Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal for a Green New Deal is a major step forward in the fight for a green economic transition and progressive social reform. While many of the plan’s goals involve investments in infrastructure and already-existing green technologies, the Green New Deal also calls for “public investments in the research and development of new clean and renewable energy technologies and industries.” As other observers have pointed out, the Green New Deal’s R&D strategy will be crucial to bringing down the cost of low-carbon energy.

In a paper released today by the People’s Policy Project, we outline a new public R&D strategy that can help achieve a more sustainable environment and a more equitable economy. We argue that existing federal innovation programs should be sharply expanded and reoriented toward producing the technology needed for a carbon-negative economy. Additionally, we suggest changes to the present system that would boost public ownership and control over the economic gains these innovation programs generate.

Since World War II, the federal government’s R&D programs have been critical to many of the economy’s most transformative technologies. The internet is one obvious example: though later advances came from the private sector, the origins of the web lie in the Department of Defense’s ARPANET project in the late 1960s. Same for the iPhone: nearly all of its components can be traced back to technology programs funded by the US government. Today, the federal government promotes innovation through an array of programs, including government-run laboratories, technology development agencies, state-led industry consortia, and public venture capital funds.