has stimulated rapid innovation and growth in clean energy technologies since the 1990s.
Professor of Climate Change Policy and Director of the Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance at the University of Cambridge Laura Diaz Anadon, one of the lead authors of the report, said: “Experience with clean energy policy around the world over the past 30 years shows that it is time to reconsider what is required to meet climate and energy goals. Decisive government action is essential, but to succeed it must rely on a different set of policy principles, given the transformational scale of change required.
“Governments cannot simply set the goal and encourage the market to deliver. They must be active participants; investing to de-risk markets, regulating to bring down costs, and making strategic technology choices to incentivise and focus the private sector. Doing so can deliver a transition to clean energy that is faster, cheaper and more sustainable for all.”