Jim Watson

China's carbon emissions and international trade: implications for post-2012 policy

Growing international trade has been one of the most important drivers for Chinas recent economic growth. This growth has fed rapid increases in energy demand and carbon emissions since 2000. China is now the worlds largest emitter of carbon dioxide. There is mounting pressure from some in the international community for China to take specific actions to mitigate its emissions as part of a post-2012 climate regime. However, emissions embodied in internationally traded goods have not been given enough attention in this debate. This article discusses the results of research to quantify the emissions stemming from goods that are exported from China to other countries. It finds that these emissions accounted for 23% of Chinas national total in 2004. The article sets out how this result has been obtained and compares it to the results of several other pieces of research to demonstrate the importance of this issue. Some pointers for international climate policy are then discussed, including the advantages and difficulties of moving to consumption-based emissions accounting, and implications for international trade rules.

Lessons from China: building technological capabilities for low carbon technology transfer and development

Using case study analysis across three sectors in China (cement, electric vehicles and coal fired electricity generation) and theoretical insights from the innovation studies literature, this paper analyses the development of China’s technological capabilities in low carbon technologies and the ways in which public policies have contributed to developing these capabilities. It finds that China has developed significant capabilities via a strategic approach. The paper’s findings have significant implications for international policies designed to support low carbon technology transfer to developing countries and broader processes of low carbon technological change and development. Such policies should go beyond the traditional focus on the transfer of technology hardware to focus on the development of low carbon technological capabilities in developing country firms.

Assessing the long-term performance of cross-sectoral strategies for national infrastructure

National infrastructure systems (energy, transport, digital communications, water, and waste) provide essential services to society. Although for the most part these systems developed in a piecemeal way, they are now an integrated and highly interdependent “system of systems.” However, understanding the long-term performance trajectory of national infrastructure has proved to be very difficult because of the complexity of these systems (in physical and institutional terms) and because there is little tradition of thinking cross-sectorally about infrastructure system performance. Here, a methodology is proposed for analyzing national multisectoral infrastructure systems performance in the context of uncertain futures, incorporating interdependencies in demand across sectors. Three contrasting strategies are considered for infrastructure provision (capacity intensive, capacity constrained, and decentralized) and multiattribute performance metrics are analyzed in the context of low, medium, and high demographic and economic growth scenarios. The approach is illustrated using Great Britain and provides the basis for the development and testing of long-term strategies for national infrastructure provision. It is especially applicable to mature industrial economics with a large stock of existing infrastructure and challenges of future infrastructure provision.

Technological innovation systems for microgeneration in the UK and Germany - a functional analysis

This paper examines the deployment of microgeneration in Germany and the UK from a technological innovation systems (TIS) perspective. Based on the TIS functions approach, we condense supportive and obstructive factors and discuss the differences in the respective national setting for small-scale renewable and combined heat and power (CHP) technologies. The findings underline the relevance of legitimation and of institutional and financial support. High degrees of legitimacy were achieved in both the UK and Germany. In Germany, early institutional and financial support reduced uncertainty for new market entrants and consumers, and fuelled a self-reinforcing diffusion dynamic for small renewables. In the UK, by comparison, microgeneration enjoys little support. The paper concludes that distributed generation will not be successful without a more focussed and technology-oriented innovation policy.

Technology Assessment and Innovation Policy

The transition towards a more sustainable society will require the development and deployment of a range of new and existing energy technologies — from centralised supply side options such as CCS, through infrastructure technologies that underpin decentralised energy networks, to household technologies such as LED (light-emitting diode) lighting and micro-generation. This chapter discusses technology assessment, choice and incentives for a more sustainable UK energy system. The key questions addressed in the chapter are how government should prioritise the support given to these technological options, and what incentives should be provided to speed up the processes of development and deployment.

New Challenges in Energy Security: The UK in a Multipolar World — Conclusions and Recommendations

We are faced with the twin urgent challenges of delivering a low carbon and secure energy system. The last few years have seen Britain moving from being a net exporter to a net importer of energy. The threat of climate change has led to the slow but inexorable inclusion of environmental concerns in mainstream energy policy. Against this backdrop, economic and political power around the globe has altered, creating a complex, multipolar world. Rising concerns about the long term availability and price of oil, gas and uranium only add to the challenges facing Britain. This timely volume brings together key researchers and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines, including energy policy, international relations and supply chains, to explore the practical policy options in addressing energy security in Britain.

Introduction: Conceptualising Energy Security

Energy security has risen up the political agenda over the last decade or so in the UK. Depleting North Sea oil and gas production, rising global energy prices, blackouts in European and North American power systems and fuel protests have all increased the prominence of energy security since the year 2000. These events and trends, combined with changing patterns of energy use around the world, have stimulated questions about what energy security for the UK is, and whether our current way of thinking about energy security is ‘fit for purpose’. This book argues that so much has changed and is changing within global energy systems that Britain needs to have a much broader and more flexible way of thinking about energy security. Hitherto, the community of academics, analysts and policymakers concerned with energy security has, to a significant extent, operated in a separate domain from the equivalent community concerned with transitions to low carbon energy systems. Because of this energy security policies have often been developed separately from energy policies for climate change mitigation. The UK can no longer afford to think of policies for energy security and climate change mitigation in different silos. Moreover, as we move from a fossil dominated energy system to one that deals effectively with the challenges of long-term sustainability, analysis of energy security has to widen.

Energy and the Citizen

The aim of this chapter is to provide further understanding of people’s everyday energy use in high consumption nations, their role in relation to wider energy systems and their governance, and the associated environmental and economic impacts. From this understanding, the chapter identifies some of the key challenges involved in reducing emissions from the household sector and personal transport, and where government policies and individual and collective initiatives can reduce these impacts. Policy is discussed in relation to energy efficiency and new technologies, including micro-generation and smarter metering. The chapter concludes with recommendations for policy action and the steps others can take in order to make residential living more sustainable and energy efficient.

Microgeneration in the UK and Germany from a Technological Innovation Systems Perspective

Microgeneration, the production of electricity at the level of individual buildings or small local communities, has recently enjoyed increasing attention from politicians and energy analysts. A more decentralized or distributed electricity generation system could contribute to a transition towards a more sustainable energy system. Compared to the traditional electricity system based on fossil fuels and nuclear energy, microgeneration can in many circumstances reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions when it replaces fossil fuels by renewable fuels, and also by increasing total efficiency through the combined generation of heat and power in small cogeneration units. In addition, generation of power close to the point of use could reduce power transport over long distances and thereby increase the overall efficiency of the electricity system and reliability of power supply. Finally, microgeneration can increase consumers’ choice about their energy provision and potentially improve overall competition (Pehnt et al. 2006).

Global Energy Solutions

Rapidly cutting domestic GHG emissions is the most pressing energy policy challenge in industrialised countries, but it is global emissions, including those from developing countries, that will determine the extent of future climate change. Agreement on global action to cut emissions has so far been difficult to achieve, largely because of US intransigence at Federal level, but also because developing country governments are not willing to see their growth constrained so as to solve a problem caused by the rich world. Rich countries must therefore first demonstrate that high incomes, low emissions and energy security are simultaneously achievable goals. Successful technical and social innovations could then be selected and adapted to local circumstances in the developing world. Significant opportunities can also be expected for emerging economies to export low carbon technologies in to OECD markets.