What we need from economists on energy policy, according to former White House advisor Ali Zaidi

The Tobin Center for Economic Policy at Yale University aims to reduce the time between research and impact by helping economists engage with the public policy process and bring ideas to the policy arena.

As climate and energy policy priorities at the federal level evolve, economists and other researchers who want to make an impact in these areas may need to pivot.

What are the biggest challenges facing business leaders, policymakers, and others in this moment of disruption in the clean energy space? How can economists help address those problems in the months and years ahead?

To help answer these questions, we invited former White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi to Yale's campus for a strategy summit with leading economists. Our goal was to identify concrete ways economists and other researchers can provide useful inputs for policy in the months and years ahead.

Zaidi made several important points during his visit to Yale. You can read about them below or watch his full interview with Tobin Center Executive Director David Wilkinson.

1. Beyond political changes, two new factors have emerged: AI and ongoing trade wars

Zaidi highlighted two emerging issues that are now layered on top of the reversal of climate policies that emphasized modernizing infrastructure and reducing carbon emissions: The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the effects of global trade wars.

Will these challenges inhibit our transition to a clean economy, or can they accelerate it by creating a race to innovate? These are the new questions economists should be considering as they think about their role over the next few years.

2. Economists need to uncover micro-solutions for businesses and other players in the clean energy space

“Climate is a big topic that attracts big thinkers that come up with big solutions,” Zaidi said. “This is a moment that also demands micro-solutions.”

For example, how can the insurance industry de-risk transitions to new climate-smart practices for farmers? Zaidi said we’re “stuck in a who-pays-for-what” conversation, but economists can help us resolve those questions smartly and equitably while finding new ways for businesses and other players to move forward.

“We need all the problem solvers we can get attacking the challenges that are in front of us, and economists can help us work through a set of issues that they haven’t helped us take on in the past.”

3. We need a regulatory framework that takes advantage of new technologies

Zaidi said we need to rethink our regulatory frameworks for clean air and water so they can better account for new technologies.

“A lot of these laws were written in the 70s and 80s with really good motivation, but with really crappy technology,” Zaidi said. “We need to have a paradigm shift that takes on the technologies that we have.”

4. We need to slow climate change, but we also need research on how to adapt

Zaidi said there’s a lot of research on how to slow climate change, but less research focused on adaptation. “A lot of the conversation in the climate space is taken up by solar, wind, and clean energy–the stuff that goes after the root cause of the issue.

"But our economic thinking has lagged when it comes to how we account for these issues when they enter the insurance markets, when they enter the public health arena, when they enter firm-level planning. I think we need to accelerate the pace of that work.”

5. By listening to the end user of policy, institutions like Yale and Tobin should help chart a path to support the field of economics in meeting the moment

Zaidi said he wants to see institutions like Yale and the Tobin Center help “the entire discipline” of economics find new ways of developing research that can “meet the moment.”

“That’s by going to the user, the transformation you want to see on the ground, and paying a lot more attention to it. We’re in a dynamic moment where so much is changing. Our ability to craft the right intellectual foundation depends on our ability to listen to the people whose lives we want to make better.”

6. Young people are eager to solve problems–and we can learn from them

Zaidi says young people today could find many reasons to be negative or despondent. But instead, they so often choose to be optimistic problem-solvers.

“For all of the time that these really big thinkers get to come up with research papers that will change the world, one of their most important contributions is that a couple times a week or a month, they get to sit with the future.”

“Institutions like Yale, places where young people gather, are a glimpse into the future of what could be, and they make me super optimistic.”