Prof. Wüstenhagen gave talks in Singapore

Prof. Wüstenhagen talked on questions related to the global energy transition on August 24, September 6 and 7

Slides of the four presentations are available for download on the right side.

August 24: European Energy Policies Post-Fukushima

September 6: Teaching Climate Change Through Role Play

Climate change is increasingly recognized as a major global challenge. Therefore, an increasing number of universities and business schools are considering ways to include climate change in the curriculum. An innovative example of teaching climate change is the CEMS-MIM* climate strategy course and role play, which has been developed by the University of St.Gallen with support from the Swiss Federal Office of the Environment and taught three times with up to three CEMS partner universities. Given the complexity of global climate change and the challenges in coming up with adequate policy and business responses, the topic lends itself particularly well to intense learning experiences. To impart such learning, we developed a multi-school negotiation simulation that is unique in its intensiveness, cross-sector design (involving both business and public policy students), and transdisciplinary nature. This talk explains the objectives of the course, explains the choice of a role-play format, describes the curriculum, and evaluates the results of its teachings. Evaluation is based on the extent to which the course met its objectives, how individual elements contributed to overall learning, and the overlap between this curriculum and established precepts of good sustainability teaching.

September 7: Overcoming Path Dependence in Energy Investment Choices

While investment into renewable forms of energy has seen steady growth over the last couple of years, it still falls short of the levels required to support the transition to a low-carbon global energy supply. The $243bn invested globally in the clean energy sector in 2010, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, is still a factor two below recent IPCC estimates of what would be needed to fully harvest the potential of renewable energy and contribute to climate change mitigation. This talk explores the role of bounded rationality and path dependence in explaining possible under-investment in renewable energies. Contrasting a range of corporate, private and public energy investment decisions with the central assumptions of textbook economics, we find evidence for status quo bias, social network effects and heuristic affect. The question arises whether investment decisions taken under these conditions deliver outcomes that optimize the risk-return ratio for society and for the investors themselves. Implications are discussed for public policies to overcome path dependence in renewable energy investment and for further research to adequately capture real-life energy decisions.

September 7: New Energy: Opportunities and Challenges for Business

Concerns about climate change, energy security and increasing prices of conventional fuels have led governments to adopt policies to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy. Economies of scale have moved wind and solar energy closer to grid parity, i.e. where they are cost-competitive with conventional energy. The International Energy Agency thus speaks of an “energy technology revolution”. What are the implications of this fundamental energy transition for business? Firms are facing new challenges in the form of policy risk related to climate policies. They are directly affected by their exposure to an increasingly volatile energy supply chain. The transition towards a cleaner energy future provides firms with new opportunities to diversify their energy supply and tap into the growing global markets for clean technology. This lecture will investigate some of the ongoing drivers of the energy transition, their implications for business, and discuss the strategies of international companies such as Google or IKEA to address the new energy opportunities.

Note: The picture shown here is originally published on http://www.pub.gov.sg