IASS – CAS/IAE Science-Policy Roundtable in Shenyang, China

Posted on
23.–24.09.2016
Shenyang, Chi­na

Domes­tic and inter­na­tion­al cli­mate poli­cies, with renew­able pow­er gen­er­a­tion as one of their cen­tral pil­lars, are increas­ing­ly being explored for their social and eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties. Among these ben­e­fits are the link­ing of water and ener­gy secu­ri­ty, social own­er­ship, dis­trib­uted rev­enues in the ener­gy sys­tem, and improve­ments in air qual­i­ty and health. Har­ness­ing the mul­ti­ple ben­e­fits of renew­able pow­er gen­er­a­tion requires the care­ful align­ment of pol­i­cy mea­sures, sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy inno­va­tions, and dif­fer­ent stakes in soci­ety to cre­ate an enabling environment.

Since 2014, the IASS Pots­dam and the Insti­tute for Applied Ecol­o­gy in the Chi­nese Acad­e­my of Sci­ences (CAS-IAE) have worked togeth­er to explore the mobil­i­sa­tion of the co-ben­e­fits of cli­mate change mit­i­ga­tion, and renew­able pow­er gen­er­a­tion in particular.

The sci­ence-pol­i­cy round­table held in Shenyang on Sep­tem­ber 23–24, 2016 was co-orga­nized by IASS Ener­gy Tran­si­tion Pro­gramme, head­ed by Sebas­t­ian Hel­gen­berg­er, and the CAS-IAE Research Cen­tre of Indus­tri­al Ecol­o­gy and Sus­tain­abil­i­ty, head­ed by Xue Bing (IASS Fel­low). The event was offi­cial­ly opened and its impor­tance acknowl­edged by the Pres­i­dent of CAS-IAE, Ji Lanzhu, Sebas­t­ian Hel­gen­berg­er on behalf of IASS as well as the Deputy Direc­tor of the Liaon­ing Provin­cial Cen­ter for Sci­ence & Tech­nol­o­gy Inno­va­tion, Mr Luo Naiming.

Key notes by Mar­tin Jänicke (IASS / FU Berlin), Xu Yuan (Chi­nese Uni­ver­si­ty of Hong Kong), Sebas­t­ian Hel­gen­berg­er (IASS) and Xue Bing (IASS / CAS-IAE) on Day 1 and Day 2 set the scene for intense mutu­al learn­ing among 25 rep­re­sen­ta­tives from local gov­ern­ment and admin­is­tra­tion, busi­ness orga­ni­za­tions, inno­va­tion cen­tres and local to inter­na­tion­al research insti­tutes. The top­ics cov­ered in the round­table dis­cus­sions included:

  • Mobil­is­ing the advo­ca­cy poten­tial of socio-eco­nom­ic co-ben­e­fits for ambi­tious and effec­tive cli­mate pol­i­cy and renew­able ener­gy deployment
  • Require­ments and chal­lenges for estab­lish­ing pol­i­cy-rel­e­vant, trans­par­ent and sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly sound meth­ods, indi­ca­tors, and cri­te­ria to quan­ti­fy social and eco­nom­ic co-benefits
  • Rel­e­vance and approach­es of involv­ing stake­hold­ers in co-design­ing and con­duct­ing pol­i­cy-ori­ent­ed co-ben­e­fit assessments
  • Link­ing water and ener­gy secu­ri­ty in Liaon­ing province
  • Dimen­sions of socio-eco­nom­ic co-ben­e­fits and local val­ue cre­ation: con­nect­ing soci­etal own­er­ship with the local indus­try perspective
  • Inter­est-focused co-ben­e­fits — the IASS approach and its rel­e­vance for China

The par­tic­i­pants acknowl­edged the impor­tance of inten­si­fy­ing Sino-Ger­man col­lab­o­ra­tion on the mobil­i­sa­tion of the co-ben­e­fits of renew­able ener­gies and ener­gy tran­si­tion process­es, and lent their sup­port to the stag­ing of a fol­low up sci­ence pol­i­cy round­table and co-ben­e­fits research sym­po­sium as well as a joint pub­li­ca­tion to com­pile approach­es and expe­ri­ences in assess­ing and mobil­is­ing the co-ben­e­fits of renew­able ener­gies and ener­gy transitions.

Fol­low­ing the event, the head of the IASS Ener­gy Tran­si­tion Pro­gramme was invit­ed to the Ger­man Embassy in Bei­jing to present the co-ben­e­fit approach and work­shop results with­in the ‘Cli­mate Talks’ Format.

With­in the work of the IASS, the Co-Ben­e­fits or Mul­ti­ple Ben­e­fits approach serves as an inte­grat­ing con­cept, con­nect­ing key fea­tures or renew­able ener­gies and ener­gy tran­si­tion process­es such as water and ener­gy secu­ri­ty, eco­nom­ic val­ue cre­ation and soci­etal own­er­ship as well as air qual­i­ty and health benefits.

See more: Work­shop Pro­gramme and Par­tic­i­pants

Keynotes and Impulse Talks: