Economics of Decarbonizing Industrial Production

The ongoing drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in both developed and developing countries has focused more on the transportation and electricity generation sectors than on  industrial processes, such as the production of cement and steel, that involve substantial emissions of CO2 and other potential contributors to global warming.  To promote research on the economics of decarbonizing industrial production, and on the role of technological innovation and economic incentives in this process, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), with the generous support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, will convene a research conference in Cambridge, MA, on September 11–12, 2025. This conference will be organized by Lint Barrage (ETH-Zurich) and Kenneth Gillingham (Yale University and NBER). 

The organizers welcome research contributions that assess the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with various industrial process, the costs of shifting to different technologies in specific sectors, current and prospective incentives for innovation, and the choice of technique in industrial production processes, as well as broader perspectives on the efficiency and distributional implications of competing policy options for addressing industrial carbon emissions. 

Examples of research topics that are within scope include, but are not limited to: 

• What are the costs of reducing GHG emissions in CO2-emission intensive industries such as cement, fertilizer production, and steel?
• How can private or government-supported R&D, or other economic incentives, affect the level of carbon intensity in various industries? 
• What are the implications for the distribution of economic resources, and for environmental justice, of decarbonizing the industrial sector? How would different decarbonization strategies affect outcomes such as local air pollution, employment, and income prospects across space and groups?
• How would taxes on intermediate goods and/or final goods, or carbon taxes of various types, affect incentives for process change or innovation in industrial production? What are the effects of other policy instruments, such as emissions standards? What would the costs and benefits of different policies be for firms in different industries and for households in different sub-groups of the population?
• What are the implications of alternative methods for integrating industrial decarbonization incentives with pre-existing climate policies such as emissions trading schemes? 
• What are the long-run greenhouse gas and economic efficiency implications of different pathways – such as electrification versus reliance on hydrogen – to industrial decarbonization? Are there path-dependencies or complementarities due to the nature of the technologies or supply infrastructure?
• How do or could non-climate policies, such as government procurement policies or building codes, affect incentives for industrial decarbonization?
• How do different industrial decarbonization pathways interact with other policy goals such as climate resiliency, energy security, strengthening of supply chains, competitiveness, and dynamic efficiency?
• What would the effects of pairing carbon capture and storage technology (CCS) with current or new industrial production technologies to reduce net carbon emissions?
• What policies or technology improvements could affect markets for CO2 utilization, and what would their net long-run effects be?

The organizers welcome finished papers as well as early-stage papers and detailed proposals that could be completed by the conference in September 2025. Submissions must include a conflict-of-interest statement indicating whether any members of the research team have ties to the energy industry or to any of the industries that might be impacted by industrial decarbonization. Upload submissions by 11:59pm ET on January 30, 2025. 

Theoretical as well as empirical papers are welcome. Submissions are encouraged from researchers with and without NBER affiliations, from academia, government, or the private sector, from early career scholars, and from researchers from under-represented groups. Please do not submit papers that have been accepted for publication and will be published by the time of the conference.

Authors of papers selected for the program will be notified in February 2025. They will also be invited to a virtual pre-conference discussion in May 2025.

The NBER will provide a modest honorarium to the authors of papers that are selected for presentation and will cover hotel and economy-class conference travel for up to two authors per paper. Subject to interest among the presenters, the papers on the program could be considered for a journal special issue or an NBER conference proceedings volume.  

Please direct questions about this project to tricias@nber.org.