Innovation policy for sustainability – a new agenda

Fred StewardProfessor of Innovation & Sustainability, Policy Studies Institute, Westminster University, London, UKUK-China Workshop, Beijing, March 2010

A shift in policy discourse

A shared acknowledgement that addressing sustainability implies radical change

New policy narratives from margin to mainstream in the last 10 years

‘Green revolution ‘Ecological transformation’ ‘Low carbon transition’

The limits of incrementalism

Greening of technology – incrementalism does deliver…but

Lock-in and narrow focus Relative improvements in resource use &

pollution impact eg: household appliances, cars, aeroplanes

Yet, environmental impact of household and personal transport continue to increase - the ‘rebound effect’

Transformative innovation – a new focus

Incremental innovation small innovations, or improvements to optimise existing systems of knowledge, e.g. reducing packaging waste;

Radical innovationpartial system redesigns, e.g. improvements in recycling which require innovations in product design and infrastructure for recycling;

Transformative innovation full system redesign and culture change in the way people think about products and services, e.g. industrial ecologies or life cycle approaches to product design.

UK Government

We must embrace a green revolution…in the way we live and work

Gordon Brown, 12 July 2009

UK Opposition

‘I want to lead a new green revolution…that brings forward the best technology’

David Cameron April 2006

United States of America

truly transform our economy …and save our planet from the ravages of climate change

Barack Obama 24 February 2009

Peoples Republic of China

A revolution in … technology…building an environment friendly society

Wen Jiabao October 2005

European Union

the European Union hopes to stimulate… the low

carbon revolution

Manuel Barroso 18 January 2007

Not simply at the rhetorical level

Change in policy landscape from climate change ‘problem’ to low carbon innovation ‘solution’

Incorporation of ambitious targets into national and transnational legal form

Driven by mix of global treaty obligations & local informed advocacy

Remains the basic trend of policy despite the new post- Copenhagen context

The UK strategy 2009

Carbon Budget targets

2050 – 80% less 2020 – 21% less than

2005 (min)

‘The challenge is not the technical feasibility of a low-carbon economy but making it happen’

The UK track record (1)

The UK track record (2)

China’s national strategy

National Climate Change programme Cut in CO2 emissions per unit of production

45% between 2005-2020 Mandatory target in mid & long term plan for

national economic and social development

China track record (1)

China track record (2)

USA track record

In summary

A variety of national governments are incorporating carbon targets into their economic and social policies

The targets are highly ambitious given the national track records

Despite the setback for a new global treaty this represent a highly significant policy domain

The global challenge remains huge

Policy needs new ideas

The new consensus over the need for ‘revolutionary’ change precipitates a search for relevant ideas

One resource is the repertoire of historical analogies of episodes of ‘radical’ change

Another resource is the range of academic concepts on the dynamics of innovation and change

Historical analogies

Quite pervasive and powerful in contemporary discourse

Tend to reflect contrasting views on ‘statism’ and ‘individualism’

Tend to polarise between a focus on either ‘technological’ or ‘social’ innovation

4 narratives are quite common at present

Narrative 1: ‘big science’

Government has made big investments in key areas of science in the past – it should do so again

Popular analogies are the research programmes that led to nuclear weapons and human space travel

A new ‘Apollo’ programme

Martin Rees (President of the Royal Society)

A ‘global response analogous to the Apollo programme’

Editorial in Science, August 2006

Ambitious public investment in more R&D for new ‘far from market’ energy technologies

Conceptual roots

Linear science push model Innovation arises from radical breakthroughs

in basic science Largely abandoned by innovation

researchers though still a few advocates Still popular with some scientists

Narrative 2: ‘industrial revolution’

Low carbon transition is equivalent long term revolution in technology & economics

Forces driving it are structural in nature – new technologies, natural limits

Policy options are to facilitate national receptiveness and entrepreneurial opportunity

Influential advocates

Amory Lovins – US environmentalist & entrepreneur

Peter Mandelson, BIS Peter MacFadden

Conceptual roots

‘Technoeconomic paradigm – Freeman & Perez

Schumpeterian evolutionary theory of innovation

Ecological modernisation – Huber Influential among economic studies of

innovation Epochs defined by ‘lead technologies’

Narrative 3: ‘social reform’

Analogies with government led programmes of welfare reform from the 20th century eg Rooselvelt’s New Deal

Large scale state investment for societal purposes is possible

Advocates – greens, social democrats

Conceptual roots

Traditional theories of state action for social purposes

Retheorised as social innovation and public innovation

Narrative 4: ‘moral crusade’

Analogies with ethical and moral crusades for reform

Wilberforce’s campaign for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and Martin Luther King’s leadership of the Civil Rights movement are exemplars

Advocates

Head of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

No halfway house on moral principles

Carbon dependency moral equivalence

Rhetoric of reaction

James Hansen Leading climatologist

Marc Davison, University of Amsterdam

What do these narratives possess

Powerful narratives with influential advocates Recognise past periods of radical change Tend to inscribe established political

positions and guidelines Evocative of actual changes despite

problems

What do they lack

A model of how social and technological innovation interact with each other

New routes for global institutions to effectively interact with established institutions of national governance

Convincing approaches to the urgency of the climate change challenge

These are the key challenges for a new transformative discourse and innovation policy

Actually existing innovation policy

Turning to the real world of UK innovation policy there are interesting signs of change

The persistence of science push has begun to be displaced

NESTA played a key role in translating academic concepts about innovation into policy terms

From Sainsbury Review to Innovation Nation

The new innovation policy

Challenge ledDemand sideSocial as well as technologicalPublic and private actors Interactive networks

Sources

Interactive - Freeman, Rothwell SPRU User led – von Hippel Open – Chesbrough Actor networks – Callon, Latour Innovation commons – Lessig Sociotechnical transitions – Geels, Schot

Exemplars

Old

Atom bomb Concorde Double helix Penicillin

Science & corporate actors

New

The jeep Easyjet The internet Municipal systems

Public and entrepreneurial actors

A sustainability oriented innovation policy

Need for system innovation

Involves technology & social change

Crosses the production & consumption divide

The reintroduction of societal mission

The policy need for diversity

The policy need to address end use

Geels - networks

The multilevel approach

The British public’s favourite – Turner’s picture of a sociotechnical transition

New thinking

Needs a sociology of interactions An understanding of innovation as it is

situated in real social networks Policy remains dominated by a

society/individual duality expressed through economics and psychology

The perspective from economics

The perspective from psychology

Opportunity

Policy advice remains dominated by economics (trading/tax) and psychology (behavioural change)

Diversity is increasingly recognised and the need for end use engagement

Transitions plan recognises different technologies and new initiatives on Community challenges recognises user enagement

Yet

Current interpretation of diversity favours the incumbents:

Off shore wind Carbon capture and storage Nuclear Electric car

‘silos’ or ‘networks’ ?

New systems need stronger voice

Small local waste into biogas Smart grids Micro generation Combined heat and power Multimodal transport – cycles to buses

The new system innovators

More likely to be:

municipal and regional actors infrastructural actors green entrepreneurs civil society third sector actors

The sources of variety Equal rights with the incumbents (at least)!

New capabilities needed

Understanding of systemic (not singular) innovation

‘Learning by doing’ - sociotechnical experiments

Framing goals in terms of societal outcomes rather than technical inputs

Promoting ’bottom up’ innovation to complement the ‘top down’ carbon market

Need for new interdisciplinary boundary spanning competences

A practice based approach

Is there an alternative to the economic incentive or psychological persuasion?

Yes… enactment, enrolment, performance in new social experiments

Conclusion

Need for a challenge led broad based innovation policy

A shift to practice based social experimentation

A strong new transformative discourse which combines the power of the old with that of the new