Excerpts from a Technology Roadmap for Energy Security and Environment Sustainability
| December 7, 2009 | ||
| 10:30 am | to | 12:00 pm |
Speaker: Dr Michael Quah Cheng-Guan
Venue: Seminar Room II, ISEAS
When Dr Quah was a Visiting Principal Fellow at ESI, he presented an interim report on a work in progress in December, last year, at ISEAS. He has since completed his report and will discuss excerpts of the Technology Roadmap, which provides signposts and guardrails for a transition from the current dependence on fossil fuels to a far future when fossil fuels are prohibitively expensive to extract and process and thus, we will face a back-to-the-future scenario to the “Age of Renewables.”
Along this long road to the far future, near-term strategies for the next 10 years and mid-term scenarios for 10 to 50 years are discussed. Energy conservation and energy efficiency programs are paramount in the near-term because fossil fuels will continue to play a major role but carbon constraints will reveal the necessity for such programs. The need for high energy density fuels calls for a future where bio-fuels are needed with the requisite balancing act of land (and water areas) for food and fuel.
Against a backdrop of the Singapore International Energy Week (just completed in 17 – 20 November), the Copenhagen Conference (7-18 December 2009), the possible depletion of world oil resources faster than expected (Straits Times, 11 November 2009) and extreme weather events (typhoons) impacting upon Southeast Asia, this seminar is most timely and will show the “middle way.” This talk provides further elaborations on Dr. Quah’s presentations at the Shell-ESI Dialogue and the Plug-In Singapore session at the recent Singapore International Energy Week.
Details and registration at the ISEAS website.
Climate Change – An Emerging Security Threat
| November 23, 2009 | ||
| 12:40 pm | to | 1:30 pm |
Speaker: Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti, Climate and Energy Security Envoy, British Government
Venue: Seminar Room 3-1, Level 3, Manasseh Meyer, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, 469C Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259772
Synopsis: Internationally, there is growing interest in non-traditional threats to security. Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti is the British Government’s envoy for climate and energy security. He will examine how climate change can act as a ‘threat multiplier’ that exacerbates existing tensions and has consequences for national and international security. He will outline how countries need to ensure that their security strategies address the impact of climate change on stability. He will also emphasise the urgency of the global transition to a low carbon economy, which will limit the threat and explore possible solutions such as areas where militaries can collaborate. The session will also consider how these factors may come into play in South East Asia.
Details and registration at the LKYSPP website.
REDD, REDD+, or REDD++: Multiple Perspectives on Climate Change Mitigation in the Forestry Sector
| November 17, 2009 | ||
| 2:30 pm | to | 4:00 pm |
Speaker: Dr David Neidel, Asia Training Program Coordinator for the Environmental Leadership and Training Initiative (ELTI), Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Venue: ISEAS Seminar Room II
About the Seminar:
Deforestation and forest degradation contribute approximately 20% of the annual increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, which is now widely recognized as the major driving force behind global climate change. To help address this problem, afforestation/reforestation projects, which sequester carbon from the atmosphere, were included within the Clean Development Mechanism. Concerns about a complementary and potentially more effective approach, known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), however, have kept it relegated to the Voluntary Carbon Market. While REDD now appears poised for inclusion in both international and national regulatory markets, debates continue to swirl around a number of issues including the exact scope of the approach (RED, REDD, REDD +, or REALU), the nature of the financing mechanism, and a series of methodological issues including additionality, permanence, and leakage.
This seminar is intended to provide an overview of the opportunities and obstacles that exist to using forestry for global warming mitigation, as a way to understand these on-going debates.
Details at the ISEAS website.
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