Abstract
The Asian region accounts for already over 40% of the global economy, and is becoming the world’s main manufacturing hub. Unprecedented changes in economic growth and trade in the last couple of decades have resulted in severe degradation of the regional, as well as the global environment that could offset the advantages that economic growth has brought to the countries and their populations. In this framework the need to deploy sustainable energy technologies is a key concern for the global community. This paper gives an overview of EU programmes and policies to develop sustainable energy technologies and the common barriers faced to technology implementation in EU and Asian countries. Following that, the approaches and mechanisms that are used internationally for overcoming the barriers to technology transfer and implementation are presented. After having assessed barriers to technology implementation and possible ways and programmes to help overcome them, the paper provides specific examples of success stories of how government policies and programmes, in combination with involvement of the private sector, can be effective in sustainable energy technology transfer and implementation in both EU and Asian countries. Finally, the opportunity that has recently arisen to enhance the introduction of sustainable energy technologies in developing countries through the development of programmes of related activities as CDM projects is presented and indicative mutual benefits for the strengthening of the EU Asian partnership are highlighted.
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Notes
Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the promotion of cogeneration based on a useful heat demand in the internal energy market, COM (2002)415 final —2002/0185 (COD).
European Commission Communication on CHP (COM (97)514 final).
Directive 2001/77/EC of 27 September 2001 on the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energies sources in the internal electricity market (OJ L 283, 27.10.2001, p. 33). The date for the implementation of this Directive was October 2003 and for the new Member States, 1 May 2004.
This period applies in the Netherlands and Scotland.
The British Wind Energy Association publishes yearly approval rates: the last year, 2004, had a 80% approval rate.
Fine-tuning in this context refers to flexibility within the system to allow for adjustments (fine-tuning, but not wholesale changes or elimination of polices) a regular predetermined time schedule if circumstances change.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the European Commission DG Research for supporting the research activity ENTTRANS. They would also like to thank Catrinus Jepma (University of Groningen), John Psarras and Chara Karakosta (NTUA, Greece), Animesh Dutta, N. Mithulananthan and Sarina Adhikari (Asian Institute for Technology, Thailand), Liu Peng, Linghong Li and Sean Jiang (Kunming University, China), Wim Mallon (EDI, The Netherlands), and Dimitrios Kanellopoulos and Dimitris Manolopoulos (PPC, Greece) for their contributions to this paper.
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Flamos, A., Van der Gaast, W., Doukas, H. et al. EU and Asian countries policies and programmes for the diffusion of sustainable energy technologies. Asia Europe J 6, 261–276 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10308-008-0177-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10308-008-0177-z