Implementing Climate Pragmatism

Program Areas – Sustainability, Development

High-Energy Innovation

Innovation in clean energy technologies is a truly global phenomenon, and the most active efforts to develop next-generation technologies are in rapidly industrializing countries, where energy demand is high and deployment opportunities are abundant. From advanced nuclear reactor technologies in China and solar projects in Brazil to South African experiments in clean coal and Indian shale gas exploration, the global landscape for clean energy innovation has never been more fertile.

To take advantage of these opportunities, governments must strengthen international collaborative efforts to supply the global public good of clean, cheap energy. High-Energy Innovation, the second of three reports in the Climate Pragmatism project, evaluates four clean energy technologies—shale gas, carbon capture and storage (CCS), nuclear, and solar—and finds that, in all cases, industrializing countries are making significant investments and leveraging international collaborations in order to make energy cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable.

Through a series of detailed maps, High-Energy Innovation charts energy innovation in shale gas, CCS, nuclear, and solar currently underway worldwide. By leveraging high-growth markets in support of advancing important clean energy technologies, the report argues that this globalized “high-energy innovation” offers the most pragmatic path towards modernity in emerging economies and the best chance to develop and scale cheap, clean, abundant energy in all nations.

Read the full report here.