Clean Energy Finance Forum

A bumper crop of climate pledges and plans land in your inbox, but how many make it to your term sheet? This investigation follows a few global finance pledges, setting them against capital needs and focusing on partnerships and local efforts as units of action.

Each building owner, with a team of investors, needs to work out a particular electrification schedule. Broad public policies, though, can advance new technologies or marketing strategies that can help more buildings go electric sooner. This sequel to our earlier explainer sets out some scalable policies from across the United...

One state has tried requiring power at peak demand periods to come from clean sources. This mandate can improve air quality in low-income communities. Critics question its effect on emissions, though, and its optimal design as clean-energy storage for utilities evolves.

The US, as the largest consumer and highest emitter of carbon per capita, bears a critical share of the responsibility to facilitate a transition to sustainable practices. ​​​​​This article lays out the rationale and a pathway for the US to incentivize the apparel industry’s decarbonization. I propose a preferential tariff...

Climate scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report warned that without immediate large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, climate change will cause devastating economic and human losses. Policymakers must come together to implement a comprehensive climate change strategy in the United States.

At the local level, a Green New Deal can crowd in private capital. In this update of a Financing and Deploying Clean Energy policy memo, the sustainability director for Ithaca, NY explains the holistic economic and energy-justice strategy driving the city's project to decarbonize all its buildings.

In a policy roadmap, New York State undertakes to give utilities and manufacturers every reason to build out clean energy networks. In the energy-buying experience, residents and businesses see few paths to renewable power. How can a state reach its zero-emission goals without first showing consumers lower prices and clearer...

This explainer is the third part of a series by Sara Harari and Nate Grady on how microgrids are being used to transform the electrical grid. As climate change becomes the new reality, policymakers must decide how to invest limited resources in advanced technology and infrastructure. At the heart of...

The popularity of solar energy skyrocketed in South Carolina (SC) with the introduction of net metering in 2014 when the state legislature unanimously passed its landmark energy bill. After the introduction of the Distributed Energy Resources (DER) program, the Palmetto State went from having virtually no solar energy to having...

Vastly higher clean energy targets are essential to empower the international community to make the leap to a sustainable future, according to Richard Heinberg, coauthor of “Our Renewable Future: Laying the Path for One Hundred Percent Clean Energy.” In this interview, he delves into the practical challenges involved in the...