El dragón chino en Angola: la diplomacia cultural como una herramienta de construcción de identidad

El creciente interés de China por África ha modificado y estructurado una nueva política exterior, en donde el fortalecimiento de las relaciones políticas y económicas se ve ligado al uso de la diplomacia cultural como una herramienta de atracción. Teniendo en cuenta lo anterior, la presente investigación tiene por objetivo principal indagar cómo China construye una identidad a través de su diplomacia cultural en Angola, demostrando así, que este país utiliza sus costumbres, principios y normas para establecer una identidad de rol en la que se asume como una potencia que debe cooperar. No obstante, sus intereses van más allá de la cooperación al profundizar en relaciones de confianza que lo beneficien política y económicamente. Haciendo un uso del concepto de Imperialismo, la investigación mostrará las limitaciones y los vacíos de la noción de identidad para explicar acciones chinas en Angola, mostrando cómo se hacen uso de herramientas imperialistas para un beneficio propio.

La seguridad energética de Estados Unidos a inicios del siglo XXI: ¿securitización o politización del acceso a recursos energéticos?

Tradicionalmente, la consolidación de la seguridad energética en Estados Unidos se ha mostrado como un asunto de seguridad nacional. En especial, la escasez de recursos energéticos ha sido vista como un problema existencial que requiere de medidas de emergencia en el marco de un proceso de securitización. Sin embargo, esta investigación surgiere que el tema ha sido mayoritariamente politizado a inicios del siglo XXI. Quizá este proceso de securitización tan solo fue implícitamente planteado con ocasión de la invasión a Irak en 2003, en la medida en que dicha intervención pudo haberse inspirado por la necesidad de derrocar a un régimen que había impedido el acceso estadounidense a recursos petroleros iraquíes. En este orden de ideas, la investigación analiza las políticas de seguridad energética de los gobiernos de George W. Bush y Barack H. Obama con el propósito de entender el grado en el que estas estuvieron vinculadas a sus respectivas agendas de seguridad nacional.

Energy use assessment of educational buildings: Toward a campus-wide sustainable energy policy

The purpose of this article is to assess the viability of blanket sustainability policies, such as Building Rating Systems in achieving energy efficiency in university campus buildings. We analyzed the energy consumption trends of 10 LEED-certified buildings and 14 non-LEED certified buildings at a major university in the US. Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of the LEED buildings was significantly higher (EUILEED= 331.20 kBtu/sf/yr) than non-LEED buildings (EUInon-LEED=222.70 kBtu/sf/yr); however, the median EUI values were comparable (EUILEED= 172.64 and EUInon-LEED= 178.16). Because the distributions of EUI values were non-symmetrical in this dataset, both measures can be used for energy comparisons—this was also evident when EUI computations exclude outliers, EUILEED=171.82 and EUInon-LEED=195.41. Additional analyses were conducted to further explore the impact of LEED certification on university campus buildings energy performance. No statistically significant differences were observed between certified and non-certified buildings through a range of robust comparison criteria. These findings were then leveraged to devise strategies to achieve sustainable energy policies for university campus buildings and to identify potential issues with portfolio level building energy performance comparisons.

Country review on the main building energy-efficiency policy instrument

Building energy-efficiency (BEE) is the key to drive the promotion of energy saving in building sector. A large variety of building energy-efficiency policy instrument exist. Some are mandatory, some are soft scheme, and some use economic incentives from country to country. This paper presents the current development of implementing BEE policy instruments by examining the practices of BEE in seven selected countries and regions. In the study, BEE policy instruments are classified into three groups, including mandatory administration control instruments, economic incentive instruments and voluntary scheme instruments. The study shows that different countries have adopted different instruments in their practices for achieving the target of energy-saving and gained various kinds of experiences. It is important to share these experiences gained.

The law and policy for electricity generated by renewable energy: Greening the power in three Middle Eastern jurisdictions

This thesis examines the law and policy concerning renewable energy electricity generation in Palestine, Jordan, and Abu Dhabi. The thesis gives greater attention to the promotion of solar power owing to the abundance and viability. It appears that energy security profoundly underpins the utilisation of renewable electricity, and the motivation of climate change mitigation also pays a role in the promotion of renewable energy in these jurisdictions. However, current policies and regulations are not fully able to promote the renewables in the power sector. The thesis submits that reforms of law and policy are necessary to enhance the achievement of environmental and energy goals.

Decomposition of energy-related CO2 emissions in Australia: Challenges and policy implications

Changes in energy-related CO2 emissions aggregate intensity, total CO2 emissions and per-capita CO2 emissions in Australia are decomposed by using a Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method for the period 1978-2010. Results indicate improvements in energy efficiency played a dominant role in the measured 17% reduction in CO2 emissions aggregate intensity in Australia over the period. Structural changes in the economy, such as changes in the relative importance of the services sector vis-à-vis manufacturing, have also played a major role in achieving this outcome. Results also suggest that, without these mitigating factors, income per capita and population effects could well have produced an increase in total emissions of more than 50% higher than actually occurred over the period. Perhaps most starkly, the results indicate that, without these mitigating factors, the growth in CO2 emissions per capita could have been over 150% higher than actually observed. Notwithstanding this, the study suggests that, for Australia to meet its Copenhagen commitment, the relative average per annum effectiveness of these mitigating factors during 2010-2020 probably needs to be almost three times what it was in the 2005-2010 period-a very daunting challenge indeed for Australia's policymakers.

Universalization of access to modern energy services in Indian households-Economic and policy analysis

Provision of modern energy services for cooking (with gaseous fuels)and lighting (with electricity) is an essential component of any policy aiming to address health, education or welfare issues; yet it gets little attention from policy-makers. Secure, adequate, low-cost energy of quality and convenience is core to the delivery of these services. The present study analyses the energy consumption pattern of Indian domestic sector and examines the urban-rural divide and income energy linkage. A comprehensive analysis is done to estimate the cost for providing modern energy services to everyone by 2030. A public-private partnership-driven business model, with entrepreneurship at the core, is developed with institutional, financing and pricing mechanisms for diffusion of energy services. This approach, termed as EMPOWERS (entrepreneurship model for provision of wholesome energy-related basic services), if adopted, can facilitate large-scale dissemination of energy-efficient and renewable technologies like small-scale biogas/biofuel plants, and distributed power generation technologies to provide clean, safe, reliable and sustainable energy to rural households and urban poor. It is expected to integrate the processes of market transformation and entrepreneurship development involving government, NGOs, financial institutions and community groups as stakeholders. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Energy efficiency in India: Assessing the policy regimes and their impacts

In the recent years. India has emerged as one of the fast growing economies of the world necessitating equally rapid increase in modern energy consumption. With an imminent global climate change threat, India will have difficulties in continuing with this rising energy use levels towards achieving high economic growth. It will have to follow an energy-efficient pathway in attaining this goal. In this context, an attempt is made to present India's achievements on the energy efficiency front by tracing the evolution of policies and their impacts. The results indicate that India has made substantial progress in improving energy efficiency which is evident from the reductions achieved in energy intensities of GDP to the tune of 88% during 1980-2007. Similar reductions have been observed both with respect to overall Indian economy and the major sectors of the economy. In terms of energy intensity of GDP, India occupies a relatively high position of nine among the top 30 energy consuming countries of the world. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Which policy option can be more cost-effective in promoting the use of energy efficient appliances in Europe? A comparison of energy taxes, subsidies, tax credits and bans.

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Linking energy policy, electricity generation and transmission using strong sustainability and co-optimization

The design of a sustainable electricity generation and transmission system is based on the established science of anthropogenic climate change and the realization that depending on imported fossil-fuels is becoming a measure of energy insecurity of supply. A model is proposed which integrates generation fuel mix composition, assignment of plants and optimized power flow, using Portugal as a case study. The result of this co-optimized approach is an overall set of generator types/fuels which increases the diversity of Portuguese electricity supply, lowers its dependency on imported fuels by 14.62% and moves the country towards meeting its regional and international obligations of 31% energy from renewables by 2020 and a 27% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2012, respectively. The quantity and composition of power generation at each bus is specified, with particular focus on quantifying the amount of distributed generation. Based on other works, the resultant, overall distributed capacity penetration of 19.02% of total installed generation is expected to yield positive network benefits. Thus, the model demonstrates that national energy policy and technical deployment can be linked through sustainability and, moreover, that the respective goals may be mutually achieved via holistic, integrated design. ©2009 IEEE.

A policy dimension required for technology roadmapping: Learning from the development of emerging wind energy industry in China

Innovation policies play an important role throughout the development process of emerging industries. However, existing policy studies view the process as a black-box, and fail to understand the policy-industry interactions through the process. This paper aims to develop an integrated technology roadmapping tool, in order to facilitate the better understanding of policy heterogeneity at the different stages of new energy industries in China. Through the case study of Chinese wind energy equipment manufacturing industry, this paper elaborates the dynamics between policy and the growth process of the industry. Further, this paper generalizes some Chinese specifics for the policy-industry interactions. As a practical output, this study proposes a policy-technology roadmapping framework that maps policy-market-product- technology interactions in response to the requirement for analyzing and planning the development of new industries in emerging economies (e.g. China). This paper will be of interest to policy makers, strategists, investors, and industrial experts. © 2011 IEEE.