This document outlines a set of guidelines for net-zero financing and investment within the United States, produced by the US Department of the Treasury. The principles aim to guide financial institutions by highlighting the importance and value of financial institutions’ net-zero commitments; promoting consistency and credibility in financial institutions’ approaches to these commitments; and encouraging the adoption of best practices that relate to these commitments.

The US Government has published a strategic framework for achieving the large-scale use and production of clean hydrogen.

This Executive order sets out President Biden's commitment to Environmental Justice. It introduces a government wide approach to Environmental Justice and requires Federal Agencies to develop Environmental Justice Plans and provides the requirements for these. The goal is to ensure that communities are protected from disproportionate and adverse human health and environmental effects (including risks) and hazards, including those related to climate change.

This plan&nbsp;sets out federal ocean-based climate mitigation and adaptation activities,&nbsp;identifies&nbsp;gaps in climate and ocean science and management capabilities, and&nbsp;recommends&nbsp;new or enhanced ocean science and policy actions to tackle climate change.

The latest version of USDA's strategic plan sets its first strategic goal as to&nbsp;Combat Climate Change to Support America’s Working Lands, Natural Resources&nbsp;and Communities.&nbsp;

The Inflation Reduction Act is a wide-ranging document aiming at reducing inflation, improve healthcare across the country, invest in domestic energy production and manufacturing to increase security of supply and jobs while reducing carbon emissions and focusing on disadvantaged communities. One of the main objective of the Act is to lower energy costs while making cleaner technologies affordable, thus also reducing future costs of climate inaction. It further invests through federal support in a wide range of economic sectors to encourage their decarbonisation efforts. It also aims to increase and resilience among rural areas by supporting climate-smart practices for farmlands and forests. The Act is based on a series of tax credits, grants and subsidies with a $369 billion funding for climate- and energy-related purposes. Prominent incentives contain in the Act aim to boostthe U.S. manufacturing and buying of electric vehicles; U.S. manufacturing of solar panels, wind turbines and batteries; carbon-capture solutions ; green hydrogen production. The Act contains clauses on environmental justice 1) on legacy pollution reduction,&nbsp; 2) on affordable and accessible clean energy for disadvantaged communities,&nbsp; and 3) on better quality of life and good jobs (urban forests, renewable energy, adaptation programs).

<div>This Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, aims to modernise the United States' infrastructure and boost competitiveness. It specifically aims to upgrade roads, bridges and rails, expand access to clean drinking water, ensure universal access to high-speed internet, tackle the climate crisis, advance environmental justice, and invest in vulnerable communities. According to the White House, the following notable transport and energy climate-related actions are enable by this Act:&nbsp;</div><ul><li>Invest $110 billion in additional funding to repair and rebuild roads, bridges and transformational projects with a focus on climate change mitigation, resilience, equity, and safety for all users. The legislation also includes the Safe Streets and Roads for All program to support projects to reduce traffic fatalities.</li><li>Improve transport options for all citizens while reducing greenhouse emissions. The document includes $39 billion of new investment into public transport, representing more than 24,000 buses, 5,000 rail cars, 200 stations, and thousands of miles of track, signals, and power systems in need of replacement. In total, the new investments and reauthorisation in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal provide $89.9 billion in guaranteed funding for public transit over the next five years.</li><li>Invest $66 billion in additional funding into passenger rail to eliminate the Amtrak maintenance backlog, modernize the Northeast Corridor, and bring world-class rail service to areas outside the northeast and mid-Atlantic. The Act also seeks to improve the infrastructure for freight rail.</li><li>Invest $7.5 billion to build a national network of electric vehicle chargers. The legislation will provide funding for deployment of EV chargers along highway corridors to facilitate long-distance travel and within communities to provide convenient charging where people live, work, and shop. This will support the President's goal to get a network of 500,000 EV chargers.&nbsp;</li><li>Invest $65 billion to upgrade the power infrastructure to deliver clean, reliable energy across the country and deploy cutting-edge energy technology to achieve a zero-emissions future. This should allow to fund new programs to support zero-carbon solutions, and to build resilient transmission lines to facilitate the expansion of renewables and clean energy, while lowering costs.</li></ul><div> The Act further:&nbsp;</div><ul><li>establishes new research agencies and initiatives within the Department of Transport with new funding schemes.</li><li>aims to improve the electricity grid's resilience and help mitigate potential risk to cause wildfire and to create stronger grid to adapt to other natural disasters including hurricanes. Grants will be given to states or tribes based on project proposals that align with policy goals.</li><li>seeks to make the country's infrastructure resilient against the impacts of climate change, cyber-attacks, and extreme weather events, by investing over $50 billion to protect against droughts, heat, floods and wildfires, in addition to a major investment in weatherisation.</li><li>&nbsp;reinstates the chemical excise taxes and invests resources in environmental remediation at Superfund sites to address the legacy pollution threatening local public health.</li><li>The Department of Energy established the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.energy.gov/office-clean-energy-demonstrations">Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations</a> after the passing of the law overseeing $20 Billion Federal Investment to Stand Up Clean Energy Projects.</li></ul>

The "Utilizing Significant Emissions with Innovative Technologies Act" aims to support carbon dioxide utilization and direct air capture research, to facilitate the permitting and development of carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration projects and carbon dioxide pipelines.

This 2,000 pages-long document implements a major government funding scheme and also includes economic stimulus provisions to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. It notably contains the Energy Act 2020. The document contains numerous climate-related clauses. It notably encourages GHG emissions reductions and promotes renewables. It contains a part on carbon use and sets processes to estimate the economic, climate, and environmental impacts of any well-integrated national carbon dioxide pipeline system. It mandates the Climate Security Advisory Council to develop a study on advisory council model for strategic or transnational threats. The American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020 was enacted as section 103 in Division S of this document (page 1074 onward). The AIM Act directs EPA to address HFCs by providing new authorities in three main areas: to phase down the production and consumption of listed HFCs, manage these HFCs and their substitutes, and facilitate the transition to next-generation technologies.&nbsp; On September 23rd, 2021, the EPA administrator signed a notice to allow for the publication of the final rule for a 15-year phasedown of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The rule sets the HFC production and consumption baseline levels from which reductions will be made, establishes an initial methodology for allocating and trading HFC allowances for 2022 and 2023, and creates a robust, agile, and innovative compliance and enforcement system. The EPA estimates that it will avoid cumulative emissions of 4,560 million metric tons of exchange value equivalent of HFCs in the United States with a present value of cumulative net benefits of $272.7 billion, from 2022 to 2050.

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program, as amended following the passing of the Agriculture Improvement Act, promotes Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Mitigation Practices.

United States’ Submission on the Third Technical Dialogue of the First Global Stocktake - April 2023, Submission to the Global Stocktake from United States of America in 2023

United States of America. National Communication (NC). NC 8. Biennial Reports (BR). BR5. Corrigendum, National Communication,Biennial Report from United States of America in 2023

United States of America. National Communication (NC). NC 8. Biennial Reports (BR). BR5, National Communication,Biennial Report from United States of America in 2022

Submission by the United States on the First Global Stocktake, Submission to the Global Stocktake from United States of America in 2022

United States of America. 2022 National Inventory Report (NIR), National Inventory Report from United States of America in 2022

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Law passed

The Bill authorises a stimulus package that supports new and existing renewable energy 
and energy efficiency programmes. The bill supersedes the tax provisions of the Energy Improvement and Extension Act 2008 as well as part of the Emergency Economic Stabilisation Act 2008. 
 
The Bill allocated USD16.8bn to energy efficiency and renewable energy programmes. It foresaw the extension of credit for electricity produced from renewable sources. The limitation on the issuance of new clean renewable energy bonds was increased by USD1.6bn. On completing the 2009 'National Electric Transmission Congestion Study', the Secretary of Energy shall include an analysis of renewable energy sources constrained by lack of adequate transmission capacity. The bill amends the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to create the 'Temporary Programme for Rapid Deployment of Renewable Energy and Electric Power Transmission Projects' that includes incremental hydropower and cutting edge biofuel projects. No limitation shall be placed on funding for the purchase and installation of energy efficiency and renewable energy equipment and materials. 
 
Under the Bill, USD2.7bn was destined to the Department of Energy's 'Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Programme', created without funding by the Energy Independence and Security Act 2007, to finance energy efficiency and conservation projects and programmes through the concession of grants to states, territories, local governments and Native American tribes. An additional USD1bn was allocated to state energy offices to support weatheri-sation of low-income homes. USD2bn in grants was made available to US-based advanced battery manufacturing facilities. 
 
USD400m was allocated to state and local grant programmes supporting advanced vehicles, and over USD80bn was destined for clean energy research, development and deployment, USD50bn of which was to be granted for direct appropriation and USD30bn in the form of tax-based incentives. USD277m was granted to Energy Frontier Research Centres to develop cost-effective alternative energy technologies and USD6bn was allocated to the 'Innovative Technologies Loan Guarantee Programme', established by the Energy Policy Act, to accelerate the deployment of commercial clean energy technologies. USD2.5bn was given for discretionary clean energy research and development managed by the Department of Energy (DOE), including USD800m for next generation biofuels and USD400m for geo-thermal technologies, and support for several research projects. Grants over USD110m were given to the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory to advance wind energy technologies, building new energy efficient facilities and upgrading the Laboratory's Integrated Bio-refinery Research Facility. 
 
The Bill also allocated USD500m to a grant programme supporting clean energy work-force training managed by the Department of Labor and USD100m to support more workforce training that is managed by the DOE Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability. 
 
The DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy will monitor performance in accordance with Risk Mitigation Plans (RMPs). For large grant programmes such as the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG), weatherisation assistance and State Energy Programmes (SEP), the DOE will provide assistance to national labs to help measure and verify results. Grant recipients must submit a plan of how they will use funds within 18 months and disburse funds within 36 months. The DOE will perform on-site monitoring annually in each state.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Main documents

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