Most efforts to mitigate the human impact on the environment stumble across one fundamental problem: the trade-off between intermediate gains and long-term benefits. This comes to light particularly concerning energy - the lifeblood of modern economies. The prevalent global economic and social aspirations increase the demand for reliable energy, yet also intensify the risk of irreversible changes to climate, resources, and landscapes. Hence, the challenge to achieve sustainability without vitiating immediate economic, social, and political goals is central to effective policy making in this field. However, environmental and energy policies alone cannot balance this trade-off, because such policies struggle to provide the benefit of immediate gains and therefore cannot incentivise a re-thinking of (economic) processes. Instead, the key lies in enabling and promoting the innovation of sustainable energy technologies that benefit both the immediate economic goals and the environment - lessening (or eliminating) negative externalities.
For this purpose this project aims to find, analyse, interpret, evaluate, and propose successful strategies of innovation policies of sustainable energy technologies, focusing on the particular challenges that emerging market economies face in this field.
Sustainable innovation policy / energy policy