Part 2: The Latest Imperfectly Well Balanced Climate Policy Book

In This Edition

• Breaking Down Buy Clean Procurement Policy
• The Importance of Permitting Reform
• Ways The Big Fix Was Flawed
• An Exercise to Help Launch Your Climate Career
• Calls to Action

Welcome back to the newsletter and happy holidays! With COP27 now over, let’s resume recapping The Big Fix; this time with some perhaps unexpected twists. Please note this piece is longer than usual to account for the delay in posting time compared to Part 1. If you’re new to following Climate Ingenuity or otherwise missed that piece, check it out here.

First, two more key climate solutions:

Adopt Buy Clean Policies Widely

Of the five major economic sectors that contribute to climate change, arguably the hardest one to decarbonize is industry. Not only do current processes burn a lot of fossil fuels, but in some areas like cement, emissions are inherently embedded into their chemical processes. Overall, this sector produces roughly 30% of global emissions annually as of 2017.

There are at least three fairly straightforward types of solutions for industry the authors cover: efficiency, fuel switching, and reduced demand. None will completely slash emissions by themselves. However, the authors highlight one overarching policy that has the potential to apply the best of them all: buy clean procurement standards. Simply put, this means governments purchase construction materials with lowest emissions possible, accounting even for those coming from supply chains. Already the Biden administration has announced multiple actions involving this policy, and several countries across the EU have passed similar ones as well. Thus, Hal and Justin say the challenge ahead is to adopt Buy Clean more globally and across all levels of government, especially within the top 20 emitting countries.