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CFGS ProjectsProject SummaryTitle: Low Carbon Date: October 2005 - Ongoing Lead organization: Center for Global Studies (CFGS) Directors: Harry Swain , CFGS, Barry Carin, CFGS, and Rod Dobell , CFGS The Low Carbon Futures research program is a five-to-seven year multi-million dollar initiative led by the Centre for Global Studies (CFGS) working intensively with academic partners and think tanks in Canada and abroad. The purpose of the program is to chart a route to a low carbon future. This entails changes in Canadian climate and energy policy, investment, R&D and regulatory approaches. The international dimension requires development of a successor approach to the Kyoto protocol, a global “grand bargain” that will be seen as a legitimate, pragmatic and mutually advantageous energy-policy package. The current challenge is to explore a palatable “climate-constrained energy policy”. This challenge requires careful precautionary action, given the uncertainties surrounding the scale and distribution of the risks of climate change. Furthermore, a national consensus must address the problems associated with the tragedy of the commons, including barriers to collective action such as free-riders and incentives to cheat that face parties to agreements. Additionally, any national approach must take into account the risk of inadequate implementation at local levels. Any decision making process involved must be accepted as legitimate and fair by those whose compliance is essential, despite short run costs they might incur. Bearing the above complexities in mind, researchers for the Low Carbon Futures program seek to develop the architecture for a grand bargain for energy policy. We will endeavour to develop creative solutions to tackle barriers to collective action that erode political will to make commitments and follow through on implementation. We aim to provide options to facilitate cooperation among individual actors, and explore ways in which “winners” can compensate “losers” in order to take into account regional disparities domestically and globally. Identification of the “configuration” of commitments that address the critical underlying environmental challenges, and also offer mutual advantages will be a further compenent of the project. Key topics to be explored include regulatory measures to facilitate behavioral change, and measures to promote innovation in the development and diffusion of new technologies, including those for direct carbon capture and management, nuclear power applications, renewable energy sources and effective use of electricity and hydrogen in storage and distribution. ComponentsHydrogen and Governance Framing Meeting The Hydrogen and Governance compenent was a joint collaboration between the Centre for Global Studies and the Institute for Integrated Energy Systems at the University of Victoria. The aim was to bring together contested scientific evidence and divergent policy experiences to explore the governance challenges posed by the need for social decisions in choice among possible long term, large scale technological pathways, as illustrated by the transition to a hydrogen economy. For further information CLICK HERE Developing Sustainable Energy Policy Workshop 2006 In partnership with the Ministry of Energy of the Government of Ontario, the Ontario Centres of Excellence, Centre for Energy, the Government of Canada and the Office of the Vice-President Research at the University of Western Ontario, the Lawrence Centre will bring together fifty representatives from business, government, non-governmental agencies and academia to discuss and advise on the implementation of sound and sustainable policies affecting the future of the world’s energy supply. The workshop is the second in a series initiated by the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria and supported by the Government of Canada and the Government of British Columbia in October 2005. For further information CLICK HERE PartnersRod Dobell, Barry Carin, Peter Heap, Ted Parson, Clint Abbott: Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria Harry Swain, Trevor Murdoch: Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium Hadi Dowlatabadi: Canada Research Chair, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia David Keith: Canada Research Chair in Energy and the Environment Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and Department of Economics, University of Calgary Dianne Cunningham : Director of the Lawrencer Centre for Policy and Management, University of Western Ontario Ned Djilali, Peter Wild, Lawrence Pitt : Institute for Integrated Energy Systems, University of Victoria David Victor: Director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development, Stanford University Project Materials
Background Papers
Final Reports
Developing Sustainable Energy Policy Workshop 2006 |
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