CEEN 590 Sustainable Energy as a Social and Political Challenge
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Today’s agenda Engineers point to
socio-political reasons
Why challenge is so formidable (Victor)
Carbon lock-in science-policy
dilemma Mooney (2)
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Gregory C. Unruh, “Understanding carbon lock-in,” Energy Policy 28 (2000) 817-830.
Delucchi, M.A. and Jacobson, M.Z., “Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part II: Reliability, system and transportation costs, and policies,” Energy Policy 39 (2011) 1170–119. Read sections 4 and 5 only.
Chris Mooney, “The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science,” Mother Jones, May/June 2011,
Chris Mooney, "Do Scientists Understand the Public?" American Academy of Arts and Sciences, June 2010.
David G. Victor, Global Warming Gridlock, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), Chapter 2, “Why global warming is such a hard problem to solve.” (on-line UBC Library 3
1. Delucchi, M.A. and Jacobson, M.Z., “Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part II: Reliability, system and transportation costs, and policies,” Energy Policy 39 (2011) 1170–119. Read sections 4 and 5 only.
2. David G. Victor, Global Warming Gridlock, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), Chapter 2, “Why global warming is such a hard problem to solve.” (on-line UBC Library
3. Gregory C. Unruh, “Understanding carbon lock-in,” Energy Policy 28 (2000) 817-830.
4. Chris Mooney, “The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science,” Mother Jones, May/June 2011,
5. Chris Mooney, "Do Scientists Understand the Public?" American Academy of Arts and Sciences, June 2010. 4
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A vision of clean energy system“We suggest producing all new energy
with [water, wind, and solar] by 2030 and replacing the pre-existing energy by 2050. Barriers to the plan are primarily social and political, not technological or economic. The energy cost in a WWS world should be similar to that today”
Jacobson, M.Z., Delucchi, M.A., Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part I: Technologies, energy resources, quantities and areas of infrastructure, and materials. Energy Policy (2010),
Victor’s 3 central political challenges
1. Very deep cuts to GHG emissions are required
Long residence time of CO2 in atmosphere – given rate of emissions stock is hard to reverse
2. Costs immediate, benefits uncertain and distant in time
“time inconsistency problem”3. Global nature of problem creates
spatial inconsistency: local costs, global benefits 6
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Hoberg’s version: Why climate action is so hard politically
Cost of Mitigation Benefits of Mitigation
Relatively certain Highly uncertainNow Distant in Time
Here Global
Victor’s 3 myths about policy processScientist’s myth: scientific research
can determine the safe level of global warming
Environmentalist’s myth: global warming is a typical environmental problem
Engineer’s myth: once cheaper new technologies are available, they will be adopted
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Path Dependence
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Evolution of technical systems Increasing returns result from
Scale economies Learning economies Adaptive expectations Network economies
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Techno-institutional complexNot discrete technological artifactsComplex system of technologies
embedded in a powerful conditioning social context of public and private institutions
Technological systems – technological lock-in
Institutional lock-in Private organizations governmentalFebruary 2, 2011 Sustainable Energy Policy 13
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Obama State of Union
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZdEmjtF6HE at 12:00 – 17:00
Trying to overcome lockin by 2035, 80% of America's electricity will come from
clean energy sources. Some folks want wind and solar. Others want nuclear, clean coal, and natural gas. To meet this goal, we will need them all - and I urge Democrats and Republicans to work together to make it happen
We need to get behind this innovation. And to help pay for it, I'm asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don't know if you've noticed, but they're doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday's energy, let's invest in tomorrow's.
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Science and Politics
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Mooney
Deficit Model: “You just don’t understand” more information will resolve conflicts
and produce appropriate policy responseMembers of the public strain their
responses to science controversies through their value systems
Social science helps explain how this works
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Motivated reasoning (Mooney) motivated cognition: unconscious tendency to fit
processing of information to conclusions that suit some end or goal biased information search: seeking out (or
disproportionally attending to) evidence that is congruent rather than incongruent with the motivating goal
biased assimilation: crediting and discrediting evidence selectively in patterns that promote rather than frustrate the goal
identity-protective cognition: reacting dismissively to information the acceptance of which would experience dissonance or anxiety.
Daniel Kahan, “What Is Motivated Reasoning and How Does It Work?, Science and Religion Today May 4, 2011.
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The politics of science: Classic view: separation
Science(facts)
Politics(values)
Truth
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Politics of Science:Recognition of “Trans-science”
Jasanoff and Wynne 1998
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Politics of ScienceConstructivist View
Politics
Science
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Politics of ScienceConstructivist View (when pressed)
Politics
Science
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Politics and Science Policy reflects value judgments, but
embodies causal assumptions Causal knowledge frequently very uncertain,
undermining power of science actors adopt the scientific arguments most
consistent with their interests “science” becomes a contested resource for
actors in the policy process, by lending credibility to arguments
the body of credible science bounds the range of legitimate arguments, but only loosely
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Politics and Science (cont)
Scientific controversies are frequently more about underlying value conflicts e.g., conservation vs. development
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A continuum
Science Politics
Regulatory Science
Regulatory Science: Scientific assumptions adopted for the purpose of policy-making
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Regulatory Science Approach Some causal assumptions are better than others
– science helps Some policies are better reflections of society’s
distribution of preferences than others -- democratic institutions help
Avoid: political decisions made by scientists and scientific judgments being made by politicians
Prefer: transparent justification for decisions Reveals boundary where scientific advice ends and
value judgments begins Promotes accountability
Next week
Formal governance
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