Presidential Climate Initiatives
and the Role of the Department of Energy’s
Office of Policy and International Affairs

The Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs (PI) is the primary advisor to the Secretary and the Department on energy and technology policy development, analysis and implementation, and leads the Department’s international energy initiatives. PI primarily performs energy and environmental analysis, conducts international negotiations on energy issues, and leads, coordinates and implements key aspects of the President’s National Energy Policy (NEP) and other energy-related Presidential initiatives.

With the mandate provided by the Administration and Congress, PI oversees the following Presidential Initiatives:

• 1605b – Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gas: On February 14, 2002, the President directed the Secretary of Energy, working with the Secretaries of Commerce and Agriculture, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, to propose improvements to the current greenhouse gas registry to "enhance measurement accuracy, reliability and verifiability, working with and taking into account emerging domestic and international approaches." Implementing this Presidential directive requires resolving significant technical and policy issues. DOE and the other participating Federal agencies are working to identify and address these issues, and are seeking public participation in this process.

On December 5, 2003, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) published proposed revised guidelines for the Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program in the Federal Register. These revised guidelines are designed to improve the accuracy, verifiability, and completeness of the data reported under the registry program. The issuance of this proposal is intended as another significant step toward the establishment of a broad national effort to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of the U.S. economy, and addresses the risk of global climate change.

The proposed revisions would enable the Department of Energy to fully recognize those participants in the registry who provide an accurate and complete accounting of their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas intensity. DOE hopes that the proposed guidelines will encourage major U.S. companies and institutions to undertake comprehensive reviews of their greenhouse gas emissions and to take actions to reduce emissions. By emphasizing the importance of providing a full accounting of all greenhouse gas emissions and emission reductions, the revised guidelines are designed to stimulate broad, economy-wide efforts that are needed to help reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of the U.S. economy.

It is now the intent of the DOE to make available for public comment a further revision of these General Guidelines simultaneously with the release of Technical Guidelines, now planned for late spring or early summer 2004.

• Climate Vision: On February 14, 2002, President Bush set a national goal of reducing the amount of greenhouse gases emitted per unit of gross domestic product—known as emissions intensity—18 percent from 2002 to 2012. This approach promises real progress on climate change by tapping the power of sustained economic growth.

In setting this goal, the President issued a challenge American businesses and industries to undertake voluntary efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity. On February 14, 2003, the Federal Government and industry organizations from 12 energy-intensive economic sectors in energy, manufacturing, transportation, and forestry—accounting for roughly 40 to 45 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions—joined in a voluntary partnership to reduce emissions intensity known as Climate VISION—Voluntary Innovative Sector Initiatives: Opportunities Now. This Presidential initiative is led by the Department of Energy. Other agencies participating in Climate VISION include the Departments of Transportation, Agriculture, and Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Climate VISION is designed to pursue cost-effective strategies to reduce the growth of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, especially by energy-intensive industries.  Working through associations and other groups, the program assists industry in its efforts to accelerate the transition to practices, energy technologies, and improved processes that are cleaner, more efficient, and more capable of capturing or sequestering greenhouse gases.  Climate VISION links these objectives with technology development, commercialization, and commercial implementation activities supported by the private sector and the government, including DOE and other participating agencies.

Current partners include trade associations representing the aluminum, automobile manufacturing, , cement, chemical manufacturing, electric power, forest products, iron and steel, magnesium, mining, oil and gas, railroad and semiconductor sectors. The program is also exploring promising opportunities in residential and commercial buildings, coal gasification, nuclear energy, electricity transmission, agriculture, and other sectors where significant emissions gains can be made.

If your company is interested in participating in the Climate VISION program, and if you want to know whether your association is participating in Climate VISION, you can view the list of participating associations.

• U.S. Climate Change Technology Program: The Office of Policy and International Affairs (PI) is the principal provider of strategic planning, intra- and interagency leadership, coordination, technical modeling, analyses and other staff support for the U.S. Climate Change Technology Program (CCTP). The CCTP is a multi-agency research planning and coordination activity, chartered by President Bush, and led by the DOE, to review the Federal portfolio of more than $2 billion in related research, development, demonstration and deployment (RDD&D) investments and make periodic recommendations, as appropriate.

The CCTP vision is to attain on a global scale, in partnership with others, a technological capability that can simultaneously provide abundant, clean, secure and affordable energy supplies and related services that will be needed to encourage and sustain economic growth, while substantially reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and the risks of potential climate change.

The CCTP mission is to stimulate and strengthen the scientific and technological enterprise of the United States, through improved coordination of multi-agency Federal climate change technology programs and investments and, in partnership with others, provide global leadership to accelerate the development of new and advanced technologies that would attain its vision.

Recent Accomplishments

In FY 2003, the CCTP published two PI reports, U.S. Climate Change Technology Program: Current Activities Report and Technology Options Report, and established a popular public website at www.climatetechnology.gov. CCTP sponsored a technical workshop involving 60 world-class experts on Long-Term Technology Opportunities and Potential Limitations. CCTP issued a Request for Information on the President’s National Climate Change Technology Initiative, completed an analysis of 180 responses and provided a resulting report to the House Science Committee. Its recommendations to the President’s Cabinet-level Climate Change Committee on Science and Technology Integration, chaired by the Secretary of Energy, provided the basis, in part, for a number of major technology initiatives and portfolio realignments undertaken in FY 2004, and proposed for FY 2005, as presented in the R&D portions of the FY 2005 budget requests of the certain CCTP participating agencies.

Planned Activities

PI will continue to provide planning, intra- and interagency leadership, coordination, technical modeling, analyses and staff support for CCTP. Selected activities planned are:

• Develop for public review, refine and publish a CCTP strategic plan, outlining a long-term framework for guiding public investments in climate change-related technology RDD&D;

• Develop and report on planning scenarios under conditions of uncertainty, with supporting technology analyses and long-term modeling;

• Identify, document and help strengthen related RDD&D investments across all participating Federal R&D agencies;

• Work to establish a grant program for exploratory research of novel concepts, subject to availability of funds (requested in DOE’s FY 2005 budget);

• Provide support and coordination on behalf of the United States and through the Department of State and the Cabinet-level Committee on Climate Change Science and Technology Integration, to the international 4 th Assessment Report (Working Group III – Mitigation) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), sponsored by the United Nations and World Meteorological Organization, which plans a report in 2007 or 2008; and

• Provide periodic reports and communications on CCTP status and progress.

By completing these activities, the CCTP hopes to strengthen the technology component of the U.S. climate change strategy and inspire private sector interest and international cooperation in a sustained program of research investment aimed at accomplishing the U.S. and UNFCCC goal of stabilizing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere.

• The Clean Energy Initiative: The Office of Policy and International Affairs coordinates policy strategies to advance the National Energy Policy’s objectives of increasing energy security by building stronger alliances and integrating energy systems within the global energy marketplace.  This Office’s work contributes to the goals of liberalizing the global energy sector, diversifying fuel supplies, decentralizing power generation, modernizing energy infrastructure, facilitating market reform, promoting best practices, and reducing the environmental impact of energy use.  The Office coordinates DOE activities implementing the Efficient Energy for Sustainable Development Partnership and the Clean Energy Technology Exports Initiative, that are aimed at developing international energy markets for trade and investment. The presentation of the goals and objectives for the Efficient Energy for Sustainable Development Partnership provided at the Mayors Asia Pacific Environmental Summit, September 22, 2003 is available. (PowerPoint 1.6MB).