Biden’s Climate Research and Development Quest: ARPA-C Explained

One of the new line items scattered throughout President Joe Biden’s budget proposal is some $500 million for a new agency that the administration hopes will spur climate innovation.

The agency, known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Climate, would be housed within the Energy Department and modeled on other government-backed research efforts—most notably the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Here’s an explanation of what’s being proposed and what’s at stake:

1. What would ARPA-C do?

It would spur research and development to turn climate technologies into commercial products and services. Like the wildly successful DARPA, ARPA-C would focus ...