From fossil to low carbon: The evolution of global public energy innovation

Abstract

A review of global and national energy research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) investments between 2000 and 2018 reveals that global public energy RD&D and cleaner energy RD&D investments dramatically increased, but then plateaued after 2009. In absolute values, nuclear energy has held steady, fossil energy contracted, and clean energy RD&D quadrupled. As a percentage of overall investments, both fossil fuel and nuclear investments contracted during the period. This review compares the energy innovation priorities of the world's largest economies using the metric of public expenditures on energy RD&D. China and India have become important global public investors in energy innovation, now among the top five globally. Priorities set by the Chinese and Indian governments will thus influence new energy technology breakthroughs in the coming years. The US and Chinese governments are now competing for first place in clean energy RD&D, depending on whether or not nuclear and cross-cutting technologies are included. India has dedicated substantial funding to indigenizing nuclear power technologies.Energy RD&D by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in major emerging economies remains skewed toward fossil fuels and nuclear. Reforming SOE expenditures to move away from fossil fuels could have a major impact on global energy technology trajectories, making a material difference in the quest to decarbonize the energy system.

Recent Advances in Anode Electrocatalysts for Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cells – Part I – Fundamentals and Pd Based Catalysts

“…CO 2 is responsible for global warming due to climate change and efforts have been going on to reduce its emission. [2,3,8,31] Tremendous advancements have been witnessed in the carbon capture from stationary sources and sequestration technology in the last decades. [32,33] It is ecpected that soon very pure CO 2 will be available from these sequestered sites in abundance at a very cheap rate.…”

“…[1,5,6] The major drawback of renewable energy is that they are intermittent in nature so their energy must be stored to be used at a time and place of need. [7,8] Electrical energy storage devices such as battery, and capacitors can store the excess energy when the demand is less than the supply. [9] However, there are several issues related to charging, discharging and safety issues of the batteries and capacitors that still needs to be resolved.…”

Recent Advances in Anode Electrocatalysts for Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cell‐II‐Platinum‐Based Catalysts

“…The technological advances in solar and wind energies have been accelerated in recent years [1,5,6] . However, the major drawback of renewable energy is that it is intermittent and thus must be stored for future use [7,8] . Electrical energy storage devices, such as batteries, fuel cells, and capacitors, used to store conveniently the surplus electrical energy for future use [9] …”

“…Combustion of fossil fuels to generate power for industrial, home, and automobiles produces CO 2 . CO 2 is responsible for global warming related to climate change, and efforts are being exerted to reduce its emissions [2,3,8,30] . Tremendous advancements in carbon capture have been developed, such as stationary sources and sequestration technology, in the last decades [31,32] .…”

Energy innovation funding and institutions in major economies

“…We thus offer a framework to assess possible drivers of change in energy innovation governance and probe their empirical relevance in three specific cases. In addition, systematic comparative and technology-specific funding data that include China and India have not been available 20 nor have institutional data beyond the United Kingdom, United States and China, for which we have only outdated data 21 . We thus address a major knowledge gap on energy innovation governance as a policy response to climate change, in particular compared with other policies such as carbon pricing or renewable energy deployment policy 22 .…”