International Initiative on Climate Technology Policy

By Robert Atkinson, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Metropolitan Policy Program and Howard Wial, Senior Research Associate, Metropolitan Policy Program, The Brookings Institution. April 2008.

This new report from The Brookings Insitution details how "innovation drives America’s economic growth and ultimately determines its living standards and those of its metropolitan areas. However, the nation faces a growing innovation challenge in today’s global economy. To respond, the federal government should establish a National Innovation Foundation (NIF)—a new, nimble, lean, and collaborative entity devoted to supporting firms and other organizations in their innovative activities. By enhancing America’s world-class entrepreneurial and market environment, NIF would boost the nation’s innovation leadership for the 21st century and raise productivity and incomes. Moreover, by supporting workforce development and performance improvement in firms, NIF would help create better jobs for high school graduates in manufacturing and “low tech” services as well as those with advanced degrees in high technology industries."

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Source: The Brookings Institution

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[Press Release] European Commission agreed on 23 January 2008 to a far-reaching package of proposals that will deliver the European Council’s commitments to fight climate change and promote renewable energy. These measures will dramatically increase the use of renewable energy in each country and set legally enforceable targets for governments to achieve them. All major CO2 emitters will be given an incentive to develop clean production technologies through a thorough reform of the Emissions Trading System (ETS) that will impose an EU-wide cap on emissions. The package seeks to deliver the European Union to reduce greenhouse gases by at least 20% and increases to 20% the share of renewable energies in the energy consumption by 2020, as agreed by EU leaders in March 2007. The emissions reduction will be increased to 30% by 2020 when a new global climate change agreement is reached.

The full proposal can be found by clicking here.

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Christian Egenhofer, Lew Milford, Noriko Jujiwara, Thomas L. Brewer and Monica Alessi. European Climate Platform (ECP) Report No. 4, December 2007.

This report analyzes the issue of technology development, demonstration and diffusion with a view to indentifying the key elements of a complementary global technology track in the post-2012 framework.

This report is based on discussions at the ECP seminar on Strategic Aspects of Technology for the UNFCCC and Climate Change Debate: The Post-Bali Technology Agenda, 3 October 2007, Brussels.

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Commission of the European Communities. Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and teh Committee of the Regions. Brussels, 22 November 2007.

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Summary for Policymakers of the Synthesis Report of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Draft, 16 November 2007.

This report concludes that warming of the climate system is unequivical.

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Lewis Milford, Clean Energy Group, November 2007. Discussion paper to be presented at the Road to Copenhagen 2009 Conference on Leadership, Sustainable Development and Climate Change, Brussels, Belgium.

This paper proposes a new global architecture and strategy for climate technology innovaiton for the post-2012 framework.

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Jonathan Lewis, Clean Air Task Force, October 2007.

In 2003 the EU issued a Directive promoting the use of biofuels and other renewable fuels for transport. The Directive sought/seeks to have biofuels account for 2% of EU transport fuels by 2005, 5.75% by 2010, and in a 2007 addendum, 10% by 2020.

The EU mandate was primarily driven by farm policy, to create new outlets for agricultural and forestry products, and to diversify rural economies. Reduced emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), energy security, and improved environmental impacts were cited as ancillary benefits of the policies. However, due in part to global market forces and economic efficiencies in developing countries, the result is that the Directive has exacerbated some of the very problems it was designed to solve, driving up food prices, leading to increased deforestation in tropical countries, worsening global warming, and increasing imports of bio-oils.

This report from Clean Air Task Force examines these unintended consequences and highlights the need for updated, comprehensive tools to analyze the true net impacts of policies that increase biofuels use.

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Lewis Milford, Clean Energy Group, October 2007. Presentation to the European Climate Platform, Brussels.

ECP Seminar - Strategic Aspects of Technology for the UNFCCC and Climate Change Debate: The post-Bali technology agenda, October 3, 2007.

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Jeremy Lovell, Reuters. September 24, 2007. This analysis by Jeremy Lovell explains that carbon pricing will not achieve the carbon reductions necessary to make a global energy system carbon neutral by 2050, and he makes the case that strict technical standards and investment incentives will be needed to achieve that transition.

 Download the document (PDF) Clean Energy Group press release of September 4, 2007.

As part of CEG’s IICTP strategy to advance climate technology-based policies to combat climate change, and to introduce these policy ideas to the G8 Dialogue on Climate Change, Lewis Milford, CEG President, will provide a technology statement at the upcoming Third meeting of the Energy and Environment Ministers for the Gleneagles Dialogue in Berlin, September 9-11, 2007 at the invitation of the German Federal Environment Minister.

In advance of the meeting, Clean Energy Group has prepared a policy statement (link below) on new technology-oriented approaches to complement the international cap and trade framework. The Gleneagles meeting represents an outstanding opportunity to emphasize the importance of a complementary technology innovation proecess in the post-2012 climate framework.  

 Download the Statement (PDF) Massive Climate Technology Innovation: A New Geometry of Complementary Strategies Post-2012, by Lewis Milford, Clean Energy Group.

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Clean Energy Group will participate in the European Commission High Level Group on Competitiveness, Energy and the Environment Sherpa SubGroup; Meeting of the Ad Hoc Group 11: International Action on Climate Change. Daniel Dutcher, CEG Project Director, will attend this meeting to submit CEG’s Written Contribution

See accompanying Clean Energy Group Statement to the Gleneagles Dialogue. Download the document (PDF)

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UNFCCC - Dialogue on long-term cooperative action to address climate change by enhancing implementation of the Convention. Fourth workshop, Vienna, 27-31 August 2007. Dialogue working paper 8.

Report on the analysis of existing and potential investment and financial flows relevant to the development of an effective and appropriate international response to climate change.

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Dr. Hermann E. Ott, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. A discussion paper for the 2007 Tällberg Forum. August 2007.

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Lewis Milford, Clean Energy Group. "A New Geometry of Complementary Climate Technology Solutions: What the Heiligendamm G8 Could Mean for a Post-2012 Climate Framework." July 2007.

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Knut H. Alfsen and Gunnar S. Eskeland, Swedish Ministry of Finance, 2007. This report to the Expert Group for Environmental Studies assesses the Kyoto Protocol and outlines a parallel architecture to address the shortcomings of a cap and trade system to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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Ambassador Richard E. Benedick 

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By Clean Energy Group and Heinrich Böll Foundation for the Montreal Strategic Climate Change Workshop on Sub-National Strategies for Clean Energy Investment, Technology Deployment and Innovation. December 2005.

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Prepared by Clean Energy Group and the Carbon Trust. This first phase of a joint project between CEG and the Carbon Trust was completed in April 2005.

The Report 1) identifies a number of important barriers that hinder investment in clean energy markets; 2) reveals considerable enthusiasm in the transatlantic investment community for promoting new financial structures and policy mechanisms; and, 3) sets out next steps to gain support for the initiative through two subsequent phases of the work.

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Prepared by the Heinrich Böll Foundation. December 2003. This publication offers a selection of views and experiences of U.S. states and German Länder governments, as well as business leaders and NGO representatives from Germany and the United States, by introducing their renewable energy initiatives, assessing their impact on climate protection, economic growth and employment opportunities, elaborating on the potentials of cooperation, and by exploring participation in the International Conference for Renewable Energy 2004. 

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September 2003. CEG, the UK Carbon Trust and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities have established the Low Carbon Technology Alliance as a framework for a dialogue on technology deployment goals, and to bring together the range of international practitioners who are on the leading edge of fielding practical deployment programs in this new area.