This brief intends to provide an overview of the rationale underlying the EU-Africa Energy Partnership, in addition to an analysis of the potential implications of this policy on the development of sub-Saharan African nations. It is posited that the partnership could have potentially negative repercussions if critical uncertainties are not sufficiently taken into account, and that it is in the EU’s best interest to ensure that outcomes are genuinely equitable. The research also has implications for other developing nations around the world seeking to further their economies and raise living standards by means of engaging in the global biofuels industry.
Posts Tagged ‘hydrogen’
EFP Brief No. 138: Results of Lab on ‘Old and New Energy’
Saturday, May 21st, 2011The Club of Amsterdam set up an ‘Old and New Energy Lab’ designed to generate novel and potentially viable plans of action for dealing with energy issues by leveraging brainstorming methods to produce innovative thinking and bypass preconceived ideas and assumptions. The process tapped into the expertise of ‘thought leaders’ chosen for their diversity so as to maximise the fertility of discussions.
EFP Brief No. 129: Rural Areas: One of the Most Important Challenges for Europe
Saturday, May 21st, 2011This brief presents an overview of major trends and policy options for rural areas. A number of social, technological, economic, environmental and political trends as well as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats will be highlighted, followed by ten major policy options in view of two traditional and conflicting objectives: rural socio-economic development and countryside protection.
EFP Brief No. 114: The Singularity Scenario
Friday, May 20th, 2011Although the term ‘Singularity’ or ‘Technological singularity’ has already infatuated both the scientific and the science fiction com-munity alike throughout the 20th century, there is reason enough to report about the ongoing activities in this area. So far it is possible to distinguish between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and related issues and the prospective fusion of emerging technologies such as nano-, bio-, information and cognitive technologies (NBIC) – also referred to as converging technologies. It is assumed that there will be an immense technological and consequently economic shift once those technologies surpass the boundaries of human intelligence in the 21st century.
EFP Brief No. 105: Future Fuel Technology for APEC Regions
Friday, May 20th, 2011The main aspiration was to gain strategic intelligence on future fuel technologies going beyond the current status and trends of present day energy technology and to draw roadmaps of selected future fuel technologies leading to robust plans for the future of technologies in the APEC region up to 2030. Moreover, the co-organizers of the project also anticipated continuous activities referred to as “post foresight” within APEC economies and among fuel technologies experts both during and after the project.
EFP Brief No. 79: Russian Critical Technologies 2015
Friday, May 20th, 2011The Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation conducted a foresight exercise aimed at identifying national S&T priorities and developing the list of critical technologies. The study was organized on a new methodological basis compared to the two previous exercises undertaken in 1996 and 2002. The results obtained were used as a background for the Federal Science and Technology Programme.
EFP Brief No. 74: Ukrainian STI 2025
Friday, May 20th, 2011The key objective of the Ukrainian national ‘foresight-type’ program is to form priorities in STI – Science, Technology and Innovation with long-term (15-20 years) and medium-term (3-5 years) perspectives and to determine the most promising areas for R+D, which could receive state financial support. The second main goal of the program is to create a background for a permanent system of state-sponsored foresight studies in the country.
EFP Brief No. 54: Spanish Nuclear Energy Futures 2030
Tuesday, May 10th, 2011The purpose of this exercise was to identify the main technologies that would influence the development of nuclear energy in Spain up until 2030. The picked up information is supposed to help to change the public opinion in Spain from a sceptic view towards a broader acceptance of the application of nuclear energy.
EFMN Brief No. 53 – European Manufacturing Visions ManVis 2020
EFP Brief No. 46: Canada Looking Forward S+T 21C
Friday, May 6th, 2011The NRC or National Research Council of Canada undertook a foresight exercise with a time horizon of 2020 to initiate planning for its strategic and organizational renewal. The exercise provided a global perspective and critical insights on the future and impact of S+T in Canada, and on opportunities for the NRC to address national challenges as part of Canadian National System of Innovation.
EFP Brief No. 39: Turkish S+T Vision 2023
Friday, May 6th, 2011‘Vision 2023: Strategies for Science and Technology’ is a national project aimed at providing Turkish stakeholders with a vision for the development of science and technology vision in Turkey over a period of 20 years. It involved comprises four strands: Technology Foresight, Technological Capacity, R+D Manpower and R+D Infrastructure. The Technology Foresight strand provided the backbone of the Vision 2023 project. The remaining three programmes supporting the Foresight strand by collecting data on the existing science, technology and innovation capacity, hard data on R+D manpower as well as R+D infrastructure, as well as an inventory of national technology assets and an overview of the institutional and legal framework for research prevailing at this time.
