David Victor's Research Referenced in Cleantech Magazine
The Cleantech Funding Challenge
10/27/2011
Anne McIvor,
Cleantech Magazine
Government policy is an important driving force behind the adoption of clean technologies, a feature which cleantech shares with only a few other industries, e.g. pharmaceuticals. As a result cleantech is, in many respects, an unusual sector.
Policies encouraging the development and adoption of clean technologies came to the fore in the 1970s, during the energy crisis, but subsequently slipped down the agenda again. This time around environmental concerns have combined with energy security issues, ensuring that cleantech remains a priority for governments around the world. However, the policies of the governments of many developed countries are proving insufficient – if not detrimental – to the growth of clean technologies companies and a cleantech industry.
An article by David G. Victor (University of California, San Diego) and Kassia Yanosek (founder of Tana Energy Capital LLC), published in Foreign Affairs Journal, July/August 2011, predicted a crisis for the clean energy industry. The authors argue that the 25% annual growth rates in clean energy in western countries have been achieved through public subsidies, which are now unsustainable. They claim that government stimulus programmes post the 2008 crisis “merely delayed the bad news” – citing a drop in the number of new wind turbine installations in the US in 2010 as government support eroded.
Click here to read the full article.
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David Victor is Director of the Laboratory on International Law and Regulation (ILAR). Looking across a wide array of issues from environment and energy to human rights, trade and security, the Laboratory explores when (and why) international laws actually work.
