Federal Policy Building Blocks to Support a Just and Prosperous New Climate Economy in the United States

This report analyzes the economic impacts of various federal climate mitigation scenarios in the United States, finding that decarbonization policies—particularly a net-zero scenario—could significantly increase net employment by 2035. It emphasizes the need for targeted investments, domestic manufacturing incentives, and family-sustaining wages to ensure the transition is equitable and does not leave behind communities dependent on high-emissions industries.

• The Biden administration has set targets to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50–52% below 2005 levels by 2030 and to reach net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. Achieving these goals requires a mix of policy tools, including infrastructure spending, tax incentives, sector-based performance standards, economy-wide carbon pricing, and the deployment of carbon removal technologies and natural land sinks.
• Using the IMPLAN framework, the report compared a reference scenario (RS) against three mitigation scenarios—extended tax credit (ETC), advanced tax credit (ATC), and net-zero (NZ)—which target GHG emission reductions of 50%, 63%, and 100% relative to 2005 levels by 2050, respectively.
• All analyzed decarbonization scenarios are projected to create more jobs by 2035 than the reference scenario, provided that new investments do not displace other economic investments and wage increases do not lead to employment drops. Specifically, the ETC scenario would add 0.4 million net jobs, the ATC scenario 0.9 million, and the net-zero scenario 2.3 million, with growth concentrated in electricity and building construction.
• While federal policies offer economic opportunities, there is a risk that workers and communities dependent on high-emissions industries will be left behind as demand shrinks. To ensure an equitable transition, the report suggests geographically targeted investments, domestic content regulation to spur manufacturing, and increasing wages for underpaid energy workers to family-sustaining levels, which would generate significant economy-wide benefits.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Federal Policy Building Blocks to Support a Just and Prosperous New Climate Economy in the United States. https://www.wri.org/research/federal-policy-building-blocks-support-just-prosperous-new-climate-economy-united-states

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Federal Policy Building Blocks to Support a Just and Prosperous New Climate Economy in the United States. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/federal-policy-building-blocks-support-just-prosperous-new-climate-economy-united-states.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Federal Policy Building Blocks to Support a Just and Prosperous New Climate Economy in the United States |url=https://www.wri.org/research/federal-policy-building-blocks-support-just-prosperous-new-climate-economy-united-states |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendfederal, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Federal Policy Building Blocks to Support a Just and Prosperous New Climate Economy in the United States}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/federal-policy-building-blocks-support-just-prosperous-new-climate-economy-united-states}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }