Jesse Jenkins

If you’re looking for an expert on the U.S. energy transition, look no further than Jesse Jenkins, the head of Princeton University’s ZERO Lab. The initiative plays a critical role in analyzing ways to improve decision-making and technologies that are vital to decarbonizing the economy. Most notably, his work helped inform the landmark U.S. Inflation Reduction Act. This year alone he has published studies on direct-air capture, nuclear power, the impact of EPA power plant rules on the energy sector, and, in collaboration with startup Fervo Energy, a study on the potential of U.S. geothermal power. In February, he became the co-host of the Shift Key podcast produced by climate news startup Heatmap News, further bringing his expertise to mainstream audiences.

What is the single most important action you think the public, or a specific company or government (other than your own), needs to take in the next year to advance the climate agenda?

While there's no one single action to recommend to everyone, there is one guiding principle that I think everyone can take to heart: focus on how to use the everyday choices in your life to exert the most leverage on our interconnected energy, economic, and political systems and, hopefully, nudge things toward decarbonization just a little bit faster. 

Tackling climate change requires systemic change. We are collectively engaged in a massive effort to transform how we make and use energy across all aspects of our economy. It can feel daunting or feel like the actions of any individual can't make a difference. The truth is, this transition will probably take longer than any of us want. But it is going to take considerably less time thanks to the efforts of folks like you, who get up in the morning, grab the biggest lever of change they can, and put their weight behind it. 

Don't worry about zeroing out your carbon footprint. That's impossible anyway. Just existing within modern society means your life is inextricably tied up with fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions. But it also means that there are numerous ways in which you can live your life and spend your time and energy that can help accelerate transformative changes. 

Some examples: If you need a car, make it an EV or plug-in hybrid. If you can, help make your community safe and convenient to not need a car. Embrace an e-bike (it'll change your life). Electrify your appliances. Eat less beef and waste less food. Vote like the climate depends on it (it does). Raise the kinds of kids you want to see inherit and shape the future. And find ways to use your career itself to accelerate one piece of the global transition. 

Keep at it. Your children (and mine) will thank you!

If you could stand up and talk to world leaders at the next U.N. climate conference, what would you say?

Over the past 15 years, the world has collectively achieved something remarkable and transformative: we've made clean energy cheap. Specifically, the costs of solar power and batteries have fallen by an order of magnitude and the cost of wind power by about two-thirds. [Meanwhile,] electric vehicles (from e-bikes and three-wheelers to electric cars, trucks and buses) are the cheapest and best way to secure mobility. 

That progress was no accident. It was the result of proactive public policies that created early market demand for expensive "alternative energy" technologies and spurred private sector innovation and competition that steadily drove down prices and improved performance. 

The results are game changing. The politics and economic cost of decarbonization have been fundamentally and irreversibly transformed, and these cost declines are probably the single greatest reason behind increasingly ambitious national, subnational, and corporate climate commitments. 

However, solar, wind, and batteries/EVs are not enough to reach net-zero emissions. Our collective challenge is to repeat this transformative success for the next generation of technologies we need to reach net-zero: clean "firm" power generation and multi-day energy storage, clean hydrogen production, "green" steel, cement and chemicals production, decarbonizing heat for buildings and industry. Today these technologies remain nascent and expensive. To reach net-zero, we will need to transform them into affordable, scalable, high performance options. We've done it before. Now we must do it again. And the clock is ticking. Let's get to work!