Questão 855721

Text I

Clean energy: Experts outline how governments

can successfully invest before it’s too late

Governments need to give technical experts

more autonomy and hold their nerve to provide more

long-term stability when investing in clean energy,

argue researchers in climate change and innovation

5 policy in a new paper published today.

Writing in the journal Nature, the authors from

UK and US institutions have set out guidelines for

investment based on an analysis of the last twenty

years of “what works” in clean energy research and

10 innovation programs.

Their six simple “guiding principles” also include

the need to channel innovation into the private sector

through formal tech transfer programs, and to think in

terms of lasting knowledge creation rather than ‘quick

15 win’ potential when funding new projects.

The authors offer a stark warning to governments

and policymakers: learn from and build on experience

before time runs out, rather than constantly reinventing

aims and processes for the sake of political vanity.

20 __ “As the window of opportunity to avert dangerous“As the window of opportunity to avert dangerous

climate change narrows, we urgently need to take

stock of policy initiatives around the world that aim

to accelerate new energy technologies and stem

greenhouse gas emissions,” said Laura Diaz Anadon,

25 Professor of Climate Change Policy at the University

of Cambridge.

“If we don’t build on the lessons from previous

policy successes and failures to understand what

works and why, we risk wasting time and money in

30 a way that we simply can’t afford,” said Anadon, who

authored the new paper with colleagues from the

Harvard Kennedy School as well as the University of

Minnesota’s Prof Gabriel Chan.

Public investments in energy research have risen

35 since the lows of the mid-1990s and early 2000s.

OECD members spent US\$16.6 billion on new energy

research and development (R&D) in 2016 compared

to \$10b in 2010. The EU and other nations pledged

to double clean energy investment as part of 2015’s

40 Paris Climate Change Agreement.

Recently, the UK government set out its own

Clean Growth Strategy, committing £2.5 billion

between 2015 and 2021, with hundreds of million

to be invested in new generations of small nuclear

45 power stations and offshore wind turbines.

However, Anadon and colleagues point out that

government funding for energy innovation has, in

many cases, been highly volatile in the recent past:

with political shifts resulting in huge budget fluctuations

50 and process reinventions in the UK and US.

For example, the research team found that every

single year between 1990 and 2017, one in five

technology areas funded by the US Department of

Energy (DoE) saw a budget shift of more than 30%

55 up or down. The Trump administration’s current plan

is to slash 2018’s energy R&D budget by 35% across

the board.

“Experimentation has benefits, but also costs,”

said Anadon. “Researchers are having to relearn

60 new processes, people and programmes with every

political transition -- wasting time and effort for

scientists, companies and policymakers.”

“Rather than repeated overhauls, existing

programs should be continuously evaluated and

65 updated. New programs should only be set up if they

fill needs not currently met.”

More autonomy for project selection should be

passed to active scientists, who are “best placed to

spot bold but risky opportunities that managers miss,”

70 say the authors of the new paper.

They point to projects instigated by the US

National Labs producing more commercially-viable

technologies than those dictated by DoE headquarters

— despite the Labs holding a mere 4% of the DoE’s

75 overall budget.

The six evidence-based guiding principles for

clean energy investment are:

• Give researchers and technical experts more

autonomy and influence over funding decisions.

80 __ • Build technology transfer into research• Build technology transfer into research

organisations.

• Focus demonstration projects on learning.

• Incentivise international collaboration.

• Adopt an adaptive learning strategy.

85 __ • Keep funding stable and predictable.• Keep funding stable and predictable.

From US researchers using the pace of Chinese

construction markets to test energy reduction

technologies, to the UK government harnessing

behavioural psychology to promote energy efficiency,

90 the authors highlight examples of government

investment that helped create or improve clean

energy initiatives across the world.

“Let’s learn from experience on how to accelerate

the transition to a cleaner, safer and more affordable

95 energy system,” they write.

Available at: < http://www.sciencedaily.comreleases/2017/12/171206132223.htm >.

Retrieved on: 28 Dec 2017. Adapted.

In the fragment of Text I “we urgently need to take stock of policy initiatives around the world” (lines 21-22), take stock means to