Strategic Insights
Market Catalysts: How We Keep Warming to 1.5°C
From drought to heatwaves, to catastrophic fires and more intense hurricanes, our world is already experiencing climate change. But we as a civilization still have a say in how bad it gets. To prevent the worst effects of runaway warming, the global climate movement has aligned on a goal to…
The Map Is Not the Territory: New Routes to a 1.5°C Future
Explorers use maps intensively, but they take the information recorded in the charts they use with a few grains of salt, knowing that the map is not the territory. After all, sometimes maps present a consensus view of reality that is disastrously wrong. For more than 100 years, beginning…
A Million-Mile Battery: For More Than Just Electric Vehicles
With the past few years’ enormous build out of lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery manufacturing plant capacity and near-term commitments to further expansions, battery storage costs continue to fall dramatically. Falling costs, coupled with improved performance, are enabling new battery applications that will dramatically accelerate the energy transition. For…
Oil Market Disruptions and Climate Action Tipping Points
While it is far too early to discuss the long-term impacts of the spread of COVID-19, in addition to the toll on human lives it has already caused significant disruptions to the global economy. As Rocky Mountain Institute focuses on promoting the wellbeing of our employees, communities, and partners, we…
Massive Investment is Accelerating the Era of Clean Electrification
The age of affordable battery technology is coming faster than experts previously thought possible. Thanks to massive investment, rapid performance improvements, and falling prices, breakthrough battery technologies are poised to revolutionize the way we power our lives and organize energy systems as early as 2030. In the first half of…
