Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions
July 2018

The EMF 32 Study on Technology and Climate Policy Strategies for Greenhouse Gas Reductions in the U.S. Electric Power Sector: An Overview

Authors
Type
The EMF 32 study on technology and climate policy strategies
Publisher

This introduction to a special issue of Energy Economics presents the key findings of Energy Modeling Forum Model Inter-comparison Project Number 32 (EMF 32) entitled “The EMF 32 Study on Technology and Climate Policy Strategies for Greenhouse Gas Reductions in the U.S. Electric Power Sector.” This study focused on the development and cross-model comparison of results from an array of comprehensive U.S. climate policy intervention scenarios focusing on policy strategies for achieving greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions in the electric power sector and the sensitivity of emissions and economic results to changes in technology and market assumptions. The special issue includes articles that synthesize the results of common policy and technology scenarios produced by the study's modeling teams as well as several companion articles that each focus on a particular topic that the authors have modeled and mined for deeper insights. This overview article describes the motivation for the EMF 32 study, identifies the models used in the study and their main features, describes the study's scope and design, and briefly reviews of the insights developed in the articles included in the special issue. A related article focuses on the effects of technology and market assumptions with projections out to 2050.