Researchers tracked a doubling in the total number of U.S. public institutions dedicated to cleantech commercialization between 2020 and 2024, according to a study published in Nature Communications. The expansion followed the rise of green industrial policy, accelerating a buildout that originally began following the 1970s oil crisis.
The study examined a dataset of 122 institutions to analyze state capacity for climate-change mitigation. The authors identified five core functions carried out across these public entities: goal setting, coordination, derisking, imposing discipline, and external engagement.
Post-2020 organizations diverged from historical predecessors in three key ways. These newer bodies built out dedicated planning capacity, made widespread use of conditionalities, and pivoted external engagement toward local and non-firm actors.
The second Trump administration is now altering this commercialization landscape. Authors Em Finkelstine, L. Diaz Anadon, and Jonas Meckling documented that the administration is transforming the system through four specific approaches: retrenching, redesigning, repurposing, and maintaining existing institutions.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded the study under grant 2023-21095. Additional support came from the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Business and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation under grant 2022-01804-GRA via the Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative. The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture provided funding under Hatch Project 1020688. Authors conducted the research across UC Berkeley, the University of Cambridge, and Harvard Business School.
