Distributing power, a transition to a civic energy future: Report of the Realising Transition Pathways Research Consortium ‘Engine Room’

The overarching challenge for UK energy policy is to ensure the delivery of secure, affordable energy in a way that meets the emission reductions targets laid out in the Climate Change Act (2008). The EPSRCfunded Transition Pathways (TP) and, more recently, Realising Transition Pathways (RTP) projects have both argued that multiple logics of governance, ownership, and control of the electricity system can be followed to address the energy trilemma. This work has developed three transition pathways for the UK energy system, each driven by different governance patterns. Each pathway has a specific technological mix, institutional architecture, and societal drivers. These pathways are: Central Co-ordination: Central to this pathway is the role of the nation state in actively delivering the transition. Market Rules: After the creation of a broad policy framework, the state allows competition and private companies to deliver sustainable, affordable energy. Thousand Flowers: This pathway is characterised by a greatly expanded role for civil society in delivering distributed low-carbon generation. The following report focuses on the Thousand Flowers pathway. There is growing interest, from a range of stakeholders, in the potential of distributed low-carbon electricity generation in delivering a low-carbon energy system. Yet there are still significant gaps in understanding, particularly regarding the feasibility of scaling up distributed generation from technological, governance, regulation, policy, and financial perspectives. The aim of this report is to address these gaps within the context of the Thousand Flowers pathway. This research was carried out by the ‘Engine Room’ of the EPSRC-funded Realising Transition Pathways (RTP) consortium. The ‘Engine Room’ was established to facilitate interdisciplinary work across the consortium and consists of research fellows and doctoral researchers from different fields in the nine partner institutions. Engine Room workshops and meetings give researchers the space to present their work and develop and exchange ideas with their peers. This report is an output of a series of interdisciplinary Engine Room workshops held throughout 2013/14 which also drew on contributions from energy industry stakeholders. These workshops brought together the current research and cumulative findings of the Realising Transition Pathways consortium, to examine the consequences of a transition from a centralised energy system to one where distributed generation plays a much greater role (50% of final electricity demand), and is delivered by a civic energy sector. In this report we do not present any panaceas, attempt to preference a civil response to energy transition, or claim technological infallibility. We do, however, explore the potential of a distributed energy future and investigate the technological trajectory it could follow, along with an institutional architecture compatible with its development. We acknowledge throughout that this is a challenging but realistic system transition

Biological Diversity in the Patent System

<div><p>Biological diversity in the patent system is an enduring focus of controversy but empirical analysis of the presence of biodiversity in the patent system has been limited. To address this problem we text mined 11 million patent documents for 6 million Latin species names from the <i>Global Names Index</i> (GNI) established by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and Encyclopedia of Life (EOL). We identified 76,274 full Latin species names from 23,882 genera in 767,955 patent documents. 25,595 species appeared in the claims section of 136,880 patent documents. This reveals that human innovative activity involving biodiversity in the patent system focuses on approximately 4% of taxonomically described species and between 0.8–1% of predicted global species. In this article we identify the major features of the patent landscape for biological diversity by focusing on key areas including pharmaceuticals, neglected diseases, traditional medicines, genetic engineering, foods, biocides, marine genetic resources and Antarctica. We conclude that the narrow focus of human innovative activity and ownership of genetic resources is unlikely to be in the long term interest of humanity. We argue that a broader spectrum of biodiversity needs to be opened up to research and development based on the principles of equitable benefit-sharing, respect for the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity, human rights and ethics. Finally, we argue that alternative models of innovation, such as open source and commons models, are required to open up biodiversity for research that addresses actual and neglected areas of human need. The research aims to inform the implementation of the 2010 <i>Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization</i> and international debates directed to the governance of genetic resources. Our research also aims to inform debates under the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore at the World Intellectual Property Organization.</p></div

Publication Trends.

<p>Data from <i>Web of Science</i> topic search for synthetic biology or synthetic genomics or synthetic genome or synthetic genomes in January 2012. Data for recent years may be partial due to lag times. This data can be explored in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0034368#pone.0034368.s002" target="_blank">Workbook S1</a>.</p

Top Funding Organizations.

<p>This map shows the network of relations between funding organizations appearing in 5 or more publications within <i>Web of Science</i> on synthetic biology. The figure was generated using the Force Atlas algorithm and the results were manually adjusted with the objective of preventing incorrect node to edge intersections. It should be noted that large nodes such as the US National Science Foundation may display intersections with unrelated edges.</p

Trends in Patent Activity for Biodiversity.

<p>A. Trends by patent applications and grants based on patent kind codes A (applications) and B (grants) adjusted for US practice. Note that prior to 2001 the United States only published patent documents when granted. This produces a reporting effect in the form of a sharp spike in patent applications in 2001. B. Species appearing in patents including the number of publications (publications) where a species appears and the number of occurrences of a species name in the patent claims (claims). The data is ranked on occurrences of a species in patent claims as a measure of the intensity of activity for the species. Note that data for food crops includes common names (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0078737#pone.0078737.s001" target="_blank">Supporting information S1</a>). C. Patent applicants harmonized using EEE-PPAT 2012 (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0078737#pone.0078737.s001" target="_blank">Supporting information S1</a>). Data does not address mergers and acquisitions. D. Technology area based on International Patent Classification, 8th edition, sub-class codes. Sub-class descriptions have been edited for presentation.</p

Top Terms.

<p>A Fruchterman-Reingold representation in Gephi of the top aggregated terms for synthetic biology within <i>Web of Science</i> based on titles, abstracts and author keywords appearing in more than 20 or more records following stemming. Node size is based on the number of records. Node positions have been adjusted to clarify labels.</p

Key Articles in the Core Landscape.

<p>This figure shows the main articles cited by other authors inside the core landscape for synthetic biology. Data is based on counts of citations in the cited literature field of publications in the core landscape. The data does not refer to total citations for an author or article within the wider scientific literature. This data can be explored in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0034368#pone.0034368.s002" target="_blank">Workbook S1</a>.</p

How the euro-area sovereign-debt crisis led to a collapse in bank equity prices

We quantify the linkages among banks’ equity performance and indicators of sovereign stress by using panel GMM to estimate a three-equation system that examines the impact of sovereign stress, as reflected in both sovereign spreads and sovereign ratings, on bank share prices. We use data for a panel of five euro-area stressed countries. Our findings indicate that a recursive relationship between sovereigns and banks operated during the euro-area crisis. Specifically, for the five crisis countries considered shocks to sovereign spreads fed-through to sovereign ratings, which affected commercial banks’ equity-prices. Our results also point to the importance of using levels of equity prices – rather than rates of return – in measuring banks’ performance. The use of levels allows us to derive the determinants of long-run equity prices

Public Money Creation to Maintain Fundamental Human Rights during the COVID-19 Pandemic

As governments around the world respond to the COVID-19 pandemic with a range of policies aimed at mitigating the economic fallout, we argue that low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) should prioritize public money creation over foreign borrowing. Experience shows that the cost of servicing foreign debt diverts resources from public services and can undermine fundamental economic, social and cultural rights, such as the rights to clean water, sanitation, basic education and health care. Moreover, the conditions attached to any subsequent debt restructuring can make matters worse

Co-occurrence Network of Top Genera in Patent Claims.

<p>This figure displays a Fruchterman-Reingold representation of the co-occurrence linkages between top genera appearing in patent claims with node size based on degree. Green indicates genera falling within Plantae. Network visualization performed in Gephi.</p