NCSE Conference Promotes Energy Sustainability and Security
More than 850 scientists, policymakers, businesspeople, and civil society representatives participated in NCSE's 6th National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment: Energy for a Sustainable and Secure Future, held in Washington, D.C. on January 26-27, 2006. Over 120 experts spoke in plenary sessions, symposia, and topical breakout sessions.
The conference identified the urgent need to transcend barriers to sustainable and secure energy use, owing to
the reality of global climate change as well as rising energy prices and concern about future demand. A great deal of immediate improvements could be made through conservation, energy efficiency, adoption of existing technologies and translation of scientific knowledge into policy. There is also a need for expanded investment in science, looking more broadly to integrating different fields of science and technology that offer unrecognized contributions to sustainable energy. Successful transformation of national approaches to energy will require collaboration across traditional approaches and fields. Many of these collaborations are occurring at all levels of government and in a variety of private sector organizations.
"In the last two years, energy has been a focal point of almost everyone's agenda in this country and around the world" said BP America President Ross Pillari in the opening keynote address. "To make progress for providing energy for a sustainable and secure future we must act now in the short term if we are to have real progress and success for the long term. We may not be able to solve all the issues now, but prolonging the start is not an option."
There is a critical need for strong funding of energy R&D in the U.S. – with near and long term energy needs in mind. Daniel Kammen, Director of the University of California, Berkeley's Center for Renewable and Appropriate Energy, showed that federal funding for energy R&D has remained relatively flat over the past 20 years and private funding for energy research in the U.S. has fallen by 75% in that time.
Not only must America.increase overall funding for energy R&D, we must also think more broadly about investments in energy science and technology. Tina Kaarsberg, Policy Analyst for the U.S. DOE Office of Policy & International Affairs, stressed the need to integrate groundbreaking research from other fields of science such as biology, nanotechnology, social sciences and information technology into energy science and technology.
Overcoming the barriers that hinder energy sustainability and security will require collaboration across traditional approaches and fields. Innovative collaborative processes can bridge the divide between seemingly disparate interests or they can bring together players with common goals and objectives to broaden and strengthen existing efforts. Collaboration requires developing a common agenda, speaking a common language and finding ways to address the needs of all parties.
Former Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary, now President of Fisk University, emphasized the need to transcend politics in order to effectively address questions of energy sustainability and security. Secretary O'Leary stated, "until we are coalesced as private citizens without regard to politics, on the correct answers here, we will move from perceived crisis to perceived crisis" at the expense of comprehensive national, state and local level energy policies and investment in innovative research.
The faith community played a large role at the conference, with leaders of the National Council of Churches, National Association of Evangelicals and Interfaith Power and Light as speakers. Rev. Sally Bingham, founder of Interfaith Power and Light, said that "our ministry believes that the scientists are the prophets of today – we listen carefully to what [they] say" and try to "translate all of what science teaches into a theological perspective that the people in the pews can understand."
Climate change adds an element of urgency for action. Present and future energy strategies in the US, China, India, Europe and other major economies are key factors in determining the extent of climate change. While investment in future technologies is critical, there are actions that we can and must take now if we are to do our best to control greenhouse gas emissions. National Academy of Sciences President Ralph Cicerone summarized the science that has led to our current understanding of climate change and urged immediate action to slow the release of greenhouse gases.
In delivering the John H. Chafee Memorial Lecture: Finding Climate Change and Being Useful, Dr. Cicerone proposed energy efficiency as an immediate aim that should appeal to all sides within the political arena. He explained that energy efficiency would decrease U.S. dependence on foreign oil; improving national security and leaving the nation in a stronger negotiating position internationally, while reducing the trade deficit by roughly $150 billion per year. Improved energy efficiency would also decrease local air pollution, boost national competitiveness by decreasing the cost of manufactured goods, encourage development of new, energy efficient, products for global markets, and decrease household energy costs, while reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and methane.
"There's a vital need for policy and decisionmakers to understand that energy efficiency is, in fact, an energy resource," said Marilyn Brown, Director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Engineering Science and Technology Division. Energy efficiency improvements since the 1970's oil embargo account for 25-30% of our total energy supply today. Brown explained that owing to the "miracle of compound interest," if we could cut the growth of energy needs from 1.5% per year to 0.75% per year through efficiency measures, U.S. energy needs”in 2100 would grow by only 200%, compared to 400% - "a much more palatable rate of energy expansion and rate of capital investment."
Participants in 17 concurrent breakout sessions put forth recommendations on the role of science in achieving energy sustainability. Strategies developed at the conference will be widely publicized and presented to Congress, federal, state, and local governments, bilateral and multilateral agencies, international governmental and non-governmental organizations, educational and academic institutions, and the general public.
The conference website has been updated to include draft transcripts of select lectures, PowerPoint presentations from plenary sessions and symposia, and videos of plenary sessions. You may also view the complete set of draft recommendations generated during the breakout sessions ( download). We will continue to update the Energy Conference website to include additional transcripts, presentations, etc. For further information please contact David E. Blockstein, Ph.D., Conference Chair ( David@NCSEonline.org or 202-530-5810).
