Low-carbon technology for the rising middle class

This policy brief will discuss the role of local and international technology and innovation policies for low-carbon development of the rising middle class in developing countries. Although a large segment of the population of most developing countries remains severely deprived, most developing countries also have a significant and growing part of the population that could be a feasible target for low-carbon policies. In addition to how industrialised countries decide to reduce their emissions, a major determinant of the carbon intensity of the world economy and our collective ability to stay below 2°C global mean temperature rise, is how the rising middle class in developing countries will develop – along a low-carbon or a higher-carbon pathway. If this rising middle class could embark on a lower-carbon consumption pathway, for instance in their electricity use, their transportation demand and modes, their eating habits and other consumption patterns, this could structurally avoid a considerable amount of greenhouse gas emissions and yield other social, environmental and health benefits. As strong carbon policies incentivising such pathways are unlikely to happen soon in developing countries, technology policies can provide a solution, given they can be aimed at consumption patterns of the rising middle class specifically. This paper makes several case-based recommendations that can put those in developing countries that benefit from a more sustainable lifestyle on a low-carbon development path

Low-carbon innovation for industrial sectors in developing countries

Low-carbon innovation in industrial sectors in developing countries presents economic opportunities that can help realise sustainable development pathways. Under business-as-usual, industries being established in developing countries are likely to move along carbon-intensive or inefficient pathways, increasing greenhouse gas emissions in the short term and the likelihood of establishing high-carbon lock-in over the longer term. However, there is a wealth of evidence from industrialisation experiences around the world demonstrating the kinds of strategies that make it possible to take advantage of low-carbon opportunities to instead create climate-compatible development pathways. This policy brief aims to illuminate potential pathways and policy actions for low-carbon innovation in emerging industry sectors in developing countries. It focusses, firstly, on the low-carbon and energy efficiency gains that are possible in energy-intensive manufacturing. Secondly, the brief explores opportunities for developing countries to insert themselves into global low-carbon value chains by developing manufacturing capacity in energy-supply technologies. The brief ends with policy recommendations that could be enacted at both the national and international levels, making use of existing institutions as well as learning from the literature on past industrialisation experiences

System change, not climate change

The latest IPCC reports have concluded that in order to limit warming to 1.5°C, system transformations are urgently needed. But what are system transformations? How can they be enabled? Wouldn’t such system transitions worsen other social and environmental challenges? How can justness be safeguarded during transitions? What demands do societal transitions put on how research is conducted and organized? And where can we draw the line between researching climate change and climate activism? Would researching these issues not make one an activist? Heleen de Coninck discusses these questions and issues in her inaugural lecture and outline her research agenda

Assessing climate change mitigation technology interventions by international institutions

Contains fulltext : 142206.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

“ Bold in the Senate House and Brave at War ” : Naval Officers in the House of Commons 1715 - 1815

Between 1715 and 1815, 182 British naval officers sat in the House of Commons, a group hitherto unstudied in a systematic way. This thesis draws upon the work of the History of Parliament Trust to examine naval MPs’ backgrounds, means of entering and leaving Parliament, activities in the House and the interrelationship between their professional and parliamentary obligations and patronage. By critically engaging with contemporary scholarship, naval MPs are placed within an eighteenth century context of nascent patriotism and national identity fuelled by popular culture and print media, indicating further avenues of inquiry

Progress on including CCS projects in the CDM: Insights on increased awareness, market potential and baseline methodologies

AbstractThe inclusion of CO2 capture and storage (CCS) in the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is still subject to controversy and discussion. Although the debate seems to proceed in a direction of more open information exchange between Parties and stakeholders, noticeable progress is slow. This paper discusses substantial results on CCS in the CDM based on three recent results: the outcomes of a capacity building effort in Africa, the development of new and improved methodologies for hypothetical CCS projects, and a new estimate of the market impact of CCS natural gas operations on the CDM

Sharing global CO2 emission reductions among one billion high emitters

We present a framework for allocating a global carbon reduction target among nations, in which the concept of “common but differentiated responsibilities” refers to the emissions of individuals instead of nations. We use the income distribution of a country to estimate how its fossil fuel CO(2) emissions are distributed among its citizens, from which we build up a global CO(2) distribution. We then propose a simple rule to derive a universal cap on global individual emissions and find corresponding limits on national aggregate emissions from this cap. All of the world's high CO(2)-emitting individuals are treated the same, regardless of where they live. Any future global emission goal (target and time frame) can be converted into national reduction targets, which are determined by “Business as Usual” projections of national carbon emissions and in-country income distributions. For example, reducing projected global emissions in 2030 by 13 GtCO(2) would require the engagement of 1.13 billion high emitters, roughly equally distributed in 4 regions: the U.S., the OECD minus the U.S., China, and the non-OECD minus China. We also modify our methodology to place a floor on emissions of the world's lowest CO(2) emitters and demonstrate that climate mitigation and alleviation of extreme poverty are largely decoupled