Topic: energy security

In this testimony, Jennifer Morgan, Director of WRI’s Climate and Energy program, describes the energy risks and opportunities that climate change presents; the role that clean energy can play in the U.S. energy mix; and actions Congress can take to mitigate global warming’s threats.

This “roadmap” presents the results of a year-long effort by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and WRI to identify a set of policies to address energy security and climate change simultaneously.

In this paper, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the World Resources Institute examine eight scenarios for technological development and energy use in the United States in 2035. All envision limiting the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) to 450 parts per million (ppm).

In the years to come, the world must meet the energy needs of a growing and developing world population while mitigating the impacts of global climate change. This policy brief seeks to establish a framework for considering the complex and evolving links between energy security and climate change, and identifi es three challenges:

• the evolving and interconnected nature of energy security and climate change definitions and goals,
• the variables that contribute to an uncertain future, and
• the trade-offs and unintended consequences involved in addressing both issues.

A workable strategy must be concerned not just with how to design a future in which climate change and energy security concerns are met, but also with the pathway to get there. To guide this transition, this brief offers several guiding principles for devising energy and climate policies that are both effective and politically viable.