INNOVATION FOR CLIMATE RESILIENCE
“THE JUST TRANSITION IS THE REAL CHALLENGE”
Professor Andreas Klasen believes in innovation, but warns that it is “not a silver bullet for climate change” By Howard Hudson, OPEC Fund B arely a generation ago, “geo- engineering” was the stuff of science fiction – and in many ways it still is. Shorthand for large-scale technological interventions in the earth’s natural
The biggest problem seems to be the untested nature of these innovations, not least because 35 percent of emissions cuts under the Paris Agreement depend on technologies that are either prototypes or not yet fully deployed, says the International Energy Agency (IEA), while a further 40 percent of cuts rely on technologies that are not yet commercially available at mass-market scale. This has to be put into real-world perspective: “The fastest energy-related examples in recent decades include consumer products like LEDs and lithium ion batteries, which took 10-30 years to go from the first prototype to the mass market,” says the IEA. “These examples must be the benchmarks for building the array of energy technologies to get to net-zero emissions.” Which rather begs the question: If it took decades to roll out energy-efficient lightbulbs, how long
will it take to get geo-engineering off the ground?
Driving mission innovation Professor Andreas Klasen, Director of the Institute for Trade and Innovation at Offenburg University in the deep south of Germany, is an avowed optimist – but also a realist and an expert on innovation systems. He says that innovation is not a silver bullet for climate change, but that real improvements in the coordination of innovation systems could be “a game changer for the environment by 2030”. “International coordination,” says Klasen, “allows for managing risks across borders, enhancing knowledge flows and leveraging economies of scale in innovation. Cross-border networks have the ability to bring together likeminded individuals, as well as those from opposite ends of the spectrum, to disseminate knowledge and innovation
systems, geo-engineering falls into two camps: on the one hand, greenhouse gas removal (GGR) such as planting forests and capturing carbon; on the other, solar radiation management (SRM) such as marine cloud seeding and stratospheric aerosol injection. These mega projects promise the world, but divide opinion. The UK’s Climate Change Committee says GGR innovations will be “essential” for achieving its national net zero emissions target by 2050. Some scientists claim they are little more than distractions from the central task of cutting emissions, while others fear the unexpected consequences of tampering with complex climate systems.
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