1. Energy Transition Governance Perspectives and Their Impact on Green Innovation Processes

 Increasing fossil fuel scarcity and deteriorating environmental conditions urge for a transition towards a more sustainable use of energy. Policy makers of various countries however respond very differently when it comes to policies for the development and deployment of renewable energy technologies. Whereas some countries leave the creation and diffusion of green innovations to the market, other countries know a strong leading role for the government in technical innovation processes. As a consequence they are likely to experience very different results. This leads us to the question of the lecture: what are the consequences of different energy transition governance perspectives on the development and deployment of green innovations?   

2. Rise of the Non-Triad Energy Majors – National Oil Companies and National Oil Elites The recent decade has witnessed the global expansion of state-owned energy companies from outside the traditional triad (US, EU, Japan). This development is widely perceived to increase the potential for geopolitical rivalry over resources and to pose a threat to neoliberal market mechanisms. Fears are that the state-owned companies act on political motives instead of commercial motives and hence pose a strategic threat. The question is, however, to what extent this is the case. This lecture will present a network analysis of the changing corporate relations of five major non-triad state-owned energy companies in the period 1997-2007 and an analysis of the oil elite networks of the actors in charge of the world’s major energy corporations. It will also pay attention to social network analysis as a promising research method.  

3. Hydropower as a Renewable Energy Source in China: producers, state policy and market forces. In this lecture, Eduard Vermeer will analyse the adoption and current implementation of electricity policies in China, with particular attention to hydropower. Hydropower is responsible for 14 percent of electricity generation and the main source of renewable energy for many years to come. Many factors, such as rising fossil fuel prices, concerns over global warming, developmental goals for west China and the creation of a national power grid contribute to its development. However, the difficulties of comprehensive water resource management and environmental and resettlement concerns have created political barriers and thereby planning uncertainties, that have slowed down the expansion of hydropower in recent years. At present, there is considerable tension between long-term policy goals of China’s government and power companies and the processes of implementation.  

4. Energy for Sustainable Development: the case of Brazil and biofuels production   Energy is not only an input to production, but also an instrument for sustainable development. Developing countries, in particular, have today the challenge of adopting “cleaner” energies while reducing poverty and promoting socio-economic development. Brazil has provided one of the most regarded examples of cleaner energies, through biofuels production. The country already consumes more ethanol than gasoline; its energy matrix is for almost 50% made of renewables; and social-inclusion policies using biofuel production have been ongoing for half a decade. What has prompted such developments? Behind the scenes, what are the actual costs of that biofuel agenda? And how effective have the policies to promote poverty reduction and socio-economic development through biofuels been?