Student: Alex Groher-Jick
Graduation date: May 2018
Type: Concentration (single major)
Date approved: November 2015
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Summary
Access to modern energy systems and the services they provide is indisputably critical to achieving large-scale human development goals such as health and prosperity, and there are about 1.4 billion people living without it (Caine et al. 2014). At the same time, current world energy production is already causing irreversible environmental harm and degradation that not only poses ecological threats, but also threatens large human populations around the world (GEA 2012). The confluence of these two issues presents a dilemma: how can we provide energy to those who do not have it without exacerbating the already present environmental and ecological issues plaguing our planet?
Renewable energy sources seem to be the practical option, however, they come with their share of problems, which prevent them from being used in significant quantities worldwide. Foremost among these issues is that current renewable energy technologies are not as economically viable as readily available fossil fuels (McCluney 2003). Additionally, the technology is not yet efficient or reliable enough to provide a secure base load energy source, which is essential to developing energy infrastructure (2003). Some argue that it is unethical to impose these currently insufficient renewable energy systems on the billions of people in the undeveloped global south (Dirks et al. 2014).
The issue with innovation and deployment of renewables is that the majority of current conceptions of international renewable resource development center around the ideals presented in the Brundtland Report of 1987. This report explains that for the world to develop sustainably (thus preserving it for future generations), it is the responsibility of economically and technologically developed nations to provide clean energy technology for the periphery to utilize in their own development (Brundtland et al. 1987). Recently, though, it has been postulated that this might be flawed thinking, and that more of the immediate energy innovation will take place in rapidly developing countries, not the core, wealthy nations (Dirks et al. 2014). This is because developing nations now consume as much energy as the twenty most developed countries combined, and the vast majority of future energy market and technology development is projected to occur in the developing world (U.S. EIA 2013). I will investigate the possibility that rising energy consumption due to the development of peripheral nations is not a threat to the environment, rather it is an opportunity for innovation in the field of clean energy (Shellenberger and Nordhaus 2015).
The amount of innovation will hinge on the support of various economic and political policies, both national and international (Noailly and Smeets 2015). I will examine the ways that various policies in these rapidly developing nations can help to mitigate the obstacles to renewable resources and make clean energy a viable option for development (Jenkins and Mansur 2011). Policies that have proven fruitful include feed-in tariffs (Lesser and Su 2007), local content requirements, financial and tax incentives, and research and development support (Lewis and Wiser 2006). Unfortunately, these types of policy that have proven to be successful require substantial demand markets (Lewis and Wiser 2006, GEA 2012), which requires an established economy. In other words, they don’t apply to much of the periphery and semi-periphery. It is partially for this reason that some believe that undeveloped countries should be allowed to establish themselves industrially and economically, which will require the use of fossil fuels, before they can work to become reliant on renewables.
In addition to the political and economic landscape of nations, the physical and geographic environment also plays a role in the success of renewables (Madrigal et al. 2012). Not all nations are well suited for all renewable technologies because of geographic and climatic conditions. Advancing transmission systems to transport energy more efficiently from renewables to its destination has been suggested as a way of overcoming these physical obstacles (2012).
Just as the world moved from wood to coal to oil, and now is shifting to natural gas; it is possible for a transition to clean energy to take place. These previous shifts took place because they made logistical and economic sense, and the shift to renewables will follow the same pattern. If they become a practical option through innovation and development aided by policy, they will be adopted; but not until then (Dirks et al. 2014, Caine et al. 2014).
World-systems theory divides the world into a three-part framework: core, periphery, and semi-periphery (Wallerstein 2004). This framework adequately encompasses the complexities of international energy development and all of its interrelations.
First are the core nations who have been playing the role of technology donors, an international policy that has not been very fruitful. Many of these countries, such as the US have recently adopted clean energy policies such as trade-in tariffs made possible by their established economies and markets. For example, US’s Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978.
Second are the semi-peripheral nations, where much innovation has been and will be taking place. These nations have been developing quickly because of heavy reliance on fossil fuels, yet development of renewables is stimulated by the lack of structural deterrents that plague the core (Dirks et al. 2014). China and Brazil, for example, have put local content requirement policies on various types of renewables in order to keep the economic benefits of technology development in the country, and use them to stimulate innovation.
Finally there are the periphery nations, mostly in the global south, who need to install energy infrastructure not limited to (but not excluding) clean energy in order to improve human development standards. These countries include many African, Latin American, and Middle Eastern nations. Countries in Central Africa have received small amounts of renewable technologies from the core, however, lack the necessary quantity or knowhow from which to form a reliable energy system.
References:
Brundtland, Gru, Mansour Khalid, Susanna Agnelli, Sali Al-Athel, Bernard Chidzero, Lamina Fadika, Volker Hauff et al. 1987. “Our Common Future.”
Caine, Mark, Jason Lloyd, Max Luke, Lisa Margonelli, Todd Moss, Ted Nordhaus, Roger Pielke Jr, et al. 2014. “Our High-Energy Planet.” http://fletcher.tufts.edu/~/media/Fletcher/Microsites/CIERP/Publications/2014/Our-High-Energy-Planet_DOC.pdf.
Dirks, Gary, Loren King, Frank Laird, Jason Lloyd, Jessica Lovering, Ted Nordhaus, Roger Pielke Jr, et al. 2014. “High-Energy Innovation – A climate Pragmatism Project.” http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/2014.49.pdf.
GEA. 2012. “Global Energy Assessment: Toward a Sustainable Future.” In. http://www.globalenergyassessment.org/.
Jenkins, Jesse, and Sara Mansur. 2011. “Valleys of Death: Helping American Entrepreneurs Meet the Nation’s Energy Innovation Imperative.” http://thebreakthrough.org/blog/Valleys_of_Death.pdf.
Lewis, Joanna I., and Ryan H. Wiser. 2006. “Fostering a Renewable Energy Technology Industry: An International Comparison of Wind Industry Policy Support Mechanisms.” Energy Policy 35 (August): 1844–57.
Lesser, Jonathan A., and Xuejuan Su. 2007. “Design of an Economically Efficient Feed-In Tariff Structure For Renewable Energy Development.” Energy Policy 36 (December): 981–90.
Madrigal, Marcelino, Stoft, and Steven. 2012. “Transmition Expansion for Renewable Energy Scale Up: Emerging Lessons and Recommendations.” In World Bank Studies: Transmition Expansion for Renewable Energy Scale Up: Emerging Lessons and Recommendations, xiii – xviii. World Bank Publications.
McCluney, Ross. 2003. “Renewable Energy Limits.” The Final Energy Crisis 153-175. http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/publications/pdf/FSEC-GP-216-03.pdf.
Noailly, Joëlle, and Roger Smeets. 2015. “Directing Technical Change from Fossil-Fuel to Renewable Energy Innovation: An Application Using Firm-Level Patent Data.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 72 (July): 15–37. doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2015.03.004.
Shellenberger, Michael, and Ted Nordhaus. 2015. “How to Strand Assets – Nature-Saving Through Disruptive Technological Change.” Accessed October 6. http://thebreakthrough.org/voices/michael-shellenberger-and-ted-nordhaus/how-to-strand-assets.
U.S. Energy Information Administration. 2013. “International Energy Outlook 2013.” Washington, DC: DOE/EIA-0484 (July).
Wallerstein, Immanuel Maurice. 2004. World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction. Duke University Press.
Questions
- Descriptive: What are the current policies in place regarding clean energy development? What are the attitudes in these countries toward energy development and clean energy development in particular? Where have renewable resources been successfully implemented? What is the current state of renewable resource technology?
- Explanatory: To what degree are these policies influenced by countries’ attitudes and social dynamics? How does market demand affect the success of clean energy proliferation? How much do the physical and geographic characteristics of nations effect the success of renewable energy proliferation?
- Evaluative: Are current policies making progress? Should rapidly developing nations be encouraged to use clean, renewable resources? Can clean energy policies help with a country’s development?
- Instrumental: What would help fuel clean energy innovation? What should be the role of core, economically and technologically advanced nations in helping lesser-developed nations adopt energy infrastructure? What can be done to overcome physical/geographic conditions that are unfavorable for renewables?
Concentration courses
- ENVS 460 (Topics in Environmental Law and Policy, 4 credits), fall 2015. As this course introduces how environmental issues are viewed through legal and policy based perspectives, it will be useful to understanding various policies related to clean energy development.
- ENVS 350 (Environmental Theory, 4 credits), spring 2016. Examining the ideas and assumptions underlying environmental thought and problem solving will give me a good background on which to understand the issues of environmental inequity and energy development.
- ECON 255 (Technology, Institutions, and Economic Growth, 4 credits), spring 2016. Learning about the interactions between technology and institutions in times of economic growth will help me to understand the dimensions of clean energy technology in growing economies.
- IA 238 (Political Economy of Development, 4 credits), spring 2017. Connecting policy and economic development would help to explain why we are in our current situation regarding clean energy development as well as learning about the political and economic issues facing these countries.
- SOAN 305 (Environmental Sociology, 4 credits), spring 2017. Discussion of environmental inequality, justice, and social movements would help me to understand the state of global environmental inequity, and its effects on those nations.
Arts and humanities courses
- HIST 261 (Global Environmental History, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- PHIL 215 (Philosophy and the Environment, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.