The United States can and must build a 100 Percent Clean Future that delivers on the goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions economywide by 2050 and net-negative emissions thereafter in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
In its recent report, the Center for American Progress presented a framework for climate change mitigation that prescribes strong economywide greenhouse gas emission targets broken down into sector-by-sector benchmarks, each supported by a wide range of complementary policies. These six sector-specific benchmarks are enough to achieve roughly 90 percent of the emission reductions required by 2030 and 2050.
This vision for a 100 Percent Clean Future is centered on pollution-free energy, widespread prosperity, and stable global temperatures. By 2050, millions of Americans workers will be in high-quality jobs, driving the clean energy economy. Homes, schools, and playgrounds in every community, especially those that have historically suffered from pollution, will get the healthy air, clean water, and stable climate that they deserve.
In the full report, the Center for American Progress outlines not only the policies that are needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions but also the coalitions and principles that will make them a reality—as well as the strategies that will spur the rest of the world to follow along. Click here to read the full report, along with a discussion of the methodology for these estimates. Click here to read a short fact sheet summarizing the report.
John Podesta is the founder and a member of the Board of Directors for the Center for American Progress. Christy Goldfuss is the senior vice president for Energy and Environment Policy at the Center. Trevor Higgins is the director of Domestic Climate and Energy Policy at the Center. Bidisha Bhattacharyya is the deputy director for Climate and Energy Policy at the Center. Alan Yu is a senior fellow and the director of International Climate Policy at the Center. Kristina Costa is a former senior fellow at the Center and is currently a McCourt Scholar at Georgetown University.
The authors would like to thank Mathew Brady, data visualization developer at the Center, for his work creating this interactive.