This report presents preliminary findings from an ongoing research project examining trends in energy R&D investments in selected industrialized countries (The United States, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, and the European Union). Its underlying purpose is to assess the adequacy of current energy R&D, in terms of investment levels and programmatic scope considering the likely energy technology demands associated with international efforts to address global climate change.It finds that, while overall levels of public and private investment in all forms of R&D have risen significantly across the countries studied, investments in energy R&D have declined in real terms. Causes of the observed decline might include the ongoing deregulation of the energy industries, the absence of acute energy crises, and shifts in domestic social and policy priorities in the post-Cold War period. In addition, it finds noteworthy shifts within industrialized countries' energy R&D investment portfolios. In most countries, nuclear R&D has declined (by more than 90% in key countries such as the U.S. and Germany) while the remaining R&D resources are shifting toward shorter-term projects, most notably in the energy efficiency area. Research on carbon sequestration, hydrogen production, and fuel cells is gaining in prominence public sector energy R&D, often displacing traditional fossil energy R&D projects.Future research associated with this project will include the preparation of reports on several additional industrialized countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada, and Switzerland. Collectively, the small set of countries addressed in this project account for over 95% of the world's energy R&D. KEY WORDS: Summary of Findings and ConclusionsThis report is an interim summary of crosscutting findings arising from an analysis of the R&D efforts of four major industrialized nations (the United States, Japan, Germany and the Netherlands) and of the European Union. The second phase of this project will continue to refine these five case studies and will expand to include case studies of Canada, France, Italy, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. This ongoing research effort seeks to assess the adequacy of the industrialized world's energy R&D programs, particularly in the light of the significant energy technology challenges that global climate change could soon pose. Since the nine countries mentioned above collectively account for over 95% of the world's energy R&D investments, their current commitments to energy R&D will determine in large part the range of technology options at the world's disposal in upcoming decades.We find:§ Overall national R&D efforts (i.e., public and private sector research in all fields of inquiry) have grown strongly over the past decade. But the fraction of national R&D activities sponsored by national governments has declined steadily. Moreover, publicly sponsored R&D is not keeping pace with economic growth over the past decade, i.e., public sector R&D as a percent of gross dom...
This report presents preliminary findings from an ongoing research project examining trends in energy R&D investments in selected industrialized countries (The United States, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, and the European Union). Its underlying purpose is to assess the adequacy of current energy R&D, in terms of investment levels and programmatic scope considering the likely energy technology demands associated with international efforts to address global climate change. It finds that, while overall levels of public and private investment in all forms of R&D have risen significantly across the countries studied, investments in energy R&D have declined in real terms. Causes of the observed decline might include the ongoing deregulation of the energy industries, the absence of acute energy crises, and shifts in domestic social and policy priorities in the post-Cold War period. In addition, it finds noteworthy shifts within industrialized countries' energy R&D investment portfolios. In most countries, nuclear R&D has declined (by more than 90% in key countries such as the U.S. and Germany) while the remaining R&D resources are shifting toward shorter-term projects, most notably in the energy efficiency area. Research on carbon sequestration, hydrogen production, and fuel cells is gaining in prominence public sector energy R&D, often displacing traditional fossil energy R&D projects. Future research associated with this project will include the preparation of reports on several additional industrialized countries, including the United Kingdom,
DISCLAIMERPortions of this document may be illegible in electronic image products. Images are produced from the best available original document. I ASTRACT:This report documents trends in R&D and in particular (public) energy R&Din the Netherlands. Besides quantitative information on R&D and energy R&D, the report gives an impression of changes in science and technology policy, energy policy and changes in energy research priorities (both organizational and financial).In the Netherlands, 2.09% of GDP (or $6.7 billion) was invested in R&D activities in 1995. The private sector financed 46°/0 of all R&D in that year. A small but significant fraction (9.3'XO)of the research performed in the Netherlands is financed by foreign public and private sector entities.Energy R&D has been identified by the national Strategic Foresight Activity as an important area of R&D for government support in the future. This is due in part to the overall decline in public support for energy R&D that occurred from 1985 to 1995. However, recent concern over climate change and energy policy has resulted in increased budgets for energy R&D. Recent policy documents (e.g., the Memorandum on Energy R&D in April 1998) and initiatives (e.g., a recent university energy R&D program; intensification of climate policy, partly in R&D) indicate the growing interest in addressing the issue of climate change partly through energy R&D. The Dutch government believes that the liberalization of the energy market in the Netherlands j ustifles an active role for the government to guarantee the longer-term transformation to a sustainable energy system.In terms of climate policy, the expanded and more efficient use of natural gas is seen as a suitable transition option towards a sustainable energy system. However, energy efi-iciency (and in particular energy efficiency in the industrial sector) and the introduction of renewable technologies (solar energy, wind energy and biomass) are general] y favored for the long term. Recently, additional funding was allocated for research on industrial "breakthrough" technologies, photovoltaic energy, and biomass research.Best available data suggest that the private sector's energy R&D investments are on par with and quite close to the level of the government's energy R&D budgets. Renewable energy R&D, nuclear fission and fision are predominantly financed by the public sector. However, energy efficiency receives the largest share of the total governmental energy RD&D budget (about 40Yo). The majority of the private sector's energy R&D investments are devoted to energy efficiency. Private sector investments also exceed those of the government in the area of power storage technologies. 3KEY WORDS: Energy R&D, the Netherlands, climate change . .
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