For instructors who include a module on the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS), and/or critiques of cap and trade mechanisms, the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, an Italian research institute, published an excellent report in 2012 assessing the effectiveness of the EU-ETS in driving low carbon technology options. The report summarizes a study conducted by the institute in which it used a constructed data set linking 8.5 million European companies with their patenting history and regulatory status to test the thesis that the EU-ETS has helped to drive development of low-carbon technologies.  

Among the take-aways from the report:

1. The most important determinant of the long-run cost of emissions abatement may be the potential for environmental policies to drive technological innovation;
2. The EU-ETS to date “appears to have had virtually no impact” on low-carbon technological change;
3. The primary impact of the EU-ETS to date appears to be driving some fuel-switching. However, fuel-switching only has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emission by 300 tons annually, which is only 10% of the cuts that must be effectuated in the EU to meet its goal of reducing emissions by 80% by 2050 from 1990 levels;
4. As currently configured, “demand-pull policies” such as the EU-ETS may not be sufficient to drive low-carbon technological change. As is the case with pollution, which is driven by market failures, “under-innovation” is driven by the same phenomenon.

This reading could stimulate some good discussion on both the future of the EU-ETS and cap-and-trade policies more generally. Among potentially pertinent discussion questions:

1. This study was limited to the first phase of the EU-ETS; is there reason to believe that it contributed more to technological innovation during the second phase  of implementation, maybe in the upcoming third phase?;
2. What additional measures should the EU take either within or outside the framework of the EU-ETS to drive technological innovation?;
3. What has been the experience to date of other cap and trade systems (e.g. RGGI) in driving technological change?

Climate Literacy: Navigating Climate Change Conversations

This free online course from the University of British Columbiaintroduces the basics of the Earth’s climate system, climate models and predictions, the natural and human impacts of climate change, potential responses, and the evolution of climate policy.

You will learn how to:

§  Analyze the science behind climate change

§  Assess the demographic, economic and political factors that accelerate climate change

§  Evaluate mitigation strategies that address the causes of climate change

§  Explain key adaptation strategies that help us respond to climate change

§  Investigate the links between climate change and economic resilience, health, poverty, and environmental problems such as biodiversity and water quality

Course instructors

§  Dr. Sara Harris, Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, UBC

DDr. Sarah Burch, Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability, UBC

Register for free at Coursera:www.coursera.org/course/climateliteracy

View the course introduction on YouTube (2:06).

About this course

 Climate Literacy is delivered as a MOOC – Massive Open Online Course – through Coursera and is sponsored by UBC Continuing Studies Centre for Sustainability at the University of British Columbia.

Learn with others worldwide. Starts May 20, 2013.

The Global Climate Adaptation Partnership (GCAP), working with the University of Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, is excited to offer the 2013 Adaptation Academy Foundation Course: Creating Climate Adaptation Leaders aiming to support decision making in a changing environment.

Now in our fourth year, the Adaptation Academy is a leading climate adaptation training programme, supporting participants in developing technical and leadership skills in climate adaptation through actual project work and practical case studies. We constantly refine and shape the course based on the learning and feedback from previous years, ensuring that we remain a global leader in climate adaptation training. 

Climate adaptation requires champions, leaders and agents of change. Join us next August and immerse yourself in the Foundation Course. Emerge transformed. Be prepared to find adaptation solutions for some of the most profound challenges ever to face the world and build a strong foundation for integrating climate adaptation into your work. Join world-renowned alumni and the leading global network of climate adaptation.

From the halls of an Oxford college, explore your role, make new and binding friendships with future leaders, raise the bar on your own thinking and potential by rubbing shoulders with an internationally renowned academic community, learn first-hand from expert practitioners and be inspired by leading intellectuals pioneering revolutionary interventions.

The Foundation Course integrates four central learning themes:

1.      Participants’ role as change makers

2.      Causal chains of climate science

3.      Adaptation as a process

4.      Project/Program development

Building on these four central themes, we have developed a range of different modules and exercises to bridge knowledge and application, theory and practice. The content of the 2013 Foundation Course will be:

·Concepts of climate change, risk, vulnerability and adaptation

·Analysing climate data for change and variability – trends and extreme events

·Using climate change scenarios – uncertainty, probability, climate envelopes

·Theory of change, leadership skills and communicating climate risks

·Assessing vulnerability and impacts

·Mapping socio-institutional networks, information flows and needs

·National, sectoral, urban and local strategies and measures

·Disaster risk reduction

·Economics of adaptation and adaptation finance

·Screening adaptation options to develop sound projects

·Monitoring, evaluation and learning in adaptation pathways

·Project development and practical skills development

Places are filling up and only a few remain! Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to revolutionise your thinking and take steps towards becoming an effective change maker.

The 2013 Adaptation Academy Foundation Course runs from the 12-30 August 2013, Oxford UK.

For more information, check out the Academy website (www.adaptationacademy.org) or contact Mica Longanecker, the Academy Coordinator, at academy@climateadaptation.cc.

Apply directly online for the course here!

Among his conclusions:

1. While EU-15 aggregate emissions declined by 6.5% in 2010 from 1990 levels, two nations, the UK and Germany, account for ALL of these emissions reductions. If these two nations were removed from the equation, emissions of the remaining founding EU members actually ticked up 1.9% during this period;
   1. Moreover, the majority of emissions declines in the UK and Germany occurred prior to either the signing of the Kyoto Protocol or implementation of the EU-ETS, with 80% of these declines prior to institution of the EU-ETS
2. The article suggests that the principal driver of Europe’s rapid expansion of clean energy resources has not been the EU-ETS, but rather robust feed-in tariffs provided to solar, wind and other low-carbon sources. While the allowance price of the EU-ETS during Phase II fluctuated between 8-32 euros/ton from 2008-2012, German feed-in tariffs ranged from an implicit carbon price of $69-342/ton, 3-18x as high as the average EU-ETS carbon price in 2010;
3. The article also suggests that it’s not surprising that nations with generous feed-in tariffs, such as Germany, have experienced much more robust growth in clean energy than in nations e.g. Romania and Finland, which lack such policies, yet are parties to the EU-ETS;
4. Overall, the article concludes that “it is clear that direct government investment in technology provides a more powerful and effective market signal for clean energy investment than the more modest and fluctuating carbon prices established by an Emissions Trading Scheme or cap-and-trade system.

This would be an excellent article to launch a discussion of feed-in tariffs also, and their role in policy making. Given the efforts to rein in feed-in tariffs costs in countries e.g. Germany, it would be interesting to ask students whether they think this is ill-advised in the face of the data in this article. Also, do students think there is an incremental benefit to cap-and-trade programs that justify continuing to use them in tandem with incentive mechanisms, e.g. feed-in tariffs, or would it make more sense to focus on the former mechanisms?

The Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts is offering two intensive 6-week, 3-credit online courses on climate change this summer. The courses are open to master’s students as well as upper-level undergrads from any institution. They are appropriate for students in Environmental Studies, Sustainability Studies, Regional Planning, and City/Urban Planning and for environmental and planning professionals.

• Planning for Local Climate Change Mitigation, May 26-June 28
• Planning for Local Climate Change Adaptation, July 8-August 16

Details 

Registration info

Flyer

Jeff Howard, Ph.D.
Visiting Scholar, Environmental Studies, NYU
Visiting Instructor, Regional Planning, UMass-Amherst

jeffhoward@admin.umass.edu

817-999-6208
web page

Among the report’s findings:

·        More than 285 GW of wind power is now installed globally:

• 45GW of new capacity was added in 2012, including 1.1 GW from offshore wind;
• The United States surpassed China as the largest market in terms of new installations in 2012;
• Europe lost its position as the largest world region in terms of new installations;
• Wind installations in the Americas grew by 12.3 percent compared with 2011;
• The penetration of wind power in the world’s electricity supply has reached 2.62 percent;
• However, there are storm clouds on the five-year horizon.  The study, for the second year in a row, projects a reduction in market size for the upcoming 5-year period. The World Market Update 2012 forecasts that 241,620 MW will be added through 2017, 10 percent less than the forecast made in 2011.