Digital Climate Alliance Welcomes Biden Administration’s New Nationally Determined Contribution
The decade ahead will be a critical turning point in the fight against climate change. The Digital Climate Alliance welcomes the Biden administration’s decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement, and the ambitious Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. By doing so, President Biden ensures that the U.S. will again contribute to the global effort against this real and urgent threat.
Achieving the NDC’s targets will require swift adoption of existing clean technologies, as well as investing in new and smart technological innovations. These actions can and must work in parallel with economic recovery strategies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The good news is that a great deal of decarbonization is possible with technology that already exists today; the key is to put it to work. Decarbonization holds the promise of creating a green yet thriving economy with new jobs and wide-ranging benefits for everyone. At the center of that promise is digital technology.
Technology has made rapid progress over the last decades. These innovations, including microgrids, advanced sensors, and electric vehicles are pivotal to creating a new economy propelled by new forms of energy. It will enable a more resilient, productive, efficient economy, and by design, it will lead us to decarbonization.
Rapid decarbonization of the economy is achievable if policymakers and the private sector come together to embrace available technologies while simultaneously investing in new innovation—now is the time to accelerate that process.
The Digital Climate Alliance is a coalition of companies developing and utilizing digital technologies and tools to reduce their environmental impacts and, those of their customers. More and more companies are leveraging digital technologies and tools to reduce climate impacts, improve energy efficiency and water efficiency and reuse, and drive further innovation. The Alliance’s goal is to promote digital technologies and tools to enable 21st century solutions, solving climate, water, and energy challenges that impact economic development, business growth, social well-being, and ecosystem health.
The Digital Climate Alliance
Autodesk, Enel, Intel, Johnson Controls, Nautilus Data Technologies, Schneider Electric, Trane Technologies, Utilidata, Xpansiv, Water Foundry
Five Ways Digital Tools Can Help Meet President Biden’s Climate Goal
Building Efficiency: Deployment of digital controls can typically increase efficiency in residential buildings by 20-30%. In commercial buildings the efficiency gains reach up to 50%.
Industrial Efficiency and Optimization: Utilizing digital process controls in industrial facilities could promote up to 10-12% energy efficiency across the sector with paybacks within 2-4 years.
Transportation: Beyond electrification, a significant reservoir for optimization in this sector can be tapped by leveraging digital technologies. Notably, the International Energy Agency (2017) estimates that the deployment of digital technologies could enable as much as 40% savings on energy demand, by the combination of vehicle automation, the deployment of multimodal transportation systems, and transport as a service (TaaS). This would affect both private transportation as well as on freight transport.
Electricity: The integration of electrified loads (heat pumps, EVs) and decentralized supply (rooftop solar, batteries) at the building or factory level (microgrids, or grid- interactive efficient buildings) have the potential to provide momentous flexibility to the entire energy system. According to the World Economic Forum (2020) this would create systemic efficiency throughout the energy system—efficiency which is enabled by real-time control capabilities and powered by pervasive digital technologies. The International Energy Agency (2017) estimated that up to 20% of electricity demand could become eligible to demand response mechanisms by 2040, a likely conservative figure, impacting the way current power infrastructures are designed and their cost.
Infrastructure: Innovative digital technologies, such as building information modeling and digital twin technology, can drive long-term sustainability, improve and optimize energy performance, reduce carbon emissions, and support climate resiliency throughout the design, construction, and operation of projects.
Digitalization is Innovation
Digital technologies are also at the heart of most recent progress in adjacent innovations. The increase in computing capabilities has indeed enabled a significant acceleration of technology development in the last decade.
To take just a few examples:
Progress in climate change modeling, which has enabled much higher precision in understanding key climate patterns.
Biotechnologies and nanotechnologies, which hold significant potential for inventing more efficient and decarbonized alternatives to current materials.
New renewable and energy harvesting technologies, as well as new forms of energy storage.
The United States is home to the first innovation ecosystem and is the world leader in emerging technologies, notably digital ones. The U.S. thus holds a critical responsibility in inventing and spreading innovations that will serve as a foundation for a global, successful, and inclusive transition. As new technologies develop, they unlock new capabilities, which help further accelerate the transition.
Federal Policy Recommendations to get Cleaner, Faster
The Federal Government should consider how to execute “systemic efficiencies” that leverage the interconnectedness of digital technologies, Internet of Things (IoT)- enabled software and analytics, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) where applicable, to maximize efficiencies and decarbonization goals.
Close the Digital Divide.
Incent deployment of energy management systems in residential and commercial
buildings.
Require Federal building retrofits/new builds to utilize pre-construction design tools
and software analytics to optimize efficiency.
Amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) to ensure digital
decarbonization solutions have parity with traditional capital expenditures.
Update efficiency standards for data centers to account for new cooling and
efficiency technologies and implement a new round of Opportunity Zone designations for green data centers (and other green infrastructure) in brownfield and other transitional industrial areas, consistent with the equity objectives of the 2017 law authorizing Opportunity Zones.
Remove barriers and silos limiting access to systems data collected by the Federal Government for emissions, electricity demand/voltage.
Develop standardized formats for emissions data.