Renewable Energy Development in China: Integrated Technology and Social Impact Assessment

Dr. Lin Gan, Center for International Climate and Enviromental Research, Oslo

Abstract
Abstract

In recent years, development and diffusion of new and renewable energy technologies have been intensified due to the global concerns of climate change, energy supply and security, environmental protection and to meet the needs of the poor in rural communities. To realize the UN Millennium Development Goals is one of the motives for such a development, addition to the demand for GHG emissions reduction in major industrialized countries, and potentially in major developing countries. We see this trend as a complex process with the involvement and interaction of new ideas, knowledge, policies and institutional development. It is also with different actors involved as dynamics of change in society, which provide incentives and disincentives for fundamental shifts in social institutions, technology management and industrial innovation. It is therefore important to analyze these changes in society and provide useful policy recommendations to governments, industries and international communities/organizations on their policy changes to foster the technology development that would benefit the move towards sustainable development at the global, regional and local levels.



Speaker:

Dr. Gan has his Ph.D in Public Administration and works as a senior research fellow for the Center for International Climate and Enviromental Research in Oslo.

He has been trained on mass communication and media, is familiar with techniques of mass communication and its social and human dimensions. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in China, India, USA and other countries and knows about the mechanisms of governance and institutions in China in particular. He has worked extensively with the mass media on communications and public campaign on climate and sustainable energy issues. Doing this he has established close contacts with international organizations, top universities and research institutes in Europe and the US, funding agencies in the US and Europe, WWF international and national organizations, non-governemental organizations involved in environment and energy acitivies, governmental agencies and R&D organization in Asian and the Pacific. Main research interests: Dr. Gan's research interests include social science aspects of energy and environmental policy making and implementation in China and Asia, climate-change policy and institutional dynamics, international development assistance for the environment, and dynamics of energy and environmental technological change and dissemination in developing countries.



Venue: Keizer Karelplein 19, Maastricht, 12:00 hours

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