Search Results

From Thinking Globally about Climate Change to Acting Locally on the Energy Challenge

Ion Bogdan Vasi

in Winds of Change: The Environmental Movement and the Global Development of the Wind Energy Industry

This chapter shows that although American environmental groups had little success in influencing federal energy policies, they contributed to a significant increase in local demand for renewable ... More

This chapter shows that although American environmental groups had little success in influencing federal energy policies, they contributed to a significant increase in local demand for renewable energy. The chapter shows how environmental groups shape organizations' decisions to purchase green power. Many environmental groups offer crucial mobilizing resources for green‐power champions. Others act as brokers who connect organizations with renewable energy developers or utilities, as certification agents who verify the purchase of renewable energy certificates (RECs), or as organizers of protests, boycotts, or shareholder activism. The analysis demonstrates that, while environmental groups and activists can sometimes pressure organizations to change “from the outside” through protests, boycotts, and lawsuits, their most significant impact is through creating change “from the inside.” In the case of colleges and universities, national and local environmental groups have pushed for green‐power purchases both bottom‐up, by organizing student campaigns for clean energy, and top‐down, by coordinating a network of college and university presidents who are committed to addressing climate change. In the case of companies, environmental groups have pushed for green‐power purchases mostly from the center by offering resources to mid‐level employees and environmental managers.Less

Law and Policy in the United States

Cinnamon Piñon Carlarne

in Climate Change Law and Policy: EU and US Perspectives

This chapter provides an overview of how the US political system functions, focusing on the role of federalism in shaping policy-making. It reviews the history of environmental policymaking in the US ... More

This chapter provides an overview of how the US political system functions, focusing on the role of federalism in shaping policy-making. It reviews the history of environmental policymaking in the US and explores how climate change policymaking reveals a significant shift in the role and relationship between sub-federal and federal governmental entities in environmental law and policymaking. It seeks to provide an inclusive review of US federal climate change policies, beginning with the White House climate change strategy promoted by President Bush before exploring more recent efforts to overhaul the federal approach to climate change. It also endeavours to shed led light on how shifting federal climate change strategies influence domestic engagement in global climate change politics.Less

Expanding Job Opportunities through Clean Energy Investments

Robert Pollin

in Greening the Global Economy

This chapter shows how building a clean energy economy will be a positive source of net job creation in all regions of the globe, even after taking account of job losses generated by fossil fuel ... More

This chapter shows how building a clean energy economy will be a positive source of net job creation in all regions of the globe, even after taking account of job losses generated by fossil fuel industry retrenchments. The main factors are that building a clean energy economy requires more labor per dollar of spending and, in most cases, a higher proportion of domestic activity, as opposed to spending on imports. This chapter also considers issues of job quality and skill requirements with clean energy sector employment. It also recognizes the need for ‘just transition’ for workers and communities throughout the world whose livelihoods depend on the fossil fuel industry, and who will therefore lose out in the clean energy transition.Less

Conclusion

Leah Cardamore Stokes

in Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States

Chapter 9, the book’s conclusion, charts a path forward both theoretically and empirically. It shows how using a more complex model of policy feedback enables a better understanding of the conditions ... More

Chapter 9, the book’s conclusion, charts a path forward both theoretically and empirically. It shows how using a more complex model of policy feedback enables a better understanding of the conditions under which retrenchment is likely. This chapter makes the case that understanding organized combat between policy advocates and opponents is crucial to explaining policy change. It also shows how advocates and states can get climate policy back on track, reviewing more hopeful recent developments in state clean energy laws. For too long, a small set of interest groups has captured the regulatory process—the very mechanism that is supposed to serve and protect the public interest. They have used their power to imperil the health and well-being of all people on the planet. To address climate change, policy advocates need to win policy conflicts more often. Clean energy advocates must learn from their opponents’ success in retrenching policy.Less

A Policy Agenda That Can Work

Robert Pollin

in Greening the Global Economy

This chapter discusses the need for effective industrial policies to achieve a successful clean energy transition. A variety of specific policy tools will be needed to create large and stable clean ... More

This chapter discusses the need for effective industrial policies to achieve a successful clean energy transition. A variety of specific policy tools will be needed to create large and stable clean energy markets and cheap and accessible financing for clean energy investors. The chapter also discusses how the clean energy transformation will create new opportunities for alternative ownership forms, including public ownership, community ownership and small-scale private companies. It considers the differential impacts on countries that are presently fossil fuel exporters versus importers. Prospects can be favorable even with fossil fuel exporters through enabling them to escape the ‘resource curse.’ The chapter concludes by arguing that “de-growth” is not a viable strategy for achieving climate stabilization.Less

Engaging with Government: Extending the Web

Bina Agarwal

in Gender and Green Governance: The Political Economy of Women's Presence Within and Beyond Community Forestry

Comprehensive solutions to many local problems cannot be found solely within the purview of civil society, or locally. It is also necessary to engage with institutions of government at many levels. ... More

Comprehensive solutions to many local problems cannot be found solely within the purview of civil society, or locally. It is also necessary to engage with institutions of government at many levels. To ensure adequate and clean cooking energy, for instance, technical expertise and economic support is often needed from the upper echelons of government, even while local institutions are important for implementation. Protecting the resilience of forest ecosystems and enhancing biodiversity also have non-local dimensions. Environmental and energy policies are similarly formulated at the state and national levels of government. How can village women engage with government at these different levels? How can they make the government responsive and accountable? Alliances with other village organizations and forming federations can enhance women's leverage with government. But are government institutions prepared for such engagement? What ideas about women's issues and gender equality do government representatives hold? How will they take account of hierarchies among women, and the needs especially of poor women? This concluding chapter addresses these and related questions. It outlines why engaging with government – from village councils to the bureaucracy and parliament – is necessary; elaborates on the relative disengagement of most women representatives at all levels from women's issues; and reflects on how their engagement could be enhanced.Less

Increasing Access to Clean Energy in Africa: Challenges and Initiatives  

Fui S. Tsikata, Abeeku Brew-Hammond, and Y. B. Osafo

in Beyond The Carbon Economy: Energy Law in Transition

Africa's development is weighed down by the fact that energy consumption and access to modern energy services are the lowest in the world today. A relatively small number of African countries are ... More

Africa's development is weighed down by the fact that energy consumption and access to modern energy services are the lowest in the world today. A relatively small number of African countries are dependent on their petroleum and coal resources for economic development and today these countries are under pressure to implement measures to reduce emissions from activities which involve the production and use of fossil fuels. At the international level, fifty-two African countries have ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The Kyoto Protocol of the UNFCCC put forward several ‘flexibility mechanisms’ including the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). This chapter explores the potential of the CDM as an investment vehicle for improving the delivery of energy services and increasing access to clean energy in Africa, in a manner which does not contribute inordinately to increases in greenhouse gas emissions. It looks at the main elements dominating policy discussion in Africa's energy sector, some aspects of which have a potential to move the continent away from the carbon economy, while others constrain its capacity to do so.Less

Energy Technologies for Sustainable Development Goal 7

Govinda Timilsina and Kalim U. Shah

in Science, Technology, and Innovation for Sustainable Development Goals: Insights from Agriculture, Health, Environment, and Energy

Since billions of people from the developing world do not have access to electricity and fuels for cooking, the United Nations specified universal access to modern energy as the seventh sustainable ... More

Since billions of people from the developing world do not have access to electricity and fuels for cooking, the United Nations specified universal access to modern energy as the seventh sustainable development goal (or SDG7): “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.” Rapid development and deployment of technologies that supply clean and affordable energy services are critical to achieve this goal. This chapter discusses key technologies required to achieve the SDG7, challenges associated with the expanded deployment of these technologies, and policies to address the challenges. It starts with a survey of technology trends and advances across solar, wind, geothermal and off-grid systems that can have an impact on achievement of SDG7. Then the many challenges and barriers to modernizing traditional energy sources are discussed. Lastly, approaches to leveraging both supply side and demand side technologies and expand technology deployment are suggested. The pace of technology advancement and delivery needed to meet SDG7 requires strategic policy support and, in some cases in the developing world, political will and institutions able to take decisive, sustained actions.Less

Climate Finance

Bradly J. Condon and Tapen Sinha

in The Role of Climate Change in Global Economic Governance

This chapter examines climate finance and considers sources of financing and constraints on financing mechanisms in WTO subsidies law. It begins with an overview of multilateral financing mechanisms. ... More

This chapter examines climate finance and considers sources of financing and constraints on financing mechanisms in WTO subsidies law. It begins with an overview of multilateral financing mechanisms. It then analyses the issue of fossil fuel subsidies; how to structure financing for adaptation by subsistence farmers in accordance with the WTO Agreement on Agriculture; and financing for clean energy projects; and the scope for private sector participation and the importance of international trade in services. It is argued that the money spent on fossil fuel subsidies should be reallocated to mitigation via the development and dissemination of clean energy technologies and to adaptation via financing for subsistence farmers to acquire the inputs needed to switch to genetically modified (GM) crops that can tolerate a changing climate.Less

The Sun Always Rises

Andrew Ross

in Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World's Least Sustainable City

Nothing has driven the growth of metro Phoenix more than the sun’s rays. For most of its residents and visitors, the chief reason for coming to the region was its 334 days of annual sunshine, yet ... More

Nothing has driven the growth of metro Phoenix more than the sun’s rays. For most of its residents and visitors, the chief reason for coming to the region was its 334 days of annual sunshine, yet precious little of this radiation showed up in the energy supply. Indeed, Arizona has often been held up as an object of shame for the cause of solar power. Despite the bounty of its sun cover, by 2009 the state generated only 7 watts of photovoltaic power (PV) per capita, while New Jersey, with only half the available sunlight, managed 14.6 watts per capita, and Germany, with even less, delivered 100 watts to each person. If the solar industry was to have its long-deferred day in the United States, then the Valley of the Sun had to be at, or near the top, of the location list. Surely, it should be easier to generate “clean electrons” here than almost anywhere else. Yet the dismal historical record shows that the abundance of this natural resource mattered very little in the face of a political and economic environment that has prevented the sun’s energy from being enjoyed by its liberty-loving residents, let alone developed on an industrial scale. For a metropolis in the deepest trough of the Great Recession, the prospect of developing solar industry was just about the only source of boosterism I could find among the business community. Glenn Hamer, president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, bragged that, with the help of federal and state incentives currently available, “the cocktail is in place for Arizona to truly be a national and international leader in solar. . . . with our incredible natural advantage, we have just about the world’s best solar resource.” Someone in his position could reasonably be expected to be gung ho about any new local market for investment, but Hamer also happened to be former national director of the Solar Energy Industries Association. Less

How to Hit the CO2 Emissions Reduction Target

Robert Pollin

in Greening the Global Economy

This chapter develops a simple estimating framework to demonstrate how the global CO2 emissions can realistically fall by 40 percent within 20 years. The framework assumes that an additional 1.5 ... More

This chapter develops a simple estimating framework to demonstrate how the global CO2 emissions can realistically fall by 40 percent within 20 years. The framework assumes that an additional 1.5 percent of global GDP is channeled every year into clean energy investments over a 20-year period. The costs of energy efficiency investments and expanding clean renewable energy supplies are taken from the discussions in previous chapters. This chapter also shows how this framework operates for specific countries, including Brazil, China, India, Germany, South Africa, South Korea, Spain and the United States. The chapter shows that, through this investment program, global CO2 emissions in 20 years will be 20 billion tons, as opposed to 43 billion tons under a ‘business-as-usual scenario.’Less

Clean Energy

in Technology Change and the Rise of New Industries

This chapter explores the three types of clean energy and how the four broad methods of achieving improvements in performance and costs contribute to a better understanding of the potential for ... More

This chapter explores the three types of clean energy and how the four broad methods of achieving improvements in performance and costs contribute to a better understanding of the potential for improvements in wind turbines, solar cells, and electric vehicles. It shows that the costs of clean energy fall as more wind turbines, solar cells, and electric vehicles are produced. This technology change has important implications for governments in implementing better energy policies that would stimulate the necessary improvements in performance and cost.Less

Unorganized Innovation

Steven C. Currall, Ed Frauenheim, Sara Jansen Perry, and Emily M. Hunter

in Organized Innovation: A Blueprint for Renewing America’s Prosperity

This chapter starts with energy expert Phyllis Cuttino’s observation that America’s approach to clean energy is too messy. A lack of coordination in arenas such as wind power is representative of the ... More

This chapter starts with energy expert Phyllis Cuttino’s observation that America’s approach to clean energy is too messy. A lack of coordination in arenas such as wind power is representative of the way the US system of R&D overall has been unorganized. The problem starts with a gap in the country’s ability to move discoveries from the research lab to the commercial realm, and includes a kind of national paralysis regarding how to fix the problem—thanks largely to misguided assumptions about innovation. This chapter focuses on the decline of private-sector research centers and the inability of universities to fill that void.Less