BEIJING- Everybody’s talking about climate change, but doing something about it takes creative thinking in engineering as well as public policy. Making changes in the way we live, work, and govern ourselves requires dedicated and innovative efforts, crucial to securing a sustainable relationship between development and the environment.
This was the main message of Dr. John Byrne in an address to Beijing Forum’s panel on urbanization, Inheritance of the World Cities Spirit: Experience and Innovation at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse earlier this month.
Dr. Byrne is a Distinguished Professor of Energy and Climate Policy and Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy (CEEP) at the University of Delaware, one of the top graduate programs in the field and the first to combine energy and environmental policy. Since 1992, he has contributed to the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and in that capacity was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, bestowed jointly to former Vice-President of the United States Al Gore and the IPCC for promoting the understanding of climate change issues. He is also a founding member of and served as first research chair to the International Solar Cities Initiative — a pioneering program to assist cities around the world in planning for a sustainable future. His work has been funded by the World Bank, United Nations Environmental Program, the Blue Moon Fund, the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. EPA, among others. He has published 17 books and over 150 research articles.
He presently co-chairs the Sustainable Energy Utility Task Force, established by the Delaware General Assembly, and is the architect of its innovative program for the promotion of energy efficiency, conservation, and distributed renewable energy generation. This ground-breaking program, recognized by the U.S. White House and recommended by the Asian Development Bank to its member countries, was the main topic of discussion at the Beijing Forum panel.
Speaking on Beijing Forum’s general theme of “The Harmony of Civilizations and Prosperity for All”, Dr. Byrne remarked, “There are two dimensions of harmonization: humans, and the environment. As leaders in business, government, and education, we must find a way to continue development in the 21st century while addressing the environment’s needs.”
Heeding this advice is essential to those in the development community, and a failure to maintain the human-nature balance has already yielded shocking consequences. It is estimated that naturally, our planet can absorb about 3.3 tons of carbon per person per year. Per-person output in many developed countries is drastically higher. The United States already exerts 19 tons of carbon per person per year.
Dr. Byrne and a team of researchers modeled the impact of this excessive rate of carbon emission into our atmosphere and found that if unchanged, sea levels and global temperatures could rise at rates detrimental to human development. Dr. Byrne urged developing countries to seek an alternative route in their development process, one that would both increase quality of life and create a minimal environmental impact. His IPCC Assessment of Principal Mitigation Options addresses the issue of how to move from high to low carbon use while maintaining growth and development.
Altering the way we produce and consume energy will have an extremely positive impact on the sustainability of urban centers. Buildings and transportation are the areas which emit the most carbon. “Instead of viewing buildings as havoc associated with development, they should be used as a strategic infrastructure,” Dr. Byrne said. “It is senseless to seek fossil fuels to fuel inefficient buildings, industry, and transport. A modern economy and the energy system go hand in hand.” He added, “20th century technology that worked so well is having problems in the 21st century. Because the US had a wealth of energy at the time, buildings were built without regard to energy waste. Buildings make up 40% of energy use today. You do not want to incur the costs of inefficient, wasteful cities.” What’s more, the degrading health of the environment is an economic risk, i.e. global warming trends are risky to international trade and the development of coastal areas.
Paying for the energy to run our economies is increasing. Global markets for energy are interconnected, even if a country has domestic energy production. Dr. Byrne suggests a holistic approach to solving the economic and environmental problems of energy by conserving the consumption of unsustainably-sourced energy, transitioning to renewable energy sources, and substituting private vehicles for public transportation. Simple measures can be taken to reduce current consumption and transition to sustainable energy production.
“A city can cut the price of energy consumption by 40-60% by upgrading lighting technology if you evaluate cost and savings through life-cycle analysis,” Dr. Byrne said. “Both are technically and economically efficient.” Sourcing energy is another factor in reducing the cost and environmental impact of development. In a recent feasibility study conducted in South Korea by the Asian Development Bank, it was found that 40% of Seoul’s rooftops can provide 36% of the city’s energy. Solar energy use coupled with efficiency upgrades is the main focus of Dr. Byrne’s current work with the Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU) model.
In 2006, China had an 11% hold on the solar power market. In just two years, it gained a 60% share of the world’s solar panel market. “The rapid development of the solar industry in China is due to an intense dedication to research and production in this sector,” Dr. Byrne said. “These are quality devices, manufactured in cutting-edge facilities. Due to the highly technical nature of the technology, there is no way to cut corners on solar panel production. While the US has enacted protectionist measures regarding the solar industry, I think that kind of legislation is a mistake and I hope it will be repealed. There was a belief that jobs would be lost. However, most of the profit is not in creation of the device itself, but in the instillation. This is a local service! There are opportunities for jobs to be created in installing solar devices.” Solar can be a win-win global industry and is important to the sustainability of development and innovation around the world.
If Beijing is to be a world city in the 21st century, it must employ advanced public policy and management strategies. Concerned with the rapid rate of car ownership, water consumption, and the safety of rapid urbanization, leaders say Beijing is an innovation-friendly environment, and is open to input on how to address the opportunities and challenges.
Following Beijing Forum, Dr. Byrne met with the Peking University Economics Department, representatives of the Beijing Municipal Government, scholars, investors, and engineers, to discuss his Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU) model. Already in use in Delaware, Washington, D.C., and California and being considered in other cities worldwide, a SEU is a third-party “one stop shop” typically created through legislation that leverages financing tools, reduces transaction costs for lenders, and organizes actors to make achieving energy efficiency significantly easier. The various existing SEUs are characterized by central coordination, comprehensive programs, flexible incentives, financial self-sufficiency, competitive procurement, and a focus on delivering energy services rather than commodity energy.
The Chinese government has implemented many policies to promote renewable energy. The Twelfth Five-Year Plan emphasizes alternative energy and the development of green industry. Hundreds of science parks and “innovative cities” are springing up around the country every year. This presents an engineering, science, policy, and investment challenge.
During the discussion, Dr. Byrne emphasized the role of science parks such as Zhongguancun in shaping the sustainable energy economy. “Science parks can be a good partner in this model,” he said. “Universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua University can be the source of independent evaluation of the new technology developed in science parks. Companies incubated in science parks can join with the government to fulfill opportunities in emerging industry and markets.” The SEU can be the “how” of achieving the innovative cities dream. By being the nonprofit umpire for all the involved players, matching goals and policies with implementation, the SEU model is a fusion of economic and social harmony.
About Beijing Forum: Hosted in China’s capital city, the world’s top leaders in academia, government, and business gather each year at Beijing Forum to speak on the theme “Harmony of Civilizations and Prosperity for All”. Over the years, Beijing Forum has fostered the confluence of ideas between 3,500 participants from over 70 countries, with the belief that the progress of human society relies on the promotion and safeguarding of peaceful integration among civilizations. The annual international summit is organized by Peking University, the Chinese Ministry of Education, and the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies to promote academic development and social progress around the world.
Reported by: Alexandria Liu
Edited by: Zhang Jiang
