In a recent Lawflash, our colleagues Ken Kulak and Ariel Braunstein reported that at the Leaders Summit on Climate, hosted by the Biden-Harris administration on April 22 and 23 in Washington, DC, President Joseph Biden set aggressive goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and set forth his aim to encourage the investment in and use of new green technology and to explore pollution reduction strategies.

The administration submitted a nonbinding “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) which set out that the United States is expecting to meet and surpass its 2020 and 2025 targets through advances in technology and “resulting market responses.”

The commitment from the Biden-Harris administration on promoting innovative technology to drive the solutions for climate change is clear.

In a statement released on April 22 2021, the administration confirmed that “the United States will invest in innovation to improve and broaden the set of solutions as a critical complement to deploying the affordable, reliable, and resilient clean technologies and infrastructure available today.”

The statement goes on to say that the NDC was developed using a “whole-of-government approach” with a bottom-up review and analysis of the technology that is currently available, any current and potential future costs and cost reductions, as well as the role of enabling infrastructure.

Other recent statements related to investment in technology made by the Biden-Harris administration include important developments in the field of Electric Vehicles and confirmation that the funds made available under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 can be used for machinery, manufacturing lines, facilities, and technologies necessary to produce items combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

For more information on this topic, and on the Biden-Harris administration’s proposals on COVID-19, the economy, climate, and inequity, please see the Morgan Lewis Lawflash on Biden-Harris Administration’s First 100 Days Expose Priorities, Lay Groundwork for New Policies.