Science, Technology, and Public Policy

A Harvard-China Project Research Seminar with Cecilia Han Springer, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Environment and Natural Resources and Science, Technology and Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School. This event will be held in Pierce Hall, Room #100F.

Sponsored by the Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy, and Environment; Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS); and the Environment and Natural Resources Program (ENRP) at Harvard Kennedy School.

Speaker: Yaodong Shi, Fellow, Consortium for Energy Policy Research

The ETIP/Consortium on Energy Policy seminar continues on Mondays this spring.

Demand Side Management (DSM) is one of the best and most practical policy tools for China to balance environmental protection and economic growth. U.S. experience, especially the cases of California and Vermont, offers inspiration for further progress in DSM of China. China was first introduced to the concept of DSM in the early 1990s, but the picture is very uneven and there is no clear policy for its broad uptake. In general, the bottleneck for expediting of DSM is the lack of long-term, stable, sufficient and gradually increasing funds to flow into DSM projects. The author redesigns the practical surcharge policy which will provide long-term and stable funding for DSM, the policy to facilitate the financial support from banking sector and capital market, and investigates the possibility of DSM funding from Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects.

Xiaowei Xuan will present his research on the impact of carbon emission constraints on Chinese coal-based power technologies. Using a dynamic equilibrium (CGE) model, Xuan identified technologies the Chinese coal sector should adopt in order to meet its GHG reduction target, and at what carbon price these technologies will become cost-effective.

Bo Wang will discuss his research on how the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has played out in China, with particular attention given to the role of technology transfer.  Wang will also explore the different factors that affect the extent of CDM-related technology transfer, and he will suggest several ways that the CDM could be improved.

The objectives of the study that Liu will discuss are to: (1) explore major carbon capture opportunities in China; (2) identify critical enabling technologies for CCS to underpin future Chinese capacity on responding to climate change; (3) assess China’s capabilities on critical CCS enabling technologies as well as rank their priorities.

This presentation is based on the speaker's analysis of the implications of India's call for energy-intensive growth for removing poverty and inequity in respect of the twin challenges of environmental sustainability and energy security in India.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come-first served basis.

The speakers will present a new framework for allocation of a global carbon reduction target among nations, in which "common but differentiated responsibilities" refers to the emissions of individuals, rather than of nations.  Their scheme is designed to blend parsimony, fairness, and pragmatism - one rule for everyone. All those with the same emissions are treated equally, wherever they live. "High emitters" are defined as those whose emissions exceed a universal individual emissions cap, which is derived transparently from a global emissions target. National targets are derived by summing the excess emissions of all "high emitter" individuals in a country. Nations are free to determine the policies they need to meet these targets, but policies that pursue emissions reduction across a wide swath of a country's economy is preferable to those that address only the emissions of the country's high emitters.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come-first served basis.

Jim Watson, Deputy Director of the Sussex Energy Group at the University of Sussex, U.K., will present work on a project to study "China's Energy Transition."

This research explores state-level variation in perceptions of and discourse on carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology and wind technology. The results are based primarily on comparative media analysis of state-level newspapers. The news media plays an important role in developing the public's perceptions of risks and benefits of emerging technologies because the media plays an interpretive function linking technical assessments of experts to the psychological assessments of laypersons. Different state-level perceptions of and discourse on risks and benefits of emerging energy technologies are likely contributing to energy technology deployment decisions.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come-first served basis.