{"id":363599,"date":"2017-03-21T02:30:29","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T06:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grist.org\/?post_type=grist-50-profiles&amp;p=363599"},"modified":"2017-03-21T02:30:29","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T06:30:29","slug":"varun-sivaram","status":"publish","type":"grist-50-profiles","link":"https:\/\/grist.org\/grist-50\/profile\/varun-sivaram\/","title":{"rendered":"Red tape holds back green energy. Varun Sivaram points policymakers to models that work."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"g50-profile__stats-block profile__stats-block--profile-363599 \">Energy &amp; Climate Director, Council on Foreign Relations <br \/>\nWashington, D.C.<br \/>\nAge: 28<\/aside>\n<p>Before Varun Sivaram joined the Council on Foreign Relations in 2015, the leading U.S. policy shop wasn\u2019t doing a whole lot of work in green energy. With a doctorate in condensed matter physics from Oxford and a background in public- and private-sector energy advising, Sivaram helped steer the council away from fossil-fuel thinking and toward the analysis of a renewable future.<\/p>\n<p>What might this future look like? You\u2019ll have to grab the book about solar power that Sivaram is finishing this year &#8212; or take the class on clean energy innovation he teaches at Georgetown University. One spoiler alert: Technological innovation is key, but venture-capital funding models for clean energy technology are broken. Luckily, policymakers and other private sector players can learn from venture capital\u2019s mistakes by reading Sivaram\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/blog-post\/why-silicon-valley-model-failed-cleantech\">research<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>[pullquote share=&#8221;true&#8221; hashtag=&#8221;Grist50&#8243;]\u201c2017 is about preventing as much damage as possible.\u201d [\/pullquote]<\/p>\n<p>Looking forward, Sivaram suggests that policymakers disillusioned by the tumultuous energy and climate policy environment at the federal level could swivel an eyeball toward the progress being made by cities and states. Sure, one lone city touting \u201ctransformative\u201d emissions cuts can amount to hype, but \u201cwhat\u2019s not hype is when a city or a state invents something innovative that can then be scaled around the world,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s actually important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This physicist is shaping energy policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57007830,"featured_media":490286,"menu_order":11,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"coauthors":[10],"class_list":["post-363599","grist-50-profiles","type-grist-50-profiles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","grist-50-energy","grist-50-13"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Red tape holds back green energy. 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