Climate Change and Global Energy Security: Technology and Policy Options

by Marilyn A. Brown, Benjamin K. Sovacool

Overview

An exploration of commercially available technologies that can enhance energy security and address climate change and public policy options crucial to their adoption.

Tackling climate change and improving energy security are two of the twenty-first century's greatest challenges. In this book, Marilyn Brown and Benjamin Sovacool offer detailed assessments of the most advanced commercially available technologies for strengthening global energy security, mitigating the effects of climate change, and enhancing resilience through adaptation and geo-engineering. They also evaluate the barriers to the deployment of these technologies and critically review public policy options crucial to their adoption.

Arguing that society has all the technologies necessary for the task, Brown and Sovacool discuss an array of options available today, including high-efficiency transportation, renewable energy, carbon sequestration, and demand-side management. They offer eight case studies from around the world that document successful approaches to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and improving energy security. These include the Danish approach to energy policy and wind power, Brazil's ethanol program, China's improved cookstove program; and the U. S. Toxics Release Inventory. Brown and Sovacool argue that meeting the twin challenges of climate change and energy security will allow us to provide energy, maintain economic growth, and preserve the natural environment—without forcing tradeoffs among them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262516310
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	08/12/2011
Series:	The MIT Press
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Marilyn A. Brown is Professor of Energy Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Visiting Distinguished Scientist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority. In 2007, she was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her coauthorship of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change Working Group III Assessment Report on Mitigation of Climate Change.

Benjamin K. Sovacool is Assistant Professor in the Lew Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He is the author of The Dirty Energy Dilemma: What's Blocking Clean Power in the United States and other books.

What People are Saying About This

Bracken Hendricks

"In this engagingly written and painstakingly researched volume, Brown and Sovacool tell one of the most pressing stories of our time. Tracing back from the twin crises of mounting climate disruption and crippling energy insecurity, they offer incisive new solutions, rooted at the intersection of technology, policy, and social behavior, for forging a better and more prosperous clean energy economy.
Essential reading for technologists, policy makers, business leaders, students, and anyone else with a stake in the future." --Bracken Hendricks, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; co-author of Apollo's Fire

Elinor Ostrom

"This book is a comprehensive and fascinating account of the energy security and climate change challenges confronting humanity. Brown and Sovacool illustrate these problems in painstaking detail. They also masterfully demonstrate how polycentric forms of energy and climate governance offer one of the best solutions to them. A rich, interdisciplinary work that should be on the reading list of all those who are seriously concerned about energy and governance issues."--Elinor Ostrom, Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science, Indiana University; Nobel laureate in Economic Sciences (2009)

Endorsement

One of the reasons that energy problems have proved so hard to manage is that they have deep roots in the structure of the economy, the availability of technology, and human values. Marilyn Brown and Ben Sovacool look at all those dimensions and show that managing today's energy-related problems will require a 'polycentric' approach that works at many different levels. The local facts matter, but a global strategy is equally important. Unlike many studies in this area, which focus on the US and other Western nations, Brown and Sovacool emphasize the central roles of China, India, and other emerging countries in the global energy and climate challenge.

—David Victor, Professor and Director, Laboratory on International Law and Regulation, School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego

From the Publisher

This book is a comprehensive and fascinating account of the energy security and climate change challenges confronting humanity. Brown and Sovacool illustrate these problems in painstaking detail. They also masterfully demonstrate how polycentric forms of energy and climate governance offer one of the best solutions to them. A rich, interdisciplinary work that should be on the reading list of all those who are seriously concerned about energy and governance issues.

—Elinor Ostrom, Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science, Indiana University; Nobel laureate in Economic Sciences (2009)

In this engagingly written and painstakingly researched volume, Brown and Sovacool tell one of the most pressing stories of our time. Tracing back from the twin crises of mounting climate disruption and crippling energy insecurity, they offer incisive new solutions, rooted at the intersection of technology, policy, and social behavior, for forging a better and more prosperous clean energy economy. Essential reading for technologists, policy makers, business leaders, students, and anyone else with a stake in the future.

—Bracken Hendricks, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; co-author of Apollo's Fire

One of the reasons that energy problems have proved so hard to manage is that they have deep roots in the structure of the economy, the availability of technology, and human values. Marilyn Brown and Ben Sovacool look at all those dimensions and show that managing today's energy-related problems will require a 'polycentric' approach that works at many different levels. The local facts matter, but a global strategy is equally important. Unlike many studies in this area, which focus on the US and other Western nations, Brown and Sovacool emphasize the central roles of China, India, and other emerging countries in the global energy and climate challenge.

—David Victor, Professor and Director, Laboratory on International Law and Regulation, School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego

David Victor

"One of the reasons that energy problems have proved so hard to manage is that they have deep roots in the structure of the economy, the availability of technology, and human values. Marilyn Brown and Ben Sovacool look at all those dimensions and show that managing today's energy-related problems will require a
'polycentric' approach that works at many different levels. The local facts matter,
but a global strategy is equally important. Unlike many studies in this area, which focus on the US and other Western nations, Brown and Sovacool emphasize the central roles of China, India, and other emerging countries in the global energy and climate challenge."--David G. Victor, Professor and Director, Laboratory on International Law and Regulation, School of International Relations and Pacific Studies,
University of California, San Diego

Editorial Reviews

...An innovative look at the issue of climate change and energy policy that face the world today...It should make for an interesting read for anybody interested in the subject of climate change and energy policy.—Robert Tierney, Technological Forecasting and Social Change—

This book offers a levelheaded discussion of possible measures to abate greenhouse gas emissions and the economic, social, and political obstacles to adopting those measures.

—Foreign Affairs—

From the Publisher

This book offers a levelheaded discussion of possible measures to abate greenhouse gas emissions and the economic, social, and political obstacles to adopting those measures.

—Foreign Affairs

Reviews

This book offers a levelheaded discussion of possible measures to abate greenhouse gas emissions and the economic, social, and political obstacles to adopting those measures.

Foreign Affairs

...An innovative look at the issue of climate change and energy policy that face the world today...It should make for an interesting read for anybody interested in the subject of climate change and energy policy.

Technological Forecasting and Social Change - Robert Tierney