Reports & Papers

Characterizing the future performance of energy technologies can improve the development of energy policies that have net benefits under a broad set of future conditions. In particular, decisions about public investments in research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) that promote technological change can benefit from (1) an explicit consideration of the uncertainty inherent in the innovation process and (2) a systematic evaluation of the tradeoffs in investment allocations across different technologies. To shed light on these questions, over the past five years several groups in the United States and Europe have conducted expert elicitations and modeled the resulting societal benefits. In this paper, the authors discuss the lessons learned from the design and implementation of these initiatives.

Dramatic growth in nuclear energy would be required for nuclear power to provide a significant part of the carbon-free energy the world is likely to need in the 21st century, or a major part in meeting other energy challenges. This would require increased support from governments, utilities, and publics around the world. Achieving that support is likely to require improved economics and major progress toward resolving issues of nuclear safety, proliferation-resistance, and nuclear waste management. This is likely to require both research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) of improved technologies and new policy approaches.

Over the past decade, the United States and many European countries have developed new approaches to environmental policy that are voluntary, collaborative and information-based. These programs are attempts to engage industry in significant environmental improvements through dialogue, consensus-building and voluntary action rather than the imperatives of direct regulation or the incentives of market-based approaches. This workshop examined the effectiveness of these innovative policies, focusing particularly on how these approaches can provide opportunities and incentives for private-sector leadership in environmental protection, and whether they can be effective in stimulating beyond compliance behavior and the development and diffusion of environmentally superior technologies. The workshop was organized into five panels: voluntary approaches, industry sector collaboration, collaborative approaches for technology development, information disclosure policy, and environmental management systems.