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The briefing highlights a severe energy affordability crisis in the US, where high fossil fuel prices and rising electricity rates are increasing household bills, with estimated winter increases of 10 percent for electricity and 28 percent for natural gas. It details how this burden disproportionately affects low-income, Black, and Latinx households, often forcing them to choose between energy payments and basic necessities. The document proposes a suite of regulatory solutions, including shutoff moratoriums, arrearage management programs, expanded outreach for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), and the implementation of fuel cost-sharing structures to protect ratepayers from volatile fossil fuel prices. Long-term recommendations include adopting totex ratemaking, performance-based regulation, and leveraging Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds to transition toward a clean energy system.

The briefing outlines six trends for financial institutions in 2023: the rise of short-term transition plans, political backlash against ESG investing, the growth of renewables over plateauing fossil fuels, the need for climate upskilling of employees, increased regulatory scrutiny on greenwashing, and the shift toward using transition-relevant data for portfolio steering.

The US power grid is described as highly fragmented, consisting of three isolated interconnections (Eastern, Western, and ERCOT) and 12 transmission planning regions, lacking a national-scale development plan unlike the EU or China. This fragmentation hinders the coordinated response needed for extreme weather events, such as Winter Storm Uri and Winter Storm Elliott. The author advocates for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to mandate both a minimum amount of inter-regional transfer capability based on a simple metric and a robust, scenario-based inter-regional planning process to ensure resource sharing and cost-effective resilience.

Virtual power plants (VPPs) aggregate distributed energy resources like batteries and electric vehicles to provide grid benefits. In the United States, VPPs could reduce peak demand by 60 GW by 2030 and 200 GW by 2050, while potentially reducing annual power sector expenditures by $17 billion by 2030. They support decarbonization by reducing reliance on polluting peaker plants and enable economy-wide electrification by providing revenue streams and avoiding grid bottlenecks.

The Energy Policy Simulator (EPS) is a free, open-source tool developed by RMI and Energy Innovation to model the environmental, economic, and health impacts of energy policies across the lower 48 US states. The tool supports the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program by enabling states to calculate GHG inventories, project emissions through 2050, build scenarios to meet reduction targets, and quantify the co-benefits of mitigation measures, such as public health improvements and economic development.

The document proposes a 'portfolio-led approach' to assist financial institutions in implementing net-zero decarbonization targets. This approach utilizes a four-pillar framework to help banks identify where and how to support the real-economy transition across different sectors and geographies. It is designed to integrate into the three-stage process of strategy design, implementation, and reporting, and is compatible with existing frameworks such as the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net-Zero (GFANZ) and the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA).

The document examines the transition from coal to renewable energy in northwestern China, specifically focusing on Shaanxi province. It argues that because provincial grids are the core units of China's power system planning, customized pathways are necessary based on regional resource endowments and economic structures. The report provides six recommendations for Shaanxi to achieve early carbon peaking, including creating market conditions for renewables, accelerating energy storage, exploring demand-side flexibility, managing the coal power transition, improving interprovincial clean energy exports via HVDC lines, and decoupling economic growth from coal investment.

In 2022, global coal emissions were poised to reach record highs due to energy disruptions, yet the year also saw record coal capacity retirements and cancellations. Over 95 percent of global coal consumption now occurs in markets committed to net-zero emissions or coal phaseouts. Finance has become a primary lever for this transition, with approximately $45.2 billion committed over two years, primarily through Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) in South Africa, Indonesia, and Vietnam. However, these funds are viewed as stepping stones, as the total investment needed for system-wide transitions—including clean energy infrastructure and just transition efforts—far exceeds current commitments. The document emphasizes the need for greater transparency in deal design and a balance between top-down country programs and bottom-up asset-level pilots to mobilize the necessary private and public capital.

The analysis finds that all-electric single-family new construction is more economical to build and operate and produces lower lifetime emissions than mixed-fuel homes in all nine studied US cities. This is attributed to the efficiency of heat pump systems and the avoidance of gas connection costs.

The report argues that open-source planning models allow nonutility stakeholders to challenge utility-led resource plans, potentially identifying lower-cost, cleaner energy pathways. Using the GenX tool to analyze the 2021 resource plan from Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities, the authors found opportunities for near-term customer savings. The report recommends that regulators increase data transparency, allow early stakeholder review of assumptions, and reduce cost barriers to modeling tools.

The document argues for immediate action to decarbonize oil refineries and petrochemical plants, which were operationally responsible for 3 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019. It proposes a three-pronged strategy: reducing conventional fuel demand through electrification, transitioning to bio-based feedstocks and clean hydrogen, and adopting a circular carbon economy approach.

The report introduces a portfolio-led approach to net-zero banking, designed to help financial institutions move from high-level commitments to robust implementation. This framework focuses on four pillars—sectors, geographies, asset classes, and business units—to identify where and how a bank can best support the real-economy transition. The approach is intended to underpin three stages of net-zero banking: strategy design, implementation, and reporting, while remaining compatible with existing guidance from organizations like GFANZ and the NZBA.

The briefing proposes a phased framework for building decarbonization—moving from efficiency to electrification, renewable energy, and finally the removal of embodied carbon—to reach absolute zero. It argues that because the necessary technologies already exist, the primary barrier is cost and adoption speed. By performing segmentation analysis on real estate subsegments, such as large commercial office buildings, financial actors can provide targeted interventions that drive demand, push technologies up their learning curves, and lower prices for the broader market.

The document addresses the need for credible financing to accelerate the global transition from coal to clean energy, specifically focusing on coal transition mechanisms (CTMs). It highlights that while CTMs are essential because 93 percent of coal capacity is shielded from market pressures by regulation or contracts, they face significant reputational risks and constraints from private financial institution policies. To address this, the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI), Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), and RMI have developed guidelines to ensure CTMs deliver positive climate and social outcomes, avoid moral hazard, and support a just transition for workers and communities.

The briefing highlights the risks associated with treating critical minerals as undifferentiated commodities, noting that a lack of transparency hides environmental and social costs. It advocates for a paradigm shift toward commodity differentiation through product-level standards, tracking technology, and regulatory tightening to ensure the energy transition is just and sustainable.

The paper argues that while coal transition mechanisms (CTMs) are essential for turning phaseout commitments into action, they carry risks that can undermine climate and social outcomes. To address this, the authors propose a framework consisting of four 'stage gates' to assess coal plant eligibility, transition pathways, social protection, and accountability.

Georgia electricity customers face high energy burdens, particularly low-income households and people of color, despite relatively low electricity rates. The document identifies several regulatory levers the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) could use to lower costs, including reducing Georgia Power's return on equity (ROE) to the national average, implementing fuel-sharing mechanisms to mitigate natural gas price volatility, and updating the Integrated Resource Plan to incorporate Inflation Reduction Act incentives. It also suggests securitization as a means to save customers $1.05 billion and recommends comprehensive transmission and distribution planning to avoid unnecessary capital-intensive spending.

RMI argues that US airports are uniquely positioned to host multi-megawatt fast-charging hubs to support the transition to electric vehicles (EVs), particularly for high-mileage commercial drivers like ridehail and taxi operators. The brief highlights that the US transportation sector must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 45% by 2030 to align with a 1.5°C target, requiring 70 million EVs on the road. Using Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) as a model, RMI found that various business models can achieve an investment payback period of less than 10 years. The document emphasizes the need for early coordination between airports and utilities to manage infrastructure costs and capacity. It also notes that such hubs can address 'charging deserts' in lower-income areas and support mandates like California's Clean Miles Standard, which requires 90% of ridehail fleet miles to be electric by 2030.

The document highlights that the steel industry contributes nearly 10 percent of global carbon emissions and 17 percent of China's emissions, positioning clean hydrogen-based steelmaking as a potential zero-carbon solution. It notes that while Europe provides government funding across various project stages, China focuses on high-level policies for R&D, alliances, and capacity replacement.

The document contends that treating natural gas as a 'bridge fuel' and funding its proliferation in the Global South through climate finance would jeopardize the 1.5°C warming target and the Paris Agreement. It highlights three primary risks: supply dependency on a few countries, extreme price volatility—exemplified by the 2022 energy crisis in Europe—and the high warming potential of methane leaks. The author argues that renewable energy is a more secure and cost-effective alternative, citing the scaling of wind and solar in Brazil, China, Vietnam, and India.