Procurement as an Instrument of Policy: Novel Approaches to Climate Challenges
我们的气候和采购专家的圆桌会议讨论了联邦政府作为战略买家的作用不足的作用，以克服市场失败，以扩大创新解决方案以扩大气候变化。演讲者包括：
- Andrew Mayock, Federal Chief Sustainability Officer at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).
- Thomas Kalil, Chief Innovation Officer at Schmidt Futures
- Dr. Lara Pierpoint，气候主管
- Jetta Wong，第一天的项目政策企业家在居住和高级方，信息技术与创新基金会（ITIF）
Initial Perspectives
The session began with remarks fromThomas Kalil (Schmidt Futures), who provided an introduction into procurement levers, or “demand-pull” mechanisms.
- Economists distinguish between push and pull approaches to innovation。The former is an important, traditional feature of government efforts to promote R&D, such as tax credits or grants to a university researcher or firm that covers costs of a project. The latter involves innovative ways to leverage the role of government as a buyer.
- For example, the Falcon 9 rocket, a partnership between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and SpaceX, gave the United States an important capability to send rockets to the International Space Station without being dependent on Russia. The NASA-SpaceX contract used payments that were contingent on meeting key milestones, or “milestone- based payments.” NASA got access to this capabilityat a fraction of the costas a “business as usual” approach, such as cost-plus contracts.
- Another example wasOperation Warp Speed，将诺贝尔奖获得者迈克尔·克雷默（Michael Kremer）解决了“高级市场承诺”的解决方案，这是购买给定数量尚不存在的产品的保证 - 用于疫苗开发的市场失败。
- Government should utilize financial contingencies based on success, not failure, by identifying where market failures exist and defining metrics of success and the reward (e.g., prize, purchase order, milestone payment, etc.)这将是解决气候危机的强大新箭头。理想情况下，需求爆发机制将创造一个marketplace for outcomes：有人建立了一个目标，行业团队竞争实现这一目标，投资者押注这些球队，我们看到谁成功地达到了终点线。
然后，会议转到了讨论Andrew Mayock (CEQ)about the Bidenadministration’s key priorities in combatting climate change, along with nascent conversations on procurement.
- The federal government is back in action in the procurement area。From Day One of the administration with Executive Order 14008, the President called on agencies to use our buying power to tackle the climate crisis. The power of the executive order and its impact on movement throughout the federal government is noteworthy. It has helped increase transparency and standards, especially with respect to transitioning the full federal fleet of vehicles to zero emissions.
- On October 7th, the administration released a series of代理机构气候适应和弹性计划to deliver on the President’s Day One goals. The White House Council on Environmental Quality played a key role in defining standards and implementing quality reports.
- 最近,美国政府的联邦法律ition Regulatory Council has been meeting to improve the rules of the game when it comes to procurement. They released the联邦收购法规：最大程度地降低联邦收购气候变化的风险for public comment and would welcome your feedback on this.
- 最后，we plan on releasing adetailed framework for a federal sustainability plan，这将包括政府在建筑物，车辆和商品和服务上的占地面积以及如何减少碳的针头。最后一位演讲者是Dr. Lara Pierpoint (Actuate)，他们在扩展气候创新解决方案方面与私营部门讨论了她的经历。
- We operate under the assumption如果我们拥有正确的创新和政策公式，气候技术将大规模商业化。这不一定是错误的，但是只会花费太长时间。考虑太阳能，该太阳能是在贝尔实验室首次开发的，花了三十年才到达一个可行的地方。即使是现在，经过一系列政策和又几十年的政策，美国的能源的超过2％来自太阳能。我们根本没有每种技术的时间。
- We’re getting there, but we need to understand more about how demand-pull mechanisms work and how they can be applied towards key sectors and challenges. For example, it is very expensive to produce carbon-free cement. Mass timber is one way to reduce embodied carbon in buildings, but timber happens to be even more expensive as there isn’t a large supply of materials available domestically.The real problem is that U.S. companies are not convinced the demand for carbon-free cement is there, so they don’t invest.
- Clean hydrogen and grid storage technologies are other examples需求爆发机制可以应用于激励创新并实现气候目标的地方。
问答面板讨论
Day One Project Policy Entrepreneur in ResidenceJetta Wong (ITIF)moderated the panelist Q&A session, asking the following questions with summarized responses:
如果我们大家都同意需求策略可能会对驾驶气候解决方案产生巨大影响，那么哪些障碍阻碍了这些工具的广泛采用？
Thomas Kalil:
一个问题是我们有一个shortage of people知道如何设计有效的需求扣机制。然后是机构中缺乏文化意识over useful examples like Falcon 9 for accomplishing strategic objectives. This has resulted in an underutilization of Other Transactions Agreements — perhaps the broadest laws passed by Congress as it is defined by what it is not (not a grant, not a contract) rather than what it is. Under the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, federal agencies can support incentive prizes of up to $50 million, butfew agencies are using these authorities for ambitious prizes。最后，appropriations processes pose another obstacle, as Congress traditionally requires that agencies spend their annual appropriations in two years. But for architecting successful demand-pull mechanisms, agencies may need to disperse these funds over a longer time period. It’s important that Congress consider utilizing “No-year” funding foragency R&D and market-shaping efforts. The private sector has an equally important role. Consider the automotive industry: research by the Boston Consulting Group indicates that if an automobile was made with carbon neutral materials, it would only increase the sticker price by 2%. The federal government has not realized the potential to shift markets in this direction.
Jetta Wong:
During the Obama administration, only one person in the entire agency knew about prizes and challenges; it was her job to teach others. Now the Department of Energy has many people working on these issues, but a lot more opportunities to execute on. We need more people willing to leverage these procurement innovations.
Andrew Mayock:
人，政策和资源最重要。CEQ和政府赞赏的是，许多有专有技术的好公务员已经剩下。We have a people deficit; we need more individuals who possess the right skills to effect the transformation是hoping for。In terms of policy, the federal sustainability plan we hope to release soon comments on these issues, and sends a clear signal to markets with goals of carbon-free electricity and emission-free federal vehicles. Finally, on resources, now is an opportune time in Washington with the Build Back Better agenda. It has the ability to turbocharge the federal procurement space into truly solving climate challenges.
Lara Pierpoint:
我们也有一个结构性的问题，即如何建立联邦政府。能源部的重点是能源来源，而不是气候，这在实现其气候目标时引起了组织和资源挑战。气候挑战是一个不同的问题，需要新的经验。在上届政府中，能源部实际上迈出了一步。他们有robust conversations with industry playersand took a systemic view to thinking关于如何解锁新技术途径。重要的是要认识到行业的来源，障碍的方式以及我们如何解锁更多扩展创新途径。
Despite these barriers, we know a few agencies have started deploying these tools. How should agencies think about getting this right?
Thomas Kalil:
When it comes to the Other Transaction Authorities, agencies have a large amount of flexibility in terms of how to use it.The authority is there, but agencies either haven’t used it or aren’t using it creatively enough。The goal of these partnerships, in the climate context, needs to be on accelerating the scale of deployment and eliminating the “green premium.” Climate solutions need to be scaled and profitable. The government should bepartnering with the consumers of new technologies, not just the producers.
Andrew Mayock:
“购买清洁”政策是在这些方面取得进展的关键工具，而代理机构应认识到对这些采购解决方案的高级战略支持。我们应该考虑如何扩大规模和与私营部门合作。
One of the solutions mentioned was for Congress to utilize no-year funding, is there a concern with transparency over this and other demand- pull mechanisms?
Thomas Kalil:
If anything, demand-pull mechanisms require more transparency as the government must get specific about what it wants and when. The sponsor of the prize sets a very clear goal, and the results usually follow from this.Performance-based goals versus“we know it when we see it” is a useful mode of operation.非年份资金因素对于解决拨款障碍很重要，因此代理商有可用的资金来分散在后期。
Lara Pierpoint:
只要achi方法是一个伟大的方式eve progress with transparency, especially with complex technologies like nuclear power. If you want to get the innovation you need, it’s important to have clarity on regulatory milestones in addition to procurement and other targets. Milestone-based payments offer this support.
If you could challenge the audience to do one thing related to tackling the climate crisis with procurement, what would it be?
Thomas Kalil:
查找具有影响潜力的技术，并描述在这些部门应用需求策略机制的挑战和机遇。具体。您可以在第一天项目网站上阅读有关不同杠杆的信息。
Lara Pierpoint:
对于那些在机构和政府以外的人来说，要采用更广泛的问题解决心态。陷入气候技术孤岛太容易了。让我们考虑一下端点是什么，什么工具可以帮助我们到达那里。这将涉及跨办公室和领域的跨学科合作，因此让我们开放。
Andrew Mayock:
We need resources, and if we get them, we’ll figure out the people and policy. Stay tuned for the federal sustainability plan and send us your thoughts!
Follow-up Opportunities
The Day One Project is committed to sourcing diverse ideas from a wide community. We encourage you to stay engaged with us as we cultivate more science and technology policy ideas to set the agenda on industrial policy and beyond.
Do you have ideas that could inform an ambitious project that FESI has a comparative advantage pursuing? We want to hear it.
Friends of FESI have identified priority use cases to inform project ideas.
The CHIPS and Science Act establishes a compelling vision for U.S. innovation and place-based industrial policy, but that vision is already being hampered by tight funding.
以下是筹码和科学资金在与联邦预算的战斗中塑造的方式。