Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2050: California's Energy Future
CCST has released the next report in the California's Energy Future (CEF) series, which focuses on
exploring possibilities for California's energy strategy through the year 2050.
Portraits of Energy Systems for Meeting Greenhouse Gas Reduction
Targets examines a variety of scenarios for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
"We believe that the CEF energy system portraits report presents valuable insights into the possibilities
and realities of meeting California's future energy needs and GHG emissions targets by 2050," said CEF
co-chairs Jane Long, Principal Associate Director At Large and Fellow,
Center for Global Security Research, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Miriam John, CCST Council Chair and Board Member, and Former Vice President, Sandia
National Laboratories, in the introduction to the report.
The report - which is the fifth in the CEF series - documents two sets of portraits,
detailed in the two main report sections: those that can reduce GHG emissions to 60% below the
1990 level by 2050, and those that can contribute toward reducing emissions all the way to the 80%
reduction level, and beyond.
The document uses modeling and scenario building to explore combinations of technological approaches offering the best potential to
These approaches include energy efficiency, electrification, low-carbon electricity (from sources such as
renewables, natural gas with carbon sequestration, or nuclear power) and low-carbon fuels derived,
for example, from biomass.
The authors identify a mix of strategies that can reduce the
state's GHG emissions by 60 percent, and then calculate the impacts of ten additional individual
strategies that could provide the extra 20 percent reduction the state needs to get to 80 percent
reduction in emissions.
As noted in earlier CEF projects, no matter what strategy or combination of strategies are employed,
achieving a full 80 percent reduction in emissions by 2050 will require significant levels of
research, development, invention and innovation. The total commitment necessary
to achieve this accelerated pace will require strong societal and policy backing because there are
less than 40 years to make a nearly total change-over to the required technology, some of which
has not yet been developed or deployed.
The most effective way for California to reduce its
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will likely involve a combination of multiple strategies.
In addition to the initial CEF summary report, other documents released as part of the CEF project have
focused on nuclear power, transportation energy use, and electricity from renewable energy and
fossil fuels with carbon capture and sequestration. The CEF project is funded by
the California Energy Commission, the S.D. Bechtel Foundation and the California Air Resources Board; reports have been
completed committees of volunteers from major energy research institutions in the state.