Explores the shaping of China and India's energy and climate policies by two-level pressures characterized as wealth, status and asymmetrical interdependence.

The United States and China are the world's top two energy consumers and, as of 2010, the two largest economies. Consequently, they have a decisive role to play in the world's clean energy future. Both countries are also motivated by related goals, namely diversified energy portfolios, job creation, energy security, and pollution reduction, making renewable energy development an important strategy with wide-ranging implications. Given the size of their energy markets, any substantial progress the two countries make in advancing use of renewable energy will provide global benefits, in terms of enhanced technological understanding, reduced costs through expanded deployment, and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to conventional generation from fossil fuels. Within this context, the U.S. National Academies, in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), reviewed renewable energy development and deployment in the two countries, to highlight prospects for collaboration across the research to deployment chain and to suggest strategies which would promote more rapid and economical attainment of renewable energy goals. Main findings and concerning renewable resource assessments, technology development, environmental impacts, market infrastructure, among others, are presented. Specific recommendations have been limited to those judged to be most likely to accelerate the pace of deployment, increase cost-competitiveness, or shape the future market for renewable energy. The recommendations presented here are also pragmatic and achievable.

As the greatest coal-producing and consuming nation in the world, China would seem an unlikely haven for wind power. Yet the country now boasts a world-class industry that promises to make low-carbon technology more affordable and available to all. Conducting an empirical study of China's remarkable transition and the possibility of replicating their model elsewhere, Joanna I. Lewis adds greater depth to a theoretical understanding of China's technological innovation systems and its current and future role in a globalized economy. Lewis focuses on China's specific methods of international technology transfer, its forms of international cooperation and competition, and its implementation of effective policies promoting the development of a home-grown industry. Just a decade ago, China maintained only a handful of operating wind turbines—all imported from Europe and the United States. Today, the country is the largest wind power market in the world, with turbines made almost exclusively in its own factories. Following this shift reveals how China's political leaders have responded to domestic energy challenges and how they may confront encroaching climate change. The nation's escalation of its wind power use also demonstrates China's ability to leapfrog to cleaner energy technologies—an option equally viable for other developing countries hoping to bypass gradual industrialization and the "technological lock-in" of hydrocarbon-intensive energy infrastructure. Though setbacks are possible, China could one day come to dominate global wind turbine sales, becoming a hub of technological innovation and a major instigator of low-carbon economic change.

"In many ways, everything we once knew about energy resources and technologies has been impacted by: the longstanding scientific consensus on climate change and related support for renewable energy; the affordability of extraction of unconventional fuels; increasing demand for energy resources by middle- and low-income nations; new regional and global stakeholders; fossil fuel discoveries and emerging renewable technologies; awareness of (trans)local politics; and rising interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the need for energy justice. Research on these and related topics now appears frequently in social science academic journals-in broad-based journals, such as International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, and Review of International Political Economy, as well as those focused specifically on energy (e.g., Energy Research & Social Science and Energy Policy), the environment (Global Environmental Politics), natural resources (Resources Policy), and extractive industries (Extractive Industries and Society). The Oxford Handbook of Energy Politics synthesizes and aggregates this substantively diverse literature to provide insights into, and a foundation for teaching and research on, critical energy issues primarily in the areas of international relations and comparative politics. Its primary goals are to further develop the energy politics scholarship and community, and generate sophisticated new work that will benefit a variety of scholars working on energy issues"--

Energy Global energy demand has more than doubled since 1970. The use of energy is strongly related to almost every conceivable aspect of development: wealth, health, nutrition, water, infrastructure, education and even life expectancy itself are strongly and significantly related to the consumption of energy per capita. Many development indicators are strongly related to per-capita energy consumption. Fossil fuel is the most conventional source of energy but also increases greenhouse gas emissions. The economic development of many countries has come at the cost of the environment. However, it should not be presumed that a reconciliation of the two is not possible. The nexus concept is the interconnection between the resource energy, water, food, land, and climate. Such interconnections enable us to address trade-offs and seek synergies among them. Energy, water, food, land, and climate are essential resources of our natural environment and support our quality of life. Competition between these resources is increasing globally and is exacerbated by climate change. Improving resilience and securing resource availability would require improving resource efficiency. Many policies and programs are announced nationally and internationally for replacing the conventional mode and also emphasizing on conservation of fossil fuels and reuse of exhausted energy, so a gap in implications and outcomes can be broadly traced by comparing the data. This book aims to highlight problems and solutions related to conventional energy utilization, formation, and multitudes of ecological impacts and tools for the conservation of fossil fuels. The book also discusses modern energy services as one of the sustainable development goals and how the pressure on resource energy disturbs the natural flows. The recent advances in alternative energy sources and their possible future growth are discussed and on how conventional energy leads to greenhouse gas formation, which reduces energy use efficiency. The different policies and models operating is also addressed, and the gaps that remained between them. Climate change poses a challenge for renewable energy, and thus it is essential to identify the factors that would reduce the possibility of relying on sustainable energy sources. This book will be of interest to researchers and stakeholders, students, industries, NGOs, and governmental agencies directly or indirectly associated with energy research.

This Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report (IPCC-SRREN) assesses the potential role of renewable energy in the mitigation of climate change. It covers the six most important renewable energy sources - bioenergy, solar, geothermal, hydropower, ocean and wind energy - as well as their integration into present and future energy systems. It considers the environmental and social consequences associated with the deployment of these technologies, and presents strategies to overcome technical as well as non-technical obstacles to their application and diffusion. SRREN brings a broad spectrum of technology-specific experts together with scientists studying energy systems as a whole. Prepared following strict IPCC procedures, it presents an impartial assessment of the current state of knowledge: it is policy relevant but not policy prescriptive. SRREN is an invaluable assessment of the potential role of renewable energy for the mitigation of climate change for policymakers, the private sector, and academic researchers.