scholarly journals Accelerating the Arrival of Fusion Energy within a Quintuple Helix Innovation Ecosystem to Address Climate Change

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Draper

In July 2019, the International Energy Agency established an independent Global Commission for Urgent Action on Energy Efficiency. In the world of fusion power development, in November 2018, a U.S. National Academies’ report on US fusion research recommended a national ‘burning plasma’ fusion power facility but also emphasized the private sector’s role in fusion innovation. In the same month, the Fusion Industry Association publicly announced its launch, indicating a level of private-sector industry maturity. Multiple FIA members boldly aim to accelerate fusion’s commercial deployment to approximately one decade, yet none are fully funded to overcome the ‘valley of death’ innovation-to-commercialization obstacle. Nonetheless, introducing fusion power (a ‘Future Fusion Economy’) in a 2030-2040 timeframe could contribute substantially towards transitioning from fossil fuels within this century and thereby contribute significantly to addressing climate change in the post-Paris Agreement period. This article applies the Quadruple and Quintuple Innovation Helix Ecosystem framework to this problem. We consider how Global South funding for entrepreneurship and innovation, via petrostates’ sovereign wealth funds, can accelerate the development and commercialization of fusion, through funding continuous innovation operations. We advocate a multi-sectoral and multilateral approach to accelerate fusion innovation, increase global quality of democracy, and protect the natural environment, via a managed co-opetive global solution like the IEA’s commission.

2021 ◽  
pp. 65-83
Author(s):  
Peter Drahos

States, motivated by military concerns, have mismanaged the geo-energy trilemma with the result that they face a much deeper climate emergency than they otherwise might. The geo-energy trilemma consists of climate mitigation, energy security, and economic/military development. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has been central to the creation of a data path that prioritizes fossil fuels over the development of renewable energy. The International Energy Agency sent states down the track of more coal development even though carbon capture storage was never a realistic prospect. The IEA failed to build trust among states on energy and climate change issues. The creation of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is an important step forward globally for the renewable energy industries.


Author(s):  
Leslie Parker

This chapter examines key legal instruments and mechanisms relevant to international renewable energy regulation. These play an important role in governing unified action and enhancing collaboration and information-sharing on effective policies and investment frameworks aimed at reducing barriers and risks to investments in renewable energy. The mechanisms that are analysed are the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Statute, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol and related international climate change negotiations and declarations, the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), and various sector-specific treaties. The chapter also turns its attention to the primary international organizations that influence present and future directions in international renewable energy policy, such as the Nairobi Programme of Action for the Development and Utilization of New and Renewable Sources of Energy, International Energy Agency, Development Banks, and the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership.


Significance Despite its promotion of an innovation ecosystem to attract start-ups, Abu Dhabi has overall made little progress in addressing the impact of the clean-energy transition on long-term demand for fossil fuels. As COVID-19 hits private consumption hard, Dubai is promoting expatriate-friendly labour market and legal reforms, with an eye to the troubled real estate sector. Impacts Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds will increase their exposure to the overseas oil derivatives industry. Dubai will shift attention to taming oversupply in the flagging property market, and developers will be under increased scrutiny. Ambitious oil production targets will increase tensions with Saudi Arabia; a medium-term OPEC exit is possible. Abu Dhabi will prioritise high-profile space and nuclear projects that generate soft power and boost innovation.


2017 ◽  
pp. 124-139
Author(s):  
Robert Goodland

The gravest environmental impact of food production is the impact of its greenhouse gas emissions; that's because of the uniquely diverse, unprecedented, and irreversible risks that it involves. According to the International Energy Agency, atmospheric carbon must be reduced significantly by 2020 or else the world may not be able to avert uncontrollable climate change. This chapter compares the most recent assessment of livestock and climate change by livestock specialists employed by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation with assessment of livestock and climate change by two World Bank Group environmental specialists, Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang. It is explained how the only pragmatic way to reverse climate change before it is too late is to replace a substantial amount of today's livestock products with better alternatives.


Author(s):  
Michela Longo ◽  
Morris Brenna ◽  
Federica Foiadelli

The environmental pollution caused by fossil fuels is a hot issue around the world in recent years. The gases lead to poor air quality, in particular in large cities, and the global warming that can cause ecological calamity such as tropical cyclones, heatwaves, drought, and extreme tides. International Energy Agency clearly states that the current energy trend is not sustainable environmentally, economically, and socially. Therefore, it must devise solutions to achieve the future economic growth without adverse environmental effects. The increasing diffusion of electric vehicles is driving academic and institutional research towards exploring different possible ways of charging vehicles in a fast, reliable, and safe way. For this reason, wireless power transfer systems have recently been receiving a lot of attention in the academic literature. This chapter reviews the main analytic and computational tools that are typically used to perform analyses in the context of inductive power transfer systems (IPTSs).


Author(s):  
Kathleen Araújo

This chapter outlines the design of the current study. It discusses my underlying logic for scoping energy system change with theory-building in the form of (1) a framework on intervention that operationalizes insights from the previous chapter and (2) conceptual models of structural readiness. A brief review then follows of related, global developments to provide broader context for the cases. The chapter concludes with a preview of the transitions that will be discussed in depth in subsequent chapters. This book draws on my research of four national energy system transitions covering the period since 1970. I selected a timeframe that reflected a common context of international events which preceded as well as followed the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979. Such framing allowed me to trace policy and technology learning over multiple decades for different cases. I completed field work for this project primarily between 2010 and 2012, with updates continuing through to the time this book went to press. I selected cases from more than 100 countries in the International Energy Agency (IEA) databases. The ones that I chose represented countries which demonstrated an increase of 100% or more in domestic production of a specific, low carbon energy and the displacement of at least 15 percentage points in the energy mix by this same, low carbon energy relative to traditional fuels for the country and sector of relevance. I utilized adoption and displacement metrics to consider both absolute and relative changes. Final cases reflect a diversity of energy types and, to some extent, differences in the socio-economic and geographic attributes of the countries. The technologies represent some of the more economically-competitive substitutes for fossil fuels. It’s important to emphasize that the number of cases was neither exhaustive nor fully representative. Instead, the cases reflect an illustrative group of newer, low carbon energy technologies for in depth evaluation. Each of the cases shares certain, basic similarities. These include a national energy system comprised of actors, inputs, and outputs with systemic architecture connecting the constituent parts in a complex network of energy-centered flows over time—including extraction, production, sale, delivery, regulation, and consumption.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Andrew Boyles

<p>As human society nears the middle of the second decade of the 21st century, the cultivation of fossil fuels for energy shows little sign of large scale abatement. The need for large scale, worldwide transitions to more renewable energy is increasingly being emphasised by organisations such as the International Energy Agency. Some countries are leading the way and innovating in energy sources that are much more efficient, create industry, and bring many system benefits- like solar photovoltaic systems (PV).  Despite having insolation similar to, or greater than, many of those countries seeing vast uptake of solar PV, New Zealand is falling behind. New Zealand has policies in place that emphasise new renewable energy technology uptake and innovation; however these are not occurring with solar PV on a large scale. These contradictions underpin the examination in this thesis of the solar PV innovation system.   Using a Technological Innovation System (TIS) framework, this thesis examines the innovation system for solar PV in New Zealand. It identifies the achieved functionality in eight areas (Entrepreneurship, Knowledge Development, Networks, Guidance, Market, Legitimacy, and International Influences), and assesses the overall system’s functioning to identify system weaknesses.  To build a more complete picture of the innovation system, this thesis also examines the political environment that influences the sustainable transition to more solar PV. The key stakeholders, political influences, priorities, preferences, and political dialogue are assessed using a quantitative questionnaire. The results of this political analysis contribute to a robust conclusion on the state and functioning of the solar PV TIS in New Zealand.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Andrew Boyles

<p>As human society nears the middle of the second decade of the 21st century, the cultivation of fossil fuels for energy shows little sign of large scale abatement. The need for large scale, worldwide transitions to more renewable energy is increasingly being emphasised by organisations such as the International Energy Agency. Some countries are leading the way and innovating in energy sources that are much more efficient, create industry, and bring many system benefits- like solar photovoltaic systems (PV).  Despite having insolation similar to, or greater than, many of those countries seeing vast uptake of solar PV, New Zealand is falling behind. New Zealand has policies in place that emphasise new renewable energy technology uptake and innovation; however these are not occurring with solar PV on a large scale. These contradictions underpin the examination in this thesis of the solar PV innovation system.   Using a Technological Innovation System (TIS) framework, this thesis examines the innovation system for solar PV in New Zealand. It identifies the achieved functionality in eight areas (Entrepreneurship, Knowledge Development, Networks, Guidance, Market, Legitimacy, and International Influences), and assesses the overall system’s functioning to identify system weaknesses.  To build a more complete picture of the innovation system, this thesis also examines the political environment that influences the sustainable transition to more solar PV. The key stakeholders, political influences, priorities, preferences, and political dialogue are assessed using a quantitative questionnaire. The results of this political analysis contribute to a robust conclusion on the state and functioning of the solar PV TIS in New Zealand.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 681-690
Author(s):  
Kelly D’alessandro ◽  
Paul Dargusch

Abstract Current metrics fail to adequately capture the temporal and spatial complexity of energy transitions in a sufficiently meaningful way and this limits their usefulness to inform effective climate and energy policy and management. In this paper we propose a cumulative integral of CO2 emissions intensity for electricity and heat use as a metric to monitor energy transition progress. We demonstrate its application using International Energy Agency data for each of the G20-member countries. Findings show that whilst most countries are far from the energy transition positions required to effectively mitigate climate change, there are some examples of countries that have made an effective transition that provide useful insights into how energy transitions might progress more extensively.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Pielke ◽  
Matthew G. Burgess ◽  
Justin Ritchie

Emissions scenarios are central to climate change research, policy, and planning. Recent studies question plausibility of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) high-emissions scenarios, while others cast doubt on the achievability of a 1.5-degrees-C-by-2100 target. Here, we identify the subsets of scenarios of the IPCC 5th (AR5) and forthcoming 6th (AR6) Assessment Reports that project 2005-2040 fossil-fuel CO2 emissions growth rates most consistently with observations from 2005-2020 and International Energy Agency (IEA) projections to 2040. 71% of these scenarios project between 2 degrees C and 3 degrees C of warming by 2100, with a median of 2.2 degrees C. Our results suggest the world may be better positioned with respect to CO2 emissions than often assumed, but is off track from 1.5 degrees C targets.


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