"Moving Toward Sustainable Energy Systems: Exploring Global Pathways to a Common Destination"

October 24, 2006
Center for Science, Technology, and Public Policy
Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs
University of Minnesota
Cowles Auditorium
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

Workshop presentations
Draft agenda

Given the need to create a sustainable energy system in the context of global climate change a transformation from the existing CO2 intensive energy system must take place. However, different countries face significantly different challenges and opportunities, and practical solutions for one part of the world may not cohesively address the challenges in another. This workshop will bring policymakers, scientists, and stakeholders from India, the United States, and several other nations together to compare constraints and opportunities, highlighting the potential for learning, collaboration, and policy formulation for crafting sustainable energy systems within a carbon-managed energy future.

This workshop will examine how different technologies can be deployed and policies structured to create economically viable and environmentally sound energy futures under local and national circumstances. The roles of changing energy demand, stranded costs, natural resources, transmission systems, balance of capital/operating costs are among the factors that influence the potential role of emerging technologies. The workshop will consider these and social, policy, and economic challenges that each country faces. Finally, the workshop will explore the potential for collaborative work between investigators in the United States, India, and elsewhere, building on complementary areas of expertise and interest in both technical and policy research related to the developmentof a sustainable, carbon-managed energy system.

The conference is free and open to the public. Because seating is limited, early registration is preferable. You can register online here.

For more information, please contact C. Sophia Albott at albot002@umn.edu or (612) 626-1593.

A consensus report from the October 14, 2004 Humphrey School workshop on "The Developing World: The Global Climate and Economic Development" released by the Center for Science, Technology, and Public Policy. June 2005.

"The Global Climate and Economic Development" is a product of a workshop held last autumn at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. It reflects the thinking of a wide range of scholars, scientists, environmentalists, representatives of governments and the private sector. A key participant was the Chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri.

The report is a pathbreaking examination of the integral relationship between climate change and development. There exists great tension between the need for economic growth in the developing world and the concern over increasing greenhouse gas emissions. This workshop examined ways of promoting economic and social development, and improving the health of populations and ecosystems while slowing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating the impacts of climate change. Speakers and key participants met following the public workshop and agreed upon some ways to move forward. These consensus themes are summarized in the report, which has been reviewed by the participants. The central conclusion was that "development programs and policies are most likely to be successful and sustainable when they take climate change into account. Likewise, climate change mitigation and adaptation programs and policies are most viable - [when they are] consistent with a country's overall development framework." The recommendations contained in this report represent an excellent roadmap for progress.

The Global Climate and Economic Development. J. Kuzma and L. Dobrovolny, Editors. Center for Science, Technology, and Public Policy. Humphrey School 2005. http://www.hhh.umn.edu/centers/stpp

Read Humphrey headline:
Humphrey School Report Identifies Critical Link Between Poverty and Climate Change Mitigation