Low Carbon Cchina: Disruptic Innovation and The Role Oo International Collaboration by David Tyfield and James Wilsdon The China Policy Institute – The University of Nottingham, is a paper the shows the important role that academics play at the sustainability table.

The second paragraph for me sets the stage:

It is now widely recognised that climate change is not merely an ecological, but also irreducibly a social problem. The analysis of both climate and its interaction with social formations also has led to recognition of the need to assume a complex systems perspective (Rial et al. 2004). The challenge of climate change, therefore, is the challenge of moving from unsustainable and highcarbon to sustainable, lowcarbon socioeconomic systems and on a global scale. This must also be effected within the stringent time constraints imposed by the ecological process of global heating. In this light, we argue that the goal of low carbon innovation must also be understood as the realisation of such a systems change and in good time.

An argument I myself have been making, Tyfield and Wilsdon’s paper do an excellent job of taking readers through this issues in a very logical manner:

• Section II explores the importance of China in the global effort on climate change and the current policy situation in China regarding environmental protection, mitigation of emissions and adaptation.
• Section III explores the definition of low carbon innovation and the importance of how it is defined for assessment of the current state of low carbon innovation capacity in China
• Section IV explores international collaboration and discusses the issues that affect the role of international collaboration in low carbon innovation in the light of the previous sections.
• Section V discusses the current status of low carbon innovation and the role of international collaboration in one key sector, namely energy, in the light of some empirical case studies.
• Section VI concludes with some policy recommendations.

For more on this, I would encourage you to visit Green Leap Forward’s interviews )part 1 and Part 2) of Professor Tyfield from last year.