This article presents findings indicative of important, ongoing changes in the energy research and development (R&D) investments of major nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The authors seek to explain drivers of these changes and their implications for the world's ability to deal with future R&D-intensive energy challenges. They also consider implications of changes in individual countries' energy R&D portfolios for international R&D collaboration among OECD countries and between OECD and developing countries. They conclude that the level of investment in energy R&D in the OECD is insufficient to meet the challenges of climate change. A long-term, strategic approach would aim to broaden both the amount of resources devoted to energy R&D and the geographical scope of the global energy R&D infrastructure. A successful strategy will account for major changes in demographics and energy use over the coming decades and will drive the development of indigenous energy R&D capabilities in today's developing countries.
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...
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