The electricity sector is the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, accounting for 27% of U.S. emissions in 2018. Once the largest source of emissions, the electricity sector has become less carbon-intensive as coal-fired power plants have closed and more renewables have come online. State and federal policies, such as renewable energy standards, and market forces, including the low price of natural gas in recent years, have driven this transformation.

Continued decarbonization of the electricity sector is the linchpin of any national strategy to achieve net-zero emissions economy-wide by no later than 2050. As detailed throughout this report, electrification of key end uses in the transportation, building, and industrial sectors will be essential to eliminating emissions from those sectors. Electrification only works as a decarbonization strategy, however, if the grid is as clean as possible as fast as possible.

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The transportation sector is the largest source of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, accounting for 37% of all emissions in 2019. Light-duty cars and trucks accounted for 54% of transportation sector emissions, with heavy-duty freight trucks making up another 21%. Whether the vehicle is a car or a bus or a ship, the formula is the same: emissions are a function of the vehicle’s fuel efficiency, the fuel’s carbon intensity, and the number of miles traveled each year.

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Decarbonizing buildings presents both a substantial economic opportunity and a complex challenge. Across the country, there are roughly 125 million homes and 5 million commercial buildings. These buildings vary widely in age, structure, and efficiency and use an enormous amount of electricity. Residential and commercial buildings are responsible for about three-quarters of U.S. electricity sales and two-fifths of U.S. energy use. At the same time, retrofitting existing buildings is a significant opportunity to create local jobs while also reducing carbon emissions and energy bills.

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Of all the infrastructure types, water is the most fundamental to life. Access to safe, clean water is essential to public health, agriculture, and commerce. However, most states already face water shortages, water quality challenges, and funding shortfalls despite household water rate increases. As the nation confronts a significant and broad-based infrastructure crisis, dams, levees, and other water control structures raise particular concern because they provide important protection to all other infrastructure investments. The nation’s water and flood infrastructure is aging, and investments are not keeping pace with the need. There is a need for strategic investment to bridge the water infrastructure funding gap and ensure that water systems, dams, and levees serve today’s needs, meet future demands, and withstand the more extreme conditions anticipated in the future.

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Wireless and broadband networks are essential utilities for commerce, health, education, and emergency services. However, millions of Americans lack access to reliable broadband internet, and telecommunications networks are vulnerable to outages during disasters. Until the 1930s, millions of Americans could not access the electrical grid, especially in rural areas where only about 10% of households were electrified. Congress passed the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, which transformed the economy and living standards of rural America. Today, we have a similar opportunity to expand access to resilient telelecommunications networks to close the “digital divide,” which disproportionately prevents low-income and rural Americans from accessing technology and telecommunications. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting stay-at-home orders have highlighted how the gaps in access to information and communication technology hinders access to public safety information, telemedicine, telework, online education, and government assistance, especially for low-income and rural Americans.

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Methane accounted for about 10% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in 2018; however, it is a potent greenhouse gas that is more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. EPA reports that natural gas and petroleum systems accounted for 28% of all anthropogenic methane emissions in 2018—the largest industrial source.

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While widespread deployment of existing clean energy technologies would significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the U.S. economy, full decarbonization of the economy will require new technologies that have yet to be invented. The opportunities are enormous, but cutting-edge technologies face barriers to development and deployment. The truly transformational technologies needed to decarbonize the economy take a long time to mature and often require new hardware solutions, which then require more capital. This results in multiple capital gaps along the development timeline of these technologies. Since energy is treated as a commodity, that makes it difficult for new technologies to overcome higher initial costs, and the emphasis placed on electricity reliability has led to a regulatory framework that does not appropriately value flexible and distributed characteristics of many innovative clean technologies. Moreover, the market also fails to value the clear advantage of these carbon-free technologies and their climate mitigation potential. Thus, robust innovation policy at all process stages—research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D)—will be critical to the timely and widespread implementation of these new technologies.

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The world is on the cusp of a manufacturing and industrial transformation inspired by the need to deploy more zero-emission technologies and build cleaner, more resilient infrastructure. The United States has an opportunity to establish itself as a global leader in this transformation and spur a new generation of good-paying, high-quality manufacturing jobs in the process. At the same time, American industries and workers risk being left behind if the federal government does not step up to lead this transformation. As nations around the world consider green stimulus packages to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States must take bold, proactive actions to secure America’s future in manufacturing and industry.

Leading this global transformation will require a national commitment to modernize and decarbonize heavy industry in the United States; develop and implement coordinated national strategies to secure critical clean technology supply chains and ensure that U.S. technological innovation translates into domestic manufacturing; and invest in carbon removal technologies that the whole world will need to achieve net-negative emissions. By making manufacturing and industrial modernization a national priority, Congress can usher in new investment in the communities that need it the most, including deindustrialized communities, and build a cleaner, safer, and more equitable industrial base that supports good jobs across the United States.

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Clean energy technology faces several structural barriers to rapid and widespread deployment. At the top of the list is a tax code that benefits oil, coal, and other incumbent energy technologies over new technologies and an economic system that fails to account for the cost of carbon pollution in energy prices.

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Tackling climate change and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 will reshape the U.S. economy. This offers a unique opportunity to build a new, clean energy economy on a foundation of equity and fairness for workers and their communities. Smart climate policy must invest across the country and in economically vulnerable communities and deliver good-paying, high-quality jobs and accessible career pathways into them for all Americans.

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In the United States, communities of color, low-income communities, and tribal and Indigenous communities “are disproportionately burdened by environmental hazards that include exposure to polluted air, waterways, and landscapes.” A 2019 study of eight cities, for example, found that residents of historically redlined communities—those that experienced now-illegal mortgage lending discrimination based on race and social class—are more than twice as likely as residents of non-redlined neighborhoods to visit emergency rooms for asthma-related treatment. Redlined neighborhoods also often have fewer trees, which, far from inconsequential, provide shade and reduce ground temperature on hot days. Another study of hazardous waste facilities found a “clear historical pattern of racially disparate siting” of these facilities.

These environmental justice communities are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change “due to a combination of factors, particularly the legacy of segregation and historically racist zoning codes, and often have the least resources to respond.” The 2018 National Climate Assessment found that climate impacts will not be distributed equally. Risks “are often highest for those that are already vulnerable,” including lower-income communities, communities of color, children, and the elderly. Climate change “threatens to exacerbate existing social and economic inequalities that result in higher exposure and sensitivity to extreme weather,” as vulnerable communities already have less capacity to prepare for and recover from extreme weather and climate-related events.

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The climate crisis is a public health threat multiplier. Climate change can affect human health in myriad ways: by intensifying heat waves, floods, and other extreme weather events; by degrading air quality; and by increasing the risk of infectious disease emergence and spread. The effects of climate change on human health can include a range of undesirable outcomes, such as worsening respiratory and cardiac conditions and impacts to mental health. Increases in air pollution or heat exposure related to climate change are also associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, with Black mothers at particularly high risk of preterm birth and lower birth weight. Health issues and emergencies caused by surging climate impacts can strain the capacity of hospitals, public health professionals, and the entire health sector. Alternatively, actions to reduce carbon pollution and build climate resilience can improve public health, save lives, and generate hundreds of billions of dollars in health-related economic benefits each year by the end of the century.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts to the health care system, communities, and the economy illustrate the urgent need to better prepare the nation for public health emergencies. The pandemic also illustrates and exploits the pre-existing conditions affected by long-term exposure to air pollution that increase the risk of death in those with COVID-19. Therefore, climate policy solutions must also confront disproportionate public health and safety risks to vulnerable populations, particularly communities of color. This section presents recommendations to prepare the nation for the public health impacts of the climate crisis and related health emergencies.

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American farmers and ranchers can be active partners in solving the climate crisis and are already working to improve conservation and provide valuable climate and ecosystems benefits. More than 15% of all farmland is used for conservation and wildlife habitat improvement, and soil health efforts have increased by 17% since 2012.

With more than 900 million acres of agricultural land across the country, the United States has the potential to sequester substantial amounts of carbon in agricultural soils. Currently, U.S. agricultural soils generally present with 1% or less soil carbon, but studies show that among farmers practicing robust soil health practices, soils present with between 3% to 6% of soil carbon, demonstrating the potential for agriculture to significantly contribute to solving the climate crisis.

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Communities are on the front lines of the climate crisis, contending with the effects of rising temperatures, increasingly severe storms, damaging wildfires, persistent droughts, acute river flooding, and chronic tidal inundation. Many local leaders are taking steps to prepare their communities for these impacts by adopting land use and development codes and standards and planning for transition where necessary. However, communities need a strong federal partner to confront the climate crisis with needed science-based expertise, guidance, and investments. Federal standards need to keep pace with the best available understanding of climate risks into the future and consider life-cycle costs as well as benefits that may accrue over time as climate impacts unfold.

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The role of America’s lands and waters in climate change is often overlooked, but nature is one of the most cost-effective and enduring solutions to the climate crisis. The country’s forests, grasslands, and wetlands are significant carbon sinks, capturing and storing carbon in roots and soils. Natural features such as marshes, forests, and coral reefs serve as natural barriers – protecting communities from damaging floods and storm surges – and as filters, screening out harmful sediment, nutrients, and other pollutants.

The condition of nature in America, however, is rapidly declining as the country loses large swaths of natural areas to roads, urban sprawl, energy development, and other human activities. Moreover, the mismanagement of America’s public lands and waters currently makes them a part of the climate change problem. Fossil fuel extraction on public lands and waters is responsible for nearly a quarter of total U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, making public lands a net-emitter of greenhouse gas pollution. To transform public lands and waters into a cornerstone of the climate solution, the federal government needs to develop and implement a comprehensive, aggressive plan to reduce emissions from fossil fuel extraction, increase renewable energy development, and protect and restore natural landscapes across the country.

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In February 2020, a panel of national security, military, and intelligence experts from the Center for Climate and Security released a comprehensive report warning of high-to-catastrophic threats to security environments, infrastructure, and institutions from unmitigated climate change and its impacts. These experts looked at multiple threats to each region of the world, including social and political instability and risks to U.S. military missions and infrastructure. They concluded that “even at scenarios of low warming, each region of the world will face severe risks to national and global security in the next three decades. Higher levels of warming will pose catastrophic, and likely irreversible, global security risks over the course of the 21st century.” This new report reiterates what many national security experts have been saying for more than a decade: Climate change poses a national security threat to the United States and its interests abroad.

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American leadership in international engagement is crucial to addressing the climate crisis. The opportunity to advance climate solutions must be a priority for the United States in our multilateral, bilateral, international development, and humanitarian efforts. The consequences of climate change are dire for vulnerable people and countries around the world, exacerbating pre-existing challenges such as food insecurity and competition for land, water, and natural resources. These in turn increase the danger of humanitarian crises and the risk of conflicts, threatening regional and global security. Helping to advance climate solutions globally will enhance American national security. By supporting climate-smart development and partnering with countries on climate solutions, the United States can help countries address their own circumstances and foster partnerships that have security and economic benefits for all.

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