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Technology and the Environment: A Forum for Leading Thinkers
The Journal of International Affairs brought together six experts in the field of technology and the environment for a “Thought Leadership Forum” at SIPA on December 6. The forum launched the fall 2010 issue of the Journal of International Affairs: “Innovating for Development.”
Panelists discussed how technology shapes public policies on energy, natural resources and climate change and how governments can foster innovation in these fields.
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Science offers tools to reduce climate change but no single solution to the problem, according to Manuel Pinho, a panelist, visiting SIPA professor and former minister of economy and innovation in Portugal. He advocated an approach that combines increasing energy efficiency, developing nuclear and renewable energy and capturing and storing emissions from fossil fuels.
"I don't believe in a breakthrough," Pinho said. "I believe in these small steps in existing technologies."
Panelists discussed the failure of attempts to reach a binding, global agreement on climate change. Limits on greenhouse gas emissions were intended to promote innovation but have proved politically problematic. Leading emitters such as the United States and China have rejected these policies.
A more successful policy has been "feed-in tariffs" — a kind of government subsidy for renewable energy. However, these subsidies are vulnerable to budget cuts in countries facing economic distress, according to Laurence Tubiana, a professor of sustainable development at Sciences Po in Paris.
David M. Driesen, a law professor at Syracuse University, argued that while the new Republican majority in the United States House of Representatives is unlikely to pass effective climate change legislation, state regulations can spur innovation. He argued that California's emissions standards have led to the development of hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius.
Paul Hudnut, co-director of the Colorado State University Global Innovation Center, spoke about his work to develop clean and efficient cook stoves for consumers in India and elsewhere. He argued that marketing is often the missing link in technological solutions to environmental problems.
"There are huge numbers of what we call technology road kill out there, which is technologies that have been launched without thinking through, for instance, whether people want the technology," he said.
Upmanu Lall, director of the Columbia Water Center, said that water and food scarcity are among the most urgent problems in developing countries, and China and India may be more receptive to international cooperation on these issues than on limiting greenhouse gas emissions. However, Lall was optimistic about technological solutions to these problems.
"Technology is development," he said. "Technology also poses the constraints of development because what we have repeatedly found is that each advance that we make leads us to a new constraint, which we solve."
The panel was moderated by Steven Cohen, executive director of the Earth Institute and director of the Master of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy Program at SIPA.
The Journal of International Affairs has been published by SIPA since 1947 and brings together a diverse group of scholars and practitioners to debate topics of global concern.
View a photo album of past covers and contributors.
Tim Shenk, December 13, 2010