Download Themes - CEEN 525

1

Should the program have a required course in
policy/governance?

Should it be a course like this or something
else?
2







Week 1 Course overview
Week 2: Sustainable Energy as a Social and
Political Challenge
Week 3: Formal Government Processes –
Week 4: Policy process, Actor Dynamics
Week 5: Policy Analysis in a Political Context
Week 6: Policy Instruments
Week 7: Midterm Exam + nuclear power
3






Week 8: Energy Planning and Approval
Strategies
Week 9: Rest of Canada
Week 10: Clean energy, international trade,
climate diplomacy
Week 11: The Two Giants: Energy Policy in
China and the US
March 12: Simulated Multi-stakeholder
Consultation
April 4: Synthesis, Reflection
4

What should be covered that we didn’t
address?

Is there a need for more policy-relevant
analytical methods?
5

What should be reduced or eliminated to
make room for new stuff?
6

Assignments

Midterm

Simulation and paper – is acting like an
advocate an important learning experience?
7

pedagogy
8

Climate (clean energy) challenge
compounded by temporal and spatial
inconsistency

Motivated reasoning: people filter facts
through the values/worldview – convincing
people with factual reason when implications
conflict with their values is a major challenge
9

Authority: ability to make rules backed up by
coercive power of the state
 Found in formal rules and procedures –
understanding them in a necessary step in
influence
 Who decides? At what level?

Power/influence: ability to influence
outcomes
 More diverse sources
10

Fundamentals to analysis
 Problem definition
 Criteria
 Alternatives
 Consequences
 Trade-offs
11

There are a variety of instruments available in
clean energy policy, and they come with a
different package of attributes and
consequences
12

Nuclear power is low GHG but costly and
comes with distinctive real and perceived
risks

Project planning and approval is complex and
there are frequently tradeoffs between
quality and coherence on the one hand and
political realities on the other
13

Different countries face different challenges
because of different
 resource endowments
 policy legacies
 Political cultures
 Institutions
14

International trade rules constrain the use of
certain policy instruments

Collective action dilemma in global
diplomacy formidable
15
16



Sustainable energy requires that prices
reflect their true environmental and social
cost
Government action is required to internalize
costs
Policy is made by politicians whose core
interest is reelection, which discourages them
from imposing costs
April 4, 2012
Sustainable Energy Policy
17
Transition to clean energy is feasible and
affordable
But…we are stuck
Requires politicians to raise energy prices
Which is improbable without intense
social pressure
18

Confidence in one or both instruments to
price carbon:
 Economy wide carbon tax
 Economy wide cap and trade

Supplementary policies
 Energy R&D
 Regulations to foster sector specific change
19
Costs of mitigation in 2030
Stabilisation levels
(ppm CO2-eq)
Range of GDP
reduction (%)
445 - 535
<3
535 - 590
0.2 – 2.5
590 - 710
-0.6 – 1.2
Mitigation measures would induce 0.6% gain to 3% decrease of GDP in
2030
20
There is a profound tension between
the incentives of politicians to avoid imposing
costs
and
the need to use government action to increase
prices
April 4, 2012
Sustainable Energy Policy
21

Politicians “lead” – move beyond electorate

Electorate creates incentives for politicians to
act
 Organize
 Mobilize
22

Acting according to short term material
interest won’t solve the problem

Act because it is the right thing to do
Tahrir Square, February 11, 2011
27
April 4, 2012
Sustainable Energy Policy
28