Advance Market Commitments Today Can Build a Low-Carbon Tomorrow

This guide from RMI explains Advance Market Commitments (AMCs) as financial mechanisms used to stimulate the development and deployment of new technologies by guaranteeing a future market. By providing a promise from governments or private entities to purchase a specific amount of a product once available, AMCs reduce risk for investors and developers, particularly in sectors like aviation, buildings, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide removal.

• Advance Market Commitments (AMCs) function as a financial tool to encourage innovation by guaranteeing a future market for new technologies, providing suppliers with the necessary proof to secure funding from investors, lenders, and developers.
• AMCs can mitigate risk for purchasers by making payments contingent upon the actual production of the product and by spreading risk across a pool of multiple suppliers to avoid concentration risks.
• The document cites two successful applications of AMCs: a 2009 commitment of $1.5 billion for pneumococcal vaccines in low-income countries to increase production and coverage, and a 2020 $50 million agreement in California with Civica RX to lower insulin prices.
• Effective AMC design requires a clear market definition—including geographic area, customer base, and success metrics—and a determination of whether to adopt existing standards or create new ones for quantifying metrics like embodied carbon and emissions.
• While AMCs are useful for early-stage technologies, they are not a complete solution; they cannot develop shared infrastructure on their own and require complementary policies such as industrial clusters and supply-side incentives.

APA

RMI (2026). Advance Market Commitments Today Can Build a Low-Carbon Tomorrow. https://rmi.org/resources/clean-energy-101-advance-market-commitments-today-can-build-a-low-carbon-tomorrow/

Chicago

RMI. Advance Market Commitments Today Can Build a Low-Carbon Tomorrow. 2026. https://rmi.org/resources/clean-energy-101-advance-market-commitments-today-can-build-a-low-carbon-tomorrow/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Advance Market Commitments Today Can Build a Low-Carbon Tomorrow |date=6 July 2026 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/clean-energy-101-advance-market-commitments-today-can-build-a-low-carbon-tomorrow/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2026advance, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Advance Market Commitments Today Can Build a Low-Carbon Tomorrow}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2026}, month = jul, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/clean-energy-101-advance-market-commitments-today-can-build-a-low-carbon-tomorrow/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }