Phase 2: A Global Energy Innovation System
The failure of a global agreement to limit greenhouse has emissions has precipitated a recent push for advanced energy innovation. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Chance (UNFCCC) offers analysts an example of a failed policy system to advance solutions for climate mitigation and global energy modernization, but also a model for a potential new international collaboration on a global energy innovation system. Such a body could take the form of a bilateral partnership between, say, the United States and China, the two nations most likely to drive the requisite cost and performance improvements in clean energy technology. Alternatively, the approach could be modeled after multilateral collaborative institutions like the G8 or the G20, focusing on the world’s most advanced innovation systems and optimizing investment and outcome potential.
The strategies necessary to drive innovation overlap with motivations for expanding global energy access: the world needs cheap, clean energy, in that order. The ability of developing economies to grow is largely dependent upon the availability of affordable energy, and that growth will be sustainable only if the unsubsidized cost of clean energy is lower than that of conventional dirty energy. For this central reason, an “innovation system” framework, which has been enormously important for driving policy in affluent and emerging economies, needs to be applied to the problem of energy equity and access.
Fortunately, there are historical precedents that speak to the process and effects of energy innovation. From the invention of the steam engine to electrification to the advent of the automotive economy to nuclear power and the emerging smart grid, lessons abound for investment and scaling new energy products and services. Indeed, this has been a notable place where governments have made huge public works investments. Nonetheless, there is a need for continued research into the ways that the energy access and modernization challenge can be met through strategic and focused innovation policies. Accelerated paths towards technological innovations, financing solutions, and market creation require concerted and strategic approaches by governments currently unequipped with any toolset to deliver these goals.
