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Whole-Systems Framework for Sustainable Consumption and Production

5 Regional Development Programs

5.1 Program Eight: Establish a coalition of developed and developing island nation-states to foster energy independence and incubation of pioneer hydrogen economies.⁴⁰

Promote the development of self-sufficient, sustainable energy infrastructures for developing and developed island nation-states.

Create an international network for the exchange of decentralized sustainable energy ideas, technological expertise, innovation, enterprise incubation, and strategies to between all island nation-states - big and small, developing and developed.

Address unique economic, environmental, and security needs of island-states through cutting edge strategies and technologies such as energy efficiency, distributed generation, and alternative energy, with a particular attention to hydrogen.

Use activities as an opportunity to incubate and "jump start" transitions to sustainable energy sources and the hydrogen economy that will in the future benefit "late adopter" non-island nations as well.

5.1.2 Background

Island nation-states have a particular stake in developing an autonomous energy structure. Fossil fuels, particularly oil, generally have to be imported from long distances. This can pose both a security risk and an unwanted expense. Eighty-eight percent of Hawaii’s energy is currently produced from oil. In 2000, Iceland spent $185 million on oil imports. By 2005, it is predicted that 92 percent of oil imports to the Asia-Pacific region will come from the Middle East. Political volatility, trade disagreements, threats to traditional shipping routes, price fluctuations—all pose potential threats to fossil-fuel dependent economies in general and island nation-states in particular.⁴¹ Climate change, with the risks of rising seas, increased flooding, and volatile weather patterns, poses more immediate dangers to islands than to landlocked nations.

Smaller developing island nation-states already have networks for examining sustainability issues, including energy, through the UN-supported Small Island Developing States Network (SIDS).⁴² Combining the focused efforts of developed and developing island nations of all sizes towards the achievement of self-sufficient, renewable energy infrastructures is a logical next step.

In particular, island nation-states with growing economies are uniquely suited to the benefits of hydrogen-generated energy. Unlike imported oil, hydrogen can be produced locally from a flexible range of energy sources. Hydrogen produced from renewable fuel sources offers a means for both weaning the world from its fossil fuel habit and slowing global warming. Hawaii, Singapore, Japan, and Iceland have already invested considerable time and resources into moving towards sustainable energy — including the development of a hydrogen economy. Sixty-seven percent of Iceland's energy already comes from emissions-free geothermal heat and hydroelectric dams; this could provide a carbon-free energy source for hydrogen production.⁴³

By pooling their intellectual capital, a diverse body of island nations could share and capitalize on technology developments, best practices, and innovative indigenous knowledge.⁴⁴ Developed island nations who are already creating new energy technologies could foster the development of demand for such products from their developing island partners, thus creating additional market pull for an emerging industry. By placing themselves on the cutting edge of energy sustainability, island-states could achieve competitive advantage and early market penetration in a field that will become more lucrative when non-island states join in later, thus providing the leaders with a boost to their national economies.

Beyond eliminating economic and environmental liabilities, shifting to hydrogen could create an additional competitive industry for early adopters. Hawaii is examining the possibility of tapping into its abundant geothermal, wind, and solar energy reserves to become an exporter of energy—shipping hydrogen around the Pacific to energy-hungry nations. One of the later phases of Iceland’s sophisticated hydrogen transition plan involves the export of hydrogen to Europe.⁴⁵

By recognizing the threats of continued dependence on fossil fuel to their own survival, and seizing the opportunities to be had by switching to cleaner, decentralized hydrogen, island economies may lead the way technologically and politically for the rest of the world, acting as early adopters and catalysts for transition to sustainable energy infrastructures on a global scale.

5.1.3 Anticipated Outcomes

Increased sustainability and security for member island nation-states due to self-sufficiency of energy.

Accelerated development of technologies and strategies that support energy self-sufficiency, distributed generation of energy, and alternative energies, including hydrogen fuel cells.

Creation of new export opportunities for member nations in the form of cutting edge energy technology, carbon trading, and the sale of green energy to other nations.

Increased flow of ideas and technical support on energy matters between developed and developing island nations, to the mutual benefit of both.

5.1.4 Program Activities

5.1.4.1 Short term

Hold a conference to network developed and developing island nation-states of all sizes in the exchange of ideas around creating sustainable, autonomous energy infrastructures.

Provide cutting-edge training and technical support to island nation-state members in the areas of energy efficiency, distributed generation, alternative energy, and hydrogen energy infrastructures.

Support aggressive energy-efficiency training and programs within member states, to reduce the total energy demand prior to development of new energy infrastructure. Develop roadmaps for legislation and incentive systems to promote energy conservation and efficiency, modifiable for individual nation-states but drawing upon ideas and expertise of the entire alliance.

5.1.4.2 Medium term

Create incentives for developed island nations to share technology expertise with less developed nations.

Encourage engagements between island nation-states and private industry for development of innovative energy solutions.46

Investigate and develop markets for trading carbon offsets to other nations. Create a pool of carbon credits for smaller nations to increase the size of a saleable block of offsets.

Carefully monitor and document progress, including energy savings, payback time, successes, and failures. Make the information freely available and visible, both as an information exchange for member nations and encouragement to other interested parties.

5.1.4.3 Long term

Set a goal of carbon-free, energy autonomy for all member nation-states, with an additional goal of net export of energy for some.

Provide technical support and consulting services to non-island nations seeking insight in developing energy autonomy and hydrogen economies.

5.2 Program Nine: "Leapfrog" new environmental regulations past outdated command and control models to integrated, flexible ones.

5.2.1 Objectives:

Encourage the development of international-, national- and regional-level environmental regulations that are flexible, innovation-friendly, and rigorous.

Examine means of encouraging sustainable production practices via the standards, guidelines, and regulations of international trade organizations in ways that are equitable and do not interfere unreasonably with the efficient flow of free trade.

5.2.2 Background

United States environmental regulation—mostly crafted in the 1970s—was command-and-control focused. It was also fragmented into control of pollution by media (e.g., the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act); and focused upon implementation of government-designated best available technology (BAT). While such regulation served its purpose at the time, it no longer represents the best model for governments to encourage sustainable practices. Developing countries without existing regulatory models should certainly not look to current US models for guidance. Rapid innovations in technology, increasing globalization, and changing scientific data require that the environmental regulation of the future must look drastically different if we are to achieve radically improved sustainability.

Historically, European countries have cultivated more creative regulation designed in collaboration with industry. European states have been more willing to enact regulations that place end-of-life responsibility for products with corporations. But even Europe needs to join an accelerated global adoption of integrated regulations that push for more and more sustainable methods of production and consumption, rather than merely complying with the status quo.

In his Harvard Business Review article "Green and Competitive: Ending the Stalemate," Michael Porter provides guidelines for creating innovation-friendly regulations (see sidebar)⁴⁷. While there is no universal design model for regional environmental regulation, this provides some useful landmarks in crafting legislation.

The WTO

On a global scale, change at the level of trade organizations could also be highly beneficial. Currently, the World Trade Organization allows its member nations to bar free trade from other nations based upon the quality of the end product in question, but does not allow the process by which a good is produced to affect its tradability status.⁴⁸ But increasingly, it is evident that processes can negatively affect the quality of an end product —particularly food—in unanticipated ways. There is also considerable evidence that the processes themselves can have adverse effects with global impact. For example, conventionally grown cotton accounts for a large percentage of pesticide use on the planet; trade guidelines supporting organic cotton could provide a significant global leverage point to alleviating related problems of water pollution and health problems. To the extent that production practices threaten to impair ecosystem services and agricultural productivity, sustainable processes can contribute positively to the continued, long-term health and prosperity of international trade. An unintended consequence of current WTO regulation is the protection of externalization of ecological costs associated with product production by barring the consideration of those costs in assessing import tariffs.

Efforts to objectively identify reasonable process criteria to regulate trade on goods should be accelerated. Specific processes that offer the greatest potential for positive global impact on the environment should be identified and prioritized as recommendations to the trade organizations. While there is perhaps legitimate concern that such criteria could be imposed as a disguised trade barrier to benefit an international trade organization member, this concern exists in all trade regulations and must be successfully balanced against the benefits of allowing nations to control their imports.

5.2.3 Anticipated Outcomes:

Increased efficacy and decreased bureaucracy in domestic and international environmental regulations.

Increased compatibility between policies designed to foster free trade and economic growth and those designed to promote sustainability.

5.2.4 Program Activities:

5.2.4.1 Short term

Support an independent body to research and identify sustainable process criteria suitable for trade regulation and likely to create maximum positive global environmental impact.

5.2.4.2 Medium term

On a regional and national level, identify opportunities for the application of feebates49 and heavy differential taxation of inefficient end-use devices as a means of promoting the use of resource-efficient technology in industry.

5.2.4.3 Long term

Conduct research into how regional, national, and international environmental regulations could be integrated and standardized to a level that would do more to encourage sustainable processes and promote global and economic prosperity.

5.3 Program Ten: Develop initiatives in China to assist in development of sustainable enterprises and the training of sustainability leaders.

5.3.1 Objectives

Support China's development of sustainable production and consumption practices.

Encourage "leapfrogging" ahead of outdated, polluting methods of production and consumption to cutting-edge technologies and practices that offer both greater sustainability and opportunities for global market competitiveness.

5.3.2 Background

With one-fifth of the world's population within its borders, China presents serious environmental challenges and, at the same time, a key leverage point in the promotion of sustainable consumption and production. China contains nine of the top ten most polluted cities on the planet.⁵⁰ China mines and burns a billion tons of coal a year—a quarter of the world’s supply. Three-quarters of the country’s energy needs are met by coal.⁵¹ Though China currently trails the United States in overall greenhouse gas emissions, current trends suggest that they will hold the number one position by 2020.

Although the ecological pressures are daunting, the opportunities are enormous as well. Energy intensity in the Chinese economy has been steadily decreasing, owing to investment in energy efficiency and improved technology;⁵² recent research concluded that a shift in rice cultivation practices has drastically reduced China's methane emissions for the past two decades.⁵³ In anticipation of the 2008 Olympics, the central government has pledged to reduce coal consumption in Beijing by one half and to eliminate the problem of dust storms in the city. Studies indicate that switching from coal to natural gas in China would likely reduce total industrial carbon output by as much as fifty percent. A shift from coal to natural gas would both reduce carbon output and address the significant air quality problems that plague China's urban areas.⁵⁴

In support of China's ongoing efforts to move towards sustainability, the international community should look for opportunities to support and encourage national leadership and both private and state enterprises in adoption of whole-systems sustainability practices in China.

For these reasons, we recommend aggressive efforts to include China in many of the activities outlined in other programs presented in this document.

In particular, China's need for jobs, large rural population, and rapidly industrializing economy all make it an excellent candidate for "leapfrogging" technologies. Growing a cutting-edge infrastructure that features hydrogen generation, radically increased resource efficiency, and flexible, decentralized energy will benefit China and the planet financially and environmentally.⁵⁵ Conversely, trying to raise the standard of living for 1.4 billion people using 1920s Pittsburgh-style coal-based energy systems and business-as-usual industrial practices would be disastrous not only for China but for all global communities as well.

Leapfrogging: the Case of the Chinese Refrigerators OECD countries have the greatest responsibility in achieving major efficiency technology gains; they are the best equipped to achieve them. Yet, it is also of great import to appreciate the responsibility and opportunity of developing nations to learn from the experience of OECD countries and leapfrog to greatest resource efficiency. Consider, for example, the sad story of Chinese refrigerators. When the government decided people should have them, more than a hundred factories were built, and the Beijing households owning a refrigerator rose from 2% to 62% in six years. But through inattention, the refrigerators were built to an inefficient design. An effort to promote development instead created crippling shortages of both power and capital. The officials to whom this was pointed out said the error would not, if they could help it, be repeated: it had taught them that China can afford to develop only by making energy, water, and other kinds of resource efficiency not just an add-on program but the very cornerstone of the development process. Otherwise, the waste of resources will require so much and so costly supply-side infrastructure that too little money will be left to build the things that were to use those resources This importation of inefficient technologies to developing nations coupled with an ever-increasing population hungry for a higher quality of life or basic necessities to survive is leading to great human despair. It is leading to greater energy use, it is moving capital from humanitarian services to expanding capital intensive energy infrastructure, despite the availability of efficient technology as exemplified in the story of the Chinese refrigerators. (From Least Cost Climate Stabilization, Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins, 1991, p.52)

One method of supporting the leapfrog effect is the incubation of enterprises manufacturing sustainable products in a sustainable manner. Sustainable products —particularly alternative energy devices such as photovoltaic panels and energy-efficiency end-use products such as compact florescent lamps —offer multiple advantages to developing nations. They reduce dependence upon older, unsustainable practices and they avoid the need to develop costly infrastructure. They can generate much-needed jobs, sometimes in lieu of jobs in less sustainable industries. New enterprises can build on some early inroads that are already in place. For example, China is already a major producer of compact florescent bulbs.

One danger in incubating these manufacturing processes in China and other developing countries has already surfaced in early projects currently online. Manufactured sustainability products (such as, for example, PV panels sold in Kenya) often vary drastically in quality⁵⁶, frustrating the user, impeding technology diffusion, and hindering the "leapfrog" effect. A considerable investment of income is lost when a product with poor quality control under-performs or breaks down quickly. Efforts to encourage the enterprises manufacturing green products in countries like China should continue, but attention must be paid to ensuring high quality and proper implementation via technical support and quality-monitoring guidelines.

Sustainable production enterprises also should be decentralized where practicable in order to help stabilize communities stressed by high unemployment. In some parts of India, for example, fabric parts for jeans are sold and assembled by local tailors, reducing cost and providing local industry and jobs.⁵⁷

5.3.3 Anticipated Outcomes

Reduction of dependence upon fossil fuels to meet national energy demands.

Decreased dependence upon centralized modes of energy supply

Cultivation of enterprises that create jobs, market opportunities, and promote sustainability on a regional and national level.

5.3.4 Activities

Create multiple programs and initiatives in China, some new, some incorporated into existing development projects.

Apply programs 5, 6, and aspects of 8 to China.

5.3.4.1 Short term

Provide technical and financial support for projects that shift users from coal to natural gas. Studies indicate that this switch would likely reduce total industrial carbon output by fifty percent.

Create a resource-efficiency extension program, on the model of agricultural extension, at the local level. These "nomads with compact florescent lamps" could provide advice on efficient use and sustainable production of power, especially in rapidly developing municipalities.

5.3.4.2 Medium term

Create programs to educate policy makers, teachers, media, and business and government leaders on the benefits of "leapfrogging" technology and the disadvantages of a fossil-fuel-dependent, resource-inefficient development path. Base the information on China-relevant stories and statistics.

Influence future leaders by incorporating whole-systems thinking (project #1) and green design (project #5) into the curriculum of engineering, science, planning, architecture, and business programs at China's top universities.

Via online resources and training at universities, encourage information exchange that promotes leapfrog technologies (i.e., advanced, competitive, sustainable production processes that create jobs and achieve improved quality of life) and discourages the adoption of outdated, inefficient production models.

Aggressively encourage China’s shift to a hydrogen economy before it develops an extensive transportation and energy infrastructure based on the internal combustion engine and centralized, fossil-fuel-dependent power generation.

5.3.4.3 Long term

Encourage the adoption of sustainable technologies by fostering and supporting new enterprises that seek to manufacture them in China. Develop an infrastructure supporting the incubation, development, and quality monitoring of sustainable technology manufacturing enterprises.

 

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