Bentley Allan is a nonresident scholar in the Sustainability, Climate, and Geopolitics Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is associate professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, director of the Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab, and a transition pathways principal at the Transition Accelerator. He is an expert in the political economy of decarbonization, clean energy supply chains, and global climate governance.
The Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab works with government and industry to catalyze the strategic collaborations necessary to create effective industrial policy. The Lab brings together policy analysis with the technical analysis of net-zero supply chains. The current work of the lab encompasses distilling international best practices for industrial policy, the politics and technology of clean energy supply chains, and understanding emerging global institutions to support industrial policy.
In addition to his academic work, Allan has advised governments and businesses on net-zero industrial policy and supply chain strategy. From 2020 to 2021, Allan was associate director at the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions where he funded and supported climate solutions research. Since 2021, Allan has worked through the Transition Accelerator to lead strategic roadmapping exercises for the battery metals and sustainable aviation fuels industry. He has also conducted action-oriented research on hydrogen, mass timber, heat pumps, steel, and more.
The world is being defined by global value chains, fierce competition, and limited public resources. Must the United States compete in all areas and domains?
Bipartisan Consensus Is Key—but Depends on U.S. Control of Supply Chains.
With strategic use of its development finance tools, the United States can promote clean energy manufacturing outside of China and help partner countries in the Global South become more than sources of raw materials.
Janet Yellen and Jake Sullivan have recently argued that pursuing industrial policy at home is compatible with an open and fair global economic order.
Given existing reserves, it is possible for the United States and its key democratic partners to significantly friendshore the production of critical minerals. However, it would require an unprecedented buildout of the mining industry to achieve clean energy targets for 2030.
