Statement: NAS Report Shows Need for Federal Energy R&D Investment

Washington, D.C.– The following is a statement from Addison Stark, associate director for energy innovation at the Bipartisan Policy Center, on the release of a National Academy of Sciences report on climate change:

“This report confirms the view that addressing climate challenges will require not only deploying clean energy, but also significantly greater research investment in negative emission technologies such as direct air capture and storage. Reducing carbon pollution on its own will not be enough to achieve international emission reduction targets— carbon dioxide that has already been emitted must be removed from the air. While some land-based carbon removal approaches are ready to and should be deployed, they will not be enough on their own.

“Just as decades of federal energy research laid the groundwork for many of the technologies later commercialized by the private sector and that we enjoy today, such as GPS, lithium-ion batteries, and air conditioning, so too will it be crucial to driving efficiency and cost improvements needed to deploy direct air capture at scale. While the challenge may seem daunting, companies around the world are already demonstrating that carbon removal and direct air capture technology works. With strong research investment in key areas that today’s report outlines, the United States is well-poised to pioneer breakthroughs that reduce carbon pollution and reassert our global technology leadership.”