The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the landmark federal climate law, has committed nearly $400 billion to mitigating climate change.

Nine research teams across the U.S, including a Princeton team led by Jesse Jenkins, Chris Greig and Eric Larson have modeled the effect of the IRA on U.S. carbon emissions.

The research teams found that the IRA will dramatically cut U.S carbon emissions, with economy-wide emissions reductions between 43 and 48% below 2005 levels by 2035, but not enough to reach 50% below peak levels by 2030, as the U.S. has pledged. The results were published in the journal Science on June 29.

“IRA doubles the pace of reductions but should have tripled it to hit our 2030 climate goals and get on the path to net-zero by 2050,” Jenkins says.

This story originally appeared in the July/August 2023 issue of Princeton’s environmental newsletter, The Charge, which reports on Princeton environmental research.