Actions by Households Play a Surprisingly Large and Cost-Effective Role in IRA/IIJA Emissions Reductions

1 February 2024 IRA, IIJA, Inflation Reduction Act, Energy Policy, Climate Policy, Household Actions

Mariah Caballero, Mike Vandenbergh, Elodie Currier, and I have a paper analyzing the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). These laws include incentives for households to take voluntary actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as buying electric cars and performing energy-efficiency home renovations. We found that these incentives account for only around 11% of spending, but the household actions they stimulate are expected to produce around 40% of total emissions reductions.

These results confirm previous studies which found that incentives for individuals and households to voluntarily adopt energy efficiency actions can make powerful contributions to climate and energy policy, and should be emphasized in future policy proposals.

Beyond Politics Webinar at the Environmental Law Institute

6 September 2018 webinars, Environmental Law Institute, Beyond Politics, Michael Vandenbergh, Stephen Harper, Jackie Roberts, Cassie Phillips, Intel, Carlyle Group, private governance, climate change, climate policy, decarbonization

Michael Vandenbergh and I participated in a webinar hosted by the Environmental Law Institute on our book, Beyond Politics: The Private Governance Response to Climate Change. Cassie Phillips (director of the Private Environmental Governance Initiative at ELI) moderated. Stephen Harper (Global Director of Environment and Energy Policy at Intel) and Jackie Roberts (Chief Sustainability Officer at the Carlisle Group) provided private industry perspectives.

My book reviewed in Nature Climate Change

27 February 2018, by Janet K. Swim and Ashley J. Gillis behavioral wedge, Beyond Gridlock, Beyond Politics, climate change, climate policy, decarbonization, private governance, Paris gap, Paris agreement, news

Time to Re-Think Solutions

For people working to address climate change, there is certainly no viable alternative to reading this book. Beyond Politics presses readers to think beyond their current conception of climate change solutions and, while laying out a reasoned private governance response accompanied by a realistic assessment of its limitations, provides the groundwork for future research and initiatives to reduce emissions.

Government action isn't enough for climate change: The private sector can cut billions of tons of carbon

21 June 2017, by Jonathan Gilligan and Michael Vandenbergh climate change, climate policy, private governance, Paris agreement, greenhouse gases, green business, Michael Vandenbergh, The Conversation, behavioral wedge

With President Trump’s announcement to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement, many other countries around the world—and cities and states within the U.S.—are stepping up their commitments to address climate change.

But one thing is clear: Even if all the remaining participating nations do their part, governments alone can’t substantially reduce the risk of catastrophic climate change.

All Posts by Category or Tags.