September 25, 2006
The Energy and Environmental Security Initiative (EESI), an interdisciplinary center at the University of Colorado Law School, is making great strides on many fronts.
First, EESI has received a grant from the Colorado General Assembly to study markets and private firm activities related to climate change. Commenting on the award, U.S. Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colorado) remarked: “I am delighted that Colorado has selected EESI for this grant. EESI will provide an objective and valuable assessment of how Colorado should position itself relative to climate change markets.” Senator Allard is co-chair of the bi-partisan Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus.
“There are opportunities and risks associated with policy responses to climate change,” said Kevin Doran, a research fellow at EESI. “This project will provide Colorado decision-makers with the type of quality information and analysis on greenhouse gas markets needed to strategically respond to these challenges.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment awarded EESI the grant pursuant to House Bill 1322, which was signed into law following the 2006 regular legislative session. Noting that emerging “markets related to climate change promise significant economic opportunities for the state,” the bill called on the Department to award a grant to the University of Colorado to study “international and domestic markets in greenhouse gas emissions and to conduct research on private firms in various economic sectors that are reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.” Colorado State University and the Colorado School of Mines also received grants under the bill to study the potential for carbon sequestration to mitigate Colorado’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“We are very excited to have this opportunity,” said Dr. Lakshman Guruswamy, Director of EESI and the Law School’s Nicholas Doman Professor of International Environmental Law. “Climate change and energy use are pressing global issues that need to be addressed at all levels of society.” Dr. Guruswamy emphasized the objective nature of the research. “We do not come at this issue with any predetermined conclusions as to what Colorado should or should not do in this area. That is not the nature of academic research,” he said. “Our job is to study the issue with an open mind, carefully examine all the pros and cons, and only then to make recommendations based on all the evidence.”
Under House Bill 1322, the recipients of the three climate change grants awarded by the Department are required to report the results of their research to the Colorado legislature no later than March 15, 2007.
Established in 2003, the Energy and Environmental Security Initiative (EESI) is an interdisciplinary center located at the University of Colorado School of Law. The fundamental mission of EESI is to facilitate progress toward a global sustainable energy future through the innovative use of laws, policies and technology solutions. EESI serves as an enabling environment for teaching, research and policy analysis vis-à-vis the impact of laws and policies on the scientific, technological, sociopolitical, and commercial dimensions of sustainable energy.
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In addition, on Tuesday, September 26th, 2006, EESI launched its major new database of international energy treaties.
Sponsored by the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), the database is called the International Sustainable Energy Assessment (ISEA) and contains in-force energy treaties from all 192 countries in the world dealing with some 45 energy-related subject areas.
Commenting on the launch of the ISEA database, U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, remarked: “This is an invaluable database. It will be a useful tool in our diplomatic efforts to chart a sustainable energy future with our international partners.” Senator Lugar recently introduced the Energy Diplomacy and Security Act (EDSA) in the U.S. Senate, which has garnered bipartisan sponsorship from eleven U.S. senators. The EDSA seeks to use new and existing international agreements to enhance energy security and promote the use of sustainable energy.
According to Dr. Lakshman Guruswamy, EESI Director and CU Law’s Nicholas Doman Professor of International Environmental Law, the genesis of the ISEA project “arose out of the recognition that the challenges in moving to a more sustainable global energy regime cannot be solved by any one nation and must entail international engagement and cooperation.”
Morgan Bazilian, REEEP Programme Board Chair, remarked that “international agreements have the ability to profoundly impact renewable energy and energy efficiency activities. These instruments play a critical role by supporting markets, facilitating technology transfer and capacity-building, and reducing financial barriers. The ISEA project gives us an essential analytical baseline for understanding what’s happening in the world of international agreements relative to energy technologies—and enables us to take the next step of figuring out the best ways of using these instruments to facilitate the growth of renewable energy and energy efficiency activities.”
An impressive amount of work went into building the ISEA database. For more than a year, a team of EESI researchers identified and analyzed tens of thousands of international agreements. The researchers first spent months pulling together international agreements from around the world—focusing particularly on China, India, the European Union and the United States. They then reviewed every single agreement, determining which of them were relevant enough to include in the database. For those agreements included, the researchers carefully analyzed each agreement, coding them by subject areas, obligations, financial mechanisms, implementing methods, institutional arrangements and other relevant criteria.
At present, there are two versions of the ISEA database: an internal, password-restricted version that contains all 1,700 agreements—of which the United States is party to approximately 1,100—and a free public version that contains about 500 agreements. Project Manager Kevin Doran explained, “The internal database is a kind of holding-bin. After we’ve thoroughly researched and analyzed a treaty, we then pass it into the public database where anyone can access the information. We plan to have all 1,700 agreements available on the public site in the next six months.
Technology support for the project was provided by Anthum™ Solutions, LLC, of Denver, Colorado.
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| Dean Getches opens the conference |
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| Students, Faculty and guests enjoy the celebration |
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| Professor Lakshman Guruswamy |
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| Kevin Doran, EESI Research Associate, presents an overview of the ISEA project |
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| James Martin, Executive Director of Western Resource Advocates |
