Building Blocks for a Low-Carbon Economy: Catalytic Policy and Infrastructure for Decarbonizing the United States by 2050

The paper evaluates policy packages and infrastructure investments needed to meet the Biden administration's goals of reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 50–52% by 2030 and reaching net-zero by 2050. It concludes that while tax credits and infrastructure investments accelerate technology adoption, they must be paired with performance standards and negative emissions technologies to achieve midcentury goals. The analysis finds that decarbonizing the U.S. economy is economically feasible, with projected net savings of 0.3 percent of U.S. GDP by 2050 relative to a reference scenario.

• Tax credits for low-carbon technologies and federal investment in climate-smart infrastructure improve technology adoption but are insufficient on their own to achieve the 2050 net-zero goal.
• To reach economy-wide net-zero emissions by 2050, particularly without economy-wide carbon pricing, the U.S. requires performance standards including clean electricity, zero-emissions vehicles, low-carbon fuels, and appliance energy efficiency.
• Decarbonizing the U.S. economy is economically feasible; based on reference oil prices, net costs are $40 billion higher in 2030 than the Reference Scenario, but by 2050, there is a net savings of $113 billion, or 0.3 percent of U.S. GDP.
• Hard-to-mitigate sectors will require the use of negative emissions technologies and enhanced natural and working land sinks to offset remaining emissions.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Building Blocks for a Low-Carbon Economy: Catalytic Policy and Infrastructure for Decarbonizing the United States by 2050. https://www.wri.org/research/building-blocks-low-carbon-economy

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Building Blocks for a Low-Carbon Economy: Catalytic Policy and Infrastructure for Decarbonizing the United States by 2050. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/building-blocks-low-carbon-economy.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Building Blocks for a Low-Carbon Economy: Catalytic Policy and Infrastructure for Decarbonizing the United States by 2050 |url=https://www.wri.org/research/building-blocks-low-carbon-economy |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendbuilding, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Building Blocks for a Low-Carbon Economy: Catalytic Policy and Infrastructure for Decarbonizing the United States by 2050}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/building-blocks-low-carbon-economy}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }