Senior Associate at CASS (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

From 1st of August 2009 to the 1st of August 2010 I will be a senior associate at CASS (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences). I really look forward to this

The research will focus on how a transition to a resource efficient society can create opportunities, especially for China and Chinese companies. Urban areas are a key focus and particularly how investments can transform the existing carbon/natural resource intensive 20th century infrastructure to a low carbon/resource efficient 21st century infrastructure. How to measure savings and reductions from different policies and technologies is a theme that runs through all the work. Converging trends and converging solutions/technologies are the two starting points for the research. The set of ideas that will be explored are all collected under the heading “21st Century Frontiers” to symbolize that the research areas are exploring opportunities that are just emerging or soon will emerge, rather that existing challenges and opportunities.

The work will focus on the following areas:

- Transformative changes in society
How significant changes in society can be calculated and assessed. Most of the methodologies today focus on incremental changes where the rest if society remains the same. This work will develop models that also include the underlying infrastructure and how different choices affect this underlying infrastructure through dynamic effects.

- Emerging technologies
How it is possible to calculate and assess the impact of threshold events, especially those resulting of convergence of different technologies (such as IT, Nanotechnology and Biotechnology). Of particular interest are methodologies that allow for assessment of “high impact/low probability” events.

- Low carbon/resource efficient lifestyles
How different choices of individuals, companies and governments can be assessed in relation to a sustainable lifestyle (i.e. a lifestyle that is possible for nine billion people to live). How information can be presented in a way that allow it to be used for decision making also under time pressure is of particular interest. What values that support a low carbon lifestyle is particularly important for this work.

- International economic architecture
How different initiatives can be developed in order for an international economic architecture to support a low carbon and resource efficient economy.

- Business models for a harmonious future
How business can develop tools and standards that allow them to assess their positive contribution to a low carbon/ resource efficient development. Instead of only focusing on companies as problems that should reduce their emissions this research focus on developing tools that allow companies to report the emissions reductions they

- Low carbon city development
How cities development can be measured, not just the direct emissions, but also aspects such as embedded carbon and consequences for export (e.g. so that a city can account for export of sustainable solutions).

The research will both support ongoing work in CASS as well as explore future opportunities for research. Strengthening the international profile and credibility of CASS is important and will be part of the assessment when the projects are evaluated.

Article in SEED: It Is the IP Culture, Not the Law, That is the Problem

Here is an article about IP from the web version of SEED

It Is the IP Culture, Not the Law, That is the Problem

The question of intellectual property has become key in discussions about climate change and new technologies. In the short term, the IP discussion is about existing solutions or solutions that could be implemented quickly. It’s evident that current IP protection could help companies invest in solutions for reducing emissions. And overall, it is reasonable to assume that continued IP protection would support investments that deliver incremental improvements.

The challenge, however, is that we need more than incremental improvements. Anyone attending a symposium/conference/workshop about innovation will see that very few of the ideas developed by entrepreneurs have anything to do with the challenges we face. This fact has very little to do directly with the IP system itself and more about the culture surrounding the system.

As we move ahead, three areas need to be included in the IP discussion:

First, how we can distinguish between sustainable solutions and unsustainable solutions? Today no such system exists, and there’s no way to know which solutions deserve our attention on the IP level. The system doesn’t need to be perfect—just being able to do a rough categorization would help us understand what kind of solutions are being developed. Then we could investigate a framework to disseminate those solutions.

Second, and perhaps most important, is to create a culture where individuals and companies are inspired to find solutions to the challenges. If innovators and investors could assess how many people are helped with different solutions, we wouldn’t have to rely on short-term economic gains and pure curiosity to guide technological development. Using increased connectivity to provide real-time information about the situation around the world could encourage people to spend more time trying to solve the food and climate crisis and less time developing iFart applications.

Third, we need to improve the transparency around the financial rewards for different kinds of innovations. It would become obvious that we are spending incredible amounts of money on things like incremental improvements in coal and fossil fuel cars when much better solutions exist. This in turn would expose the fact that many companies are encouraging innovation based on their current business model, rather than the best way to provide different services for people. Protecting IP rights for solutions that destroy the planet, when parts of these solutions could be used in another context to help the planet, does not make much sense at all.

Dennis Pamlin is a senior associate at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and global policy adviser at WWF. The opinions in this text are those of the author, not the organizations for which he works.

Article in SEED: It Is the IP Culture, Not the Law, That is the Problem

Here is an article about IP from the web version of SEED

It Is the IP Culture, Not the Law, That is the Problem

The question of intellectual property has become key in discussions about climate change and new technologies. In the short term, the IP discussion is about existing solutions or solutions that could be implemented quickly. It’s evident that current IP protection could help companies invest in solutions for reducing emissions. And overall, it is reasonable to assume that continued IP protection would support investments that deliver incremental improvements.

The challenge, however, is that we need more than incremental improvements. Anyone attending a symposium/conference/workshop about innovation will see that very few of the ideas developed by entrepreneurs have anything to do with the challenges we face. This fact has very little to do directly with the IP system itself and more about the culture surrounding the system.

As we move ahead, three areas need to be included in the IP discussion:

First, how we can distinguish between sustainable solutions and unsustainable solutions? Today no such system exists, and there’s no way to know which solutions deserve our attention on the IP level. The system doesn’t need to be perfect—just being able to do a rough categorization would help us understand what kind of solutions are being developed. Then we could investigate a framework to disseminate those solutions.

Second, and perhaps most important, is to create a culture where individuals and companies are inspired to find solutions to the challenges. If innovators and investors could assess how many people are helped with different solutions, we wouldn’t have to rely on short-term economic gains and pure curiosity to guide technological development. Using increased connectivity to provide real-time information about the situation around the world could encourage people to spend more time trying to solve the food and climate crisis and less time developing iFart applications.

Third, we need to improve the transparency around the financial rewards for different kinds of innovations. It would become obvious that we are spending incredible amounts of money on things like incremental improvements in coal and fossil fuel cars when much better solutions exist. This in turn would expose the fact that many companies are encouraging innovation based on their current business model, rather than the best way to provide different services for people. Protecting IP rights for solutions that destroy the planet, when parts of these solutions could be used in another context to help the planet, does not make much sense at all.

Dennis Pamlin is a senior associate at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and global policy adviser at WWF. The opinions in this text are those of the author, not the organizations for which he works.

Low Carbon Business Innovation Forum in Beijing

WWF China together with China Entrepreneur Club hosted a Low Carbon Business Innovation Forum (Draft agenda here). I presented some of the major trends on the international scene and participated in a very interesting panel with Huang Ming, CEO of Himin Group and Li Yue, Vice President of China Mobile that was moderated by Zeng Zimo, Hostess from Phoenix TV.

It if fantastic to see how the WWF China team, and in this case particularly Ping Zheng (on the picture), are taking a leading role to support the emergence of a new generation of solution based companies. Before and after I spent time working with a team from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications – Service Science Research Institute, Marco Buttazzoni and Suzanne Pahlman to calculate savings from low carbon IT solutions. Some really interesting numbers are coming up and I really look forward to the final results.

Low Carbon Business Innovation Forum in Beijing

WWF China together with China Entrepreneur Club hosted a Low Carbon Business Innovation Forum (Draft agenda here). I presented some of the major trends on the international scene and participated in a very interesting panel with Huang Ming, CEO of Himin Group and Li Yue, Vice President of China Mobile that was moderated by Zeng Zimo, Hostess from Phoenix TV.

It if fantastic to see how the WWF China team, and in this case particularly Ping Zheng (on the picture), are taking a leading role to support the emergence of a new generation of solution based companies. Before and after I spent time working with a team from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications – Service Science Research Institute, Marco Buttazzoni and Suzanne Pahlman to calculate savings from low carbon IT solutions. Some really interesting numbers are coming up and I really look forward to the final results.