A chronological archive of research and reports from Climate Solutions.

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A Managed and Timely Transition for Washington's Gas Utilities

April 2024

This report explores how gas utilities can plan for the energy transition, cut climate pollution to zero, and protect low-income ratepayers. We specifically model the transition for Washington’s largest gas utility, Puget Sound Energy (PSE), and evaluate different pathways PSE can take to reduce its climate pollution. We examine the impacts on customers when the energy transition is planned for in a managed way versus a scattershot way, and how these impacts will be especially felt on low-income ratepayers. Read our report to learn more about how we can plan for an energy transition with the best outcomes for both climate and customers.

Role of buildings in climate change and opportunities for action

May 2021

On average, we spend approximately 90 percent of our time indoors, yet many of the buildings in which we live and work are harming our health, wasting energy, and deepening the climate crisis. We can retrofit and build more efficient buildings that will help address the climate crisis and deliver additional benefits including public health improvements, equity, and jobs. Homes, apartments, and commercial buildings constructed today will last for generations, making our choices now even more important. Challenges, opportunities, strategies, and policy tools for decarbonizing our buildings are detailed in the report.

The Big Issue: Transforming Our Transportation

September 2020

Transportation is the single largest source of our climate pollution in the Pacific Northwest. We need to clean up the fuels we use to get around, and to reduce our reliance on driving alone. Climate Solutions evaluates our options for cutting carbon from our transportation system in Washington and Oregon. We examine how different options will impact our health, safety, spending, transportation infrastructure, and electricity grid, and how impacts vary for different areas and communities. Which path achieves our climate goals and provides the greatest improvements in health, safety, and a cleaner future?

Within Reach

September 2018

The path to 100% fossil-free electricity in the Pacific Northwest. New research confirms that phasing out fossil fuels while phasing in non-fossil sources of energy can provide clean, reliable, affordable power to the Northwest. Transitioning to 100% fossil-free electricity will also avoid risky investments in infrastructure that will cause the region to exceed its committed carbon goals. 

Why Electric Vehicles are a Climate Solution

March 2016

Electric vehicles are entering mass production faster than any other technological fix for our oil habit, and they have a much lower climate impact than oil-powered cars. While EVs excite aficionados, it’s worth examining what kind of difference EVs would make for the climate, and whether they pose a challenge to utilities charged with supplying the necessary electricity.

The Urban Clean Energy Revolution

November 2015

To achieve significant carbon emissions reduction, local governments must help break down barriers that have prevented widespread, deep building energy efficiency to date. This briefing paper presents lessons learned from both the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and Washington State investments in single family residential retrofits since 2009 to inform a regional retrofit strategy for King County, WA.

Toward Sustainable Aviation Fuels

October 2015

Commercial aviation accounts for 2 percent of global carbon pollution, a figure projected to grow to between 3 and 4.7 percent by 2050 without concerted action to curb emissions. Accordingly, a comprehensive solution to the world’s climate predicament requires a strategy to reduce aviation’s carbon footprint. Industry leaders recognize this imperative and accordingly have set a goal of reducing the sector’s carbon emissions 50 percent by 2050.

Breaking Down Barriers to Deep Energy Efficiency in King County

September 2015

To achieve significant carbon emissions reduction, local governments must help break down barriers that have prevented widespread, deep building energy efficiency to date. This briefing paper presents lessons learned from both the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and Washington State investments in single family residential retrofits since 2009 to inform a regional retrofit strategy for King County, WA.

Natural Infrastructure: a Climate-Smart Solution

2013

This report explores the role that green or natural infrastructure can play in addressing cities' climate action imperatives. A supplement includes examples of natural infrastructure strategies in use throughout the Northwest that demonstrate how natural infrastructure provides climate solutions alongside a range of co-benefits.

Sustainable Aviation Fuels: Powering the Next Generation of Flight in the Northwest

2011

Reflecting the perspectives of more than forty stakeholders involved with Sustainable Aviation Fuels Northwest, this report assesses current trends in aviation fuels and supply chains in the context of regional biomass technologies and feedstocks. The report concludes with priority policy action steps to create a sustainable aviation fuel industry in the Northwest.

Powering the New Energy Future from the Ground Up

July 2012

This report examines the progress of a range of small- to medium-sized American cities that are pioneering the clean energy economy. These city-led efforts to catalyze local clean energy economic development are important to watch as federal grants sunset, especially in the absence of a comprehensive national energy or climate policy.

Building the Biocarbon Economy

2010

The biocarbon paradigm aims at leveraging plant growth and rich soils to halt the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and then to achieve a global turnaround. By making nature a climate ally humanity can actually begin to draw down carbon dioxide toward levels that prevailed before we began massively consuming fossil fuels. This is a series of briefings on biocarbon, specially focused on how the Pacific Northwest can mount regional initiatives to accelerate biocarbon progress.