CHINA IS TODAY THE WORLD’S LARGEST USER OF NATURAL RESOURCES, SUCH AS FOSSIL FUELS, BIOMASS, MINE... more CHINA IS TODAY THE WORLD’S LARGEST USER OF NATURAL RESOURCES, SUCH AS FOSSIL FUELS, BIOMASS, MINERALS ANDmetal ores, but also a leader in environmental innovation for sustainable development. China is today alsothe world’s second largest user of freshwater resources, and the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gasesthat lead to climate change (World Bank, 2015). As per capita natural resources are limited and below the world average (Pamlin and Baijin, 2007), innovation in the environmental field is crucial for enabling sustainable de-velopment. Recently, China has become one of the global leaders in environmental innovation, for example in the fields of hydropower, solar energy, wind energy and electro-mobility (Urban et al., 2012; Lema and Lema, 2012). At the same time, the lack of sufficient domestic natural resources has driven China to invest overseas in low and middle income countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America to access natural resources such as energy and minerals, ...
There is no internationally agreed definition for ‘small hydropower’, though the most common defi... more There is no internationally agreed definition for ‘small hydropower’, though the most common definition for small hydropower is a hydropower plant with a size of < 10 MW installed capacity. In China small hydropower refers to < 25 MW installed capacity and in India it refers to < 15 MW. Sometimes small hydropower is further divided into mini hydropower < 2MW, micro hydropower < 500 kW and pico hydropower < 10kW (Paish, 2002a; Paish, 2002b; ESHA, 2009; Yuksek et al., 2006). Small hydropower does not involve the construction of large dams and reservoirs and is mainly based on river run-off (Yuksek et al., 2006).
Industries account for about 30% of total final energy consumption worldwide and about 20% of glo... more Industries account for about 30% of total final energy consumption worldwide and about 20% of global CO2 emissions. While transitions towards renewable energy have occurred in many parts of the world in the energy sectors, the industrial sectors have been lagging behind. Decarbonising the energy-intensive industrial sectors is however important for mitigating emissions leading to climate change. This paper analyses various technological trajectories and key policies for decarbonising energy-intensive industries: steel, mining and minerals, cement, pulp and paper and refinery. Electrification, fuel switching to low carbon fuels together with technological breakthroughs such as fossil-free steel production and CCS are required to bring emissions from energy-intensive industry down to net-zero. A long-term credible carbon price, support for technological development in various parts of the innovation chain, policies for creating markets for low-carbon materials and the right condition ...
From the sectoral systems of innovation perspective, the windows of opportunity (hereafter referr... more From the sectoral systems of innovation perspective, the windows of opportunity (hereafter referred to as WoOs) for industrial latecomers to catch-up could be opened up through abrupt changes in the technological, market, and institutional dimensions. Existing literature discusses different dimensional changes in isolation. Nevertheless, for green industries, the systemic interplay of these dimensions is of key importance; yet few studies have probed into this. These limitations in the literature are largely rooted in the lack of novel methods to detect and specify these abrupt changes, especially in a quantitative way. This paper, therefore, proposes a framework combining natural language processing methods with experts’ knowledge to detect these abrupt changes—named turbulences—by using multi-source heterogeneous data, in order to better identify the co-occurrences and interactions of turbulences across the technological, market, and institutional dimensions that have a high proba...
Despite the large-scale investments of both China and the EU in climate-change mitigation and ren... more Despite the large-scale investments of both China and the EU in climate-change mitigation and renewable-energy promotion, the prevailing view on China–EU relations is one of conflict rather than cooperation. In order to evaluate the prospects of cooperation between China and the EU in these policy fields, empirical research has to go beyond simplistic narratives. This paper suggests a conceptual apparatus that will help researchers better understand the complexities of the real world. The relevant actors operate at different levels and in the public and private sectors. The main message of the paper is that combining the multilevel governance and value-chain approaches helps clarify the multiple relationships between these actors.
China invests more in renewable energy than any other countries, such as in solar energy. The tra... more China invests more in renewable energy than any other countries, such as in solar energy. The traditional literature maintains that these government-supported industries are more innovative than grassroots industries such as solar or thermal, which leads to debate. This study uses mixed methods, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches to compare the technology trajectories of leading solar water heater (SWH) and solar photovoltaic (PV) firms in China. It concentrates on the following three aspects: trajectories of key technologies, patent citation network, and type of collaboration. Our analyses show that technology trajectories differ significantly between leading SWH firms and PV firms in China. We find that the Chinese SWH firms are core to international knowledge networks, and are following a market-driven innovation mode. In contrast, Chinese PV firms are close to the center of the network and government-driven. Research suggests that grassroots innovation, by doing, ...
Hydropower dams are back in the spotlight owing to a shifting preference for low carbon energy ge... more Hydropower dams are back in the spotlight owing to a shifting preference for low carbon energy generation and their possible contribution to mitigating climate change. At the forefront of the renaissance of large hydropower dams are Chinese companies, as the builders of the world's largest dams at home and abroad, opening up opportunities for low- and middle-income countries. However, large hydropower dams, despite their possible developmental and carbon reduction contributions, are accompanied by huge economic costs, profound negative environmental changes and social impacts. Using fieldwork data from four hydropower projects in Ghana, Nigeria, Cambodia and Malaysia, this paper evaluates the behaviour of Chinese stakeholders engaged in large hydropower projects in Asia and Africa. We do this by first exploring the interests of the different Chinese stakeholders and then by investigating the wider implications of these Chinese dams on the local, national and international contex...
Given the opportunities offered by foreign investment in energy infrastructure mostly by Chinese ... more Given the opportunities offered by foreign investment in energy infrastructure mostly by Chinese firms, the Government of Cambodia is giving high priority to developing hydropower resources for reducing energy poverty and powering economic growth. Using a “Political ecology of the Asian drivers” framework, this paper assesses China’s involvement in the development of large dams’ in Cambodia and its impacts on the access of natural resources such as water and energy by dam builders, local communities and the government. This analysis is based on 61 interviews and 10 focus group discussions with affected communities, institutional actors, Chinese dam builders and financiers in relation to the first large Chinese dam built in Cambodia, the Kamchay dam. Based on the results of the analysis this paper makes recommendations on how to improve the planning, implementation and governance of large dams to ensure that the dams’ benefits are shared more equally.
CHINA IS TODAY THE WORLD’S LARGEST USER OF NATURAL RESOURCES, SUCH AS FOSSIL FUELS, BIOMASS, MINE... more CHINA IS TODAY THE WORLD’S LARGEST USER OF NATURAL RESOURCES, SUCH AS FOSSIL FUELS, BIOMASS, MINERALS ANDmetal ores, but also a leader in environmental innovation for sustainable development. China is today alsothe world’s second largest user of freshwater resources, and the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gasesthat lead to climate change (World Bank, 2015). As per capita natural resources are limited and below the world average (Pamlin and Baijin, 2007), innovation in the environmental field is crucial for enabling sustainable de-velopment. Recently, China has become one of the global leaders in environmental innovation, for example in the fields of hydropower, solar energy, wind energy and electro-mobility (Urban et al., 2012; Lema and Lema, 2012). At the same time, the lack of sufficient domestic natural resources has driven China to invest overseas in low and middle income countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America to access natural resources such as energy and minerals, ...
There is no internationally agreed definition for ‘small hydropower’, though the most common defi... more There is no internationally agreed definition for ‘small hydropower’, though the most common definition for small hydropower is a hydropower plant with a size of < 10 MW installed capacity. In China small hydropower refers to < 25 MW installed capacity and in India it refers to < 15 MW. Sometimes small hydropower is further divided into mini hydropower < 2MW, micro hydropower < 500 kW and pico hydropower < 10kW (Paish, 2002a; Paish, 2002b; ESHA, 2009; Yuksek et al., 2006). Small hydropower does not involve the construction of large dams and reservoirs and is mainly based on river run-off (Yuksek et al., 2006).
Industries account for about 30% of total final energy consumption worldwide and about 20% of glo... more Industries account for about 30% of total final energy consumption worldwide and about 20% of global CO2 emissions. While transitions towards renewable energy have occurred in many parts of the world in the energy sectors, the industrial sectors have been lagging behind. Decarbonising the energy-intensive industrial sectors is however important for mitigating emissions leading to climate change. This paper analyses various technological trajectories and key policies for decarbonising energy-intensive industries: steel, mining and minerals, cement, pulp and paper and refinery. Electrification, fuel switching to low carbon fuels together with technological breakthroughs such as fossil-free steel production and CCS are required to bring emissions from energy-intensive industry down to net-zero. A long-term credible carbon price, support for technological development in various parts of the innovation chain, policies for creating markets for low-carbon materials and the right condition ...
From the sectoral systems of innovation perspective, the windows of opportunity (hereafter referr... more From the sectoral systems of innovation perspective, the windows of opportunity (hereafter referred to as WoOs) for industrial latecomers to catch-up could be opened up through abrupt changes in the technological, market, and institutional dimensions. Existing literature discusses different dimensional changes in isolation. Nevertheless, for green industries, the systemic interplay of these dimensions is of key importance; yet few studies have probed into this. These limitations in the literature are largely rooted in the lack of novel methods to detect and specify these abrupt changes, especially in a quantitative way. This paper, therefore, proposes a framework combining natural language processing methods with experts’ knowledge to detect these abrupt changes—named turbulences—by using multi-source heterogeneous data, in order to better identify the co-occurrences and interactions of turbulences across the technological, market, and institutional dimensions that have a high proba...
Despite the large-scale investments of both China and the EU in climate-change mitigation and ren... more Despite the large-scale investments of both China and the EU in climate-change mitigation and renewable-energy promotion, the prevailing view on China–EU relations is one of conflict rather than cooperation. In order to evaluate the prospects of cooperation between China and the EU in these policy fields, empirical research has to go beyond simplistic narratives. This paper suggests a conceptual apparatus that will help researchers better understand the complexities of the real world. The relevant actors operate at different levels and in the public and private sectors. The main message of the paper is that combining the multilevel governance and value-chain approaches helps clarify the multiple relationships between these actors.
China invests more in renewable energy than any other countries, such as in solar energy. The tra... more China invests more in renewable energy than any other countries, such as in solar energy. The traditional literature maintains that these government-supported industries are more innovative than grassroots industries such as solar or thermal, which leads to debate. This study uses mixed methods, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches to compare the technology trajectories of leading solar water heater (SWH) and solar photovoltaic (PV) firms in China. It concentrates on the following three aspects: trajectories of key technologies, patent citation network, and type of collaboration. Our analyses show that technology trajectories differ significantly between leading SWH firms and PV firms in China. We find that the Chinese SWH firms are core to international knowledge networks, and are following a market-driven innovation mode. In contrast, Chinese PV firms are close to the center of the network and government-driven. Research suggests that grassroots innovation, by doing, ...
Hydropower dams are back in the spotlight owing to a shifting preference for low carbon energy ge... more Hydropower dams are back in the spotlight owing to a shifting preference for low carbon energy generation and their possible contribution to mitigating climate change. At the forefront of the renaissance of large hydropower dams are Chinese companies, as the builders of the world's largest dams at home and abroad, opening up opportunities for low- and middle-income countries. However, large hydropower dams, despite their possible developmental and carbon reduction contributions, are accompanied by huge economic costs, profound negative environmental changes and social impacts. Using fieldwork data from four hydropower projects in Ghana, Nigeria, Cambodia and Malaysia, this paper evaluates the behaviour of Chinese stakeholders engaged in large hydropower projects in Asia and Africa. We do this by first exploring the interests of the different Chinese stakeholders and then by investigating the wider implications of these Chinese dams on the local, national and international contex...
Given the opportunities offered by foreign investment in energy infrastructure mostly by Chinese ... more Given the opportunities offered by foreign investment in energy infrastructure mostly by Chinese firms, the Government of Cambodia is giving high priority to developing hydropower resources for reducing energy poverty and powering economic growth. Using a “Political ecology of the Asian drivers” framework, this paper assesses China’s involvement in the development of large dams’ in Cambodia and its impacts on the access of natural resources such as water and energy by dam builders, local communities and the government. This analysis is based on 61 interviews and 10 focus group discussions with affected communities, institutional actors, Chinese dam builders and financiers in relation to the first large Chinese dam built in Cambodia, the Kamchay dam. Based on the results of the analysis this paper makes recommendations on how to improve the planning, implementation and governance of large dams to ensure that the dams’ benefits are shared more equally.
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Papers by Frauke Urban