Deputy Secretary David Turk Remarks at COP26 UNFCCC Plenary: “Innovating for a Net Zero World”

Thank you very much, Minister, for that very kind introduction, your incredibly eloquent words… and thanks to all our UK colleagues for the incredible COP presidency.

You all have been hosting us here, feeding us, but also so ably throughout the year and into next year as well.

As the Minister and I were just talking, the COP presidency does not end with the COP. There’s a lot more UK leadership that we’ll need going forward as well.

During the day, as the Minister said, I’m proud to serve as the Deputy Energy Secretary for the United States. But at night, I go home to my three kids, including my twelve-year-old son who is absolutely fascinated—I would say, obsessed—with rockets and space.

Last month, we had the opportunity to go down to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to actually see a real live rocket launch.

We watched it happen from the same bleachers where the families and friends watched in 1969 the launch of Apollo 11.

When President John Kennedy gave his famous speech eight years before that, in 1961, we hadn’t even put a person into space yet, and we had nowhere near the technologies we needed to pull off a “moonshot.”

But President Kennedy inspired thousands of scientists, thousands of engineers to step up and achieve something truly extraordinary. And he backed up his audacious goal, very importantly, with historic investments. Within three years, we had more than quadrupled the budget for NASA.

That investment—and the absolutely critical human ingenuity it fueled—took us from a 1962 rocket that was 29 meters tall and could barely reach space...

To one in 1969—seven years later—that was three and a half times the size, 20 times the thrust, and contained over 12 million working parts. And for the first time ever, it brought humanity to the moon.

Now, sixty years later, we need another moonshot-like effort—this time, for the future of our planet. 

As hurricanes, wildfires, floods, droughts and heat waves grow worse each and every year, time is running out to address the existential crisis of climate change.

Like President Kennedy, President Biden and many other world leaders have set bold goals. We’ve heard a lot of goals set at this conference.

And some leaders are already making the kinds of historic investments to turbo-charge our progress.

The Biden administration is committed to cutting our carbon pollution by more than half by 2030, 100% clean electricity by 2035 and net-zero for our entire economy by 2050.

And while we have many of the technologies we need in order to achieve these audacious goals—including cost-competitive solar and wind to deploy at scale—we're still missing critical parts of the technology puzzle. 

The International Energy Agency puts out an analysis on clean energy progress every year—it was one of my favorite projects when I worked there.

The latest IEA analysis found that only six of 46 technologies they examined—46 different clean energy technologies—only six of those technologies were doing their share at the deployment levels we need, at the cost levels we need, in order to achieve our Paris Agreement objectives. 

So while we need to “deploy, deploy, deploy,” in the words of my boss, Secretary Granholm...we also still need to “innovate, innovate, innovate.”

That’s why the U.S. has launched an audacious moonshot for this decisive decade. Our Energy Earthshots seek to dramatically cut costs for the remaining clean energy lynchpin technologies that we need to achieve net-zero and to do those during this decade. 

In June, we launched our Hydrogen Shot, looking to dramatically slash the cost of clean hydrogen to $1 per kilogram within this decade. 

In July, we launched our Long-Duration Energy Storage Shot, aiming to cut the cost of storage for over 10 hours 90%. 

And just last week, we launched our Carbon Negative Shot, aiming to achieve durable and scalable carbon dioxide removal at less than $100 per ton. And we’re just getting started, with more Energy Earthshots to come.

These goals are bold, they’re audacious, they are—they’re purposefully bold and audacious—but they’re achievable.

But they’re only achievable if we focus our talent, we inspire talent, and rally public support just like in the 1960s for the moonshot.

DOE is so focused on costs—technology costs—and there’s a simple reason for that. It’s because that’s what determines how widely available technologies are to countries around the world.

And lowering costs anywhere helps speed clean energy transitions at the scale we need everywhere.

That means expanded energy access...improved health... new opportunities for communities around the world.

The faster we get clean technologies out of the laboratories, into the field, and into the market at scale, the faster our whole world can decarbonize.

In September, I had a chance to travel to India with Presidential Envoy John Kerry and saw how innovation’s impact can really empower communities, empower countries and help them achieve their goals. 

We heard from the Power Minister in India—Minister Singh—their ambitious plans on clean hydrogen, green hydrogen and their plans on long-duration storage. 

If we’re successful on our first two Energy Earthshots, on hydrogen and on long-duration storage, that’ll help India succeed. It’ll help countries around the world succeed on their deployment of these clean energy technologies—again, at scale in communities around the world.

And we’re going one step further from the U.S. through our newly-launched Net Zero World initiative, which is taking our world-class National Lab expertise and making it available to India, to Indonesia, to countries around the world…so we can all benefit from the world-class expertise. 

And just like the 1960s moonshot, we’re putting a huge amount of resources and heft behind our Energy Earthshots.

We’re throwing the full weight of the DOE enterprise and our National Labs behind these goals.

Our Long-Duration Storage Shot itself will have a budget of over $1 billion per year.

Last week, President Biden and Special Envoy Kerry the First Movers Coalition. This is a new platform where companies commit to purchase emerging clean energy technologies—creating that incredibly important pull, that demand signal for these technologies.

Our Loan Programs Office is back in business with $40 billion in loans for big deployment projects.

And our efforts domestically need to be tied with, and leveraging, and vice versa, our international efforts.

And a huge congratulations to the UK, many many countries involved in the Glasgow Breakthroughs—an incredible achievement that we look forward to supporting from the U.S. side.

We also look forward to supporting Mission Innovation, a group of leading countries around the world, as the Minister said, focused on innovation for everyone’s benefit. 

In fact, we’re supporting innovation so much, we’re hosting next year’s ministerial meeting in September. 

And all of our efforts will be supercharged by the nearly $800 billion that the U.S. Congress has already passed or will pass shortly to invest in climate action and clean energy. $800 billion is what’s contemplated and already enacted in Congress.

This is the largest amount of money for climate action, for clean energy, certainly in the U.S.’ history by far.

This investment is not only going to get the U.S. on track to meet our 2030 ambitious climate targets...it’ll be the biggest engine for job creation that we’ve ever seen in our lifetimes.

Because just like the 1960s moonshot...our most important resource after all is our people...and they’re ready to tackle this climate crisis.

Over the past few months, I’ve had the privilege and honor to meet with some of the more than 80,000 National Lab researchers across our country, in our 17 National Labs. 

At our National Renewable Energy Lab, I met with Keith Wipke, who’s been working on hydrogen for years. And I can’t tell you the excitement he had in his eyes as he explained to me how excited he is to put all his efforts behind this Hydrogen Shot. So that he has a goal to shoot for, a goal that he can be incredibly proud for his career that he’s helping to achieve.

At Lawrence Berkeley National Lab just last week, I met Noel Bakhtian, who’s bringing researchers together across multiple disciplines to help achieve the Energy Storage Earthshot.

These are top researchers devoting their careers on these bold, bold goals. We also need entrepreneurs to step-up, building planet-saving companies.

We need miners and fossil fuel workers using their skills for geothermal, for critical minerals... electricians installing EV chargers...steelworkers forging low-carbon steel...truckers driving hydrogen vehicles...jobs in logistics, design and construction...and educators to train our next generation. 

It’s going to take everyone, it’s going to take all of us, in every sector of our economy, in every pocket of every nation around the world to forge together our clean energy economy of the future. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment.

By the end of this decade, the global market for clean energy technologies will be worth at least $23 trillion—that’s trillion with a T—and it's going to put people to work in every country in our world. 

The Biden administration is ready to do our part. If we could get to the moon in just eight years—think of that, getting to the moon in an eight year period of time—there’s no reason we can’t achieve these audacious Energy Earthshots goals within this decade.

And there’s no reason we can’t build an inclusive, prosperous clean energy economy for everyone.

So let’s roll up our sleeves...let’s innovate, innovate, innovate like never before... let’s deploy, deploy, deploy like never before...and let’s work together to save our shared planet.

Thank you.