Brattle Economists Outline Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator for Large Scale Decarbonization in US Economy
14 January 2021
Institutional and financial bottlenecks currently slow the deployment of these measures that could reduce carbon emissions cost-effectively. For instance, some suffer from “chicken or egg” problems that involve separate industries waiting on each other (such as cars and charging stations, as well as many other examples). The Accelerator could provide bridge financing to help break such deadlocks. The goal would be not to fully underwrite decarbonization efforts, but to strategically nudge them beyond tipping points where they will become more attractive in the market.
The Accelerator would complement “Green Banks” already operating at the state and local levels in some regions. However, the Accelerator would be much larger (roughly $100 billion vs. about $4 billion in aggregate Green Bank financing to date), and its operational mandate would be broader.