Small-scale Wind EnergyPolicy insights and practical guidance
Source: Carbon Trust (UK)
Small-scale wind energy (wind turbines <50kW rated capacity) is receiving increasing interest as one of a number of microgeneration technologies with potential to reduce carbon emissions. Recent years have seen new products being made available on the UK market, which a survey by the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) suggests is growing quickly.
However, the overall potential of small-scale wind energy to reduce carbon emissions, and the conditions under which maximum carbon reductions can be made, have not been entirely clear. Recognising this, the Carbon Trust commissioned research from the Met Office and Entec to determine: the overall UK carbon prize associated with small-scale wind energy; and how small wind turbines can best be sited to save most carbon.

Biofuel support policies : an economic assessment [online resource]

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

"Shows that the high level of policy support contributes little to reduced greenhouse-gas emissions and other policy objectives, while it adds to a range of factors that raise international prices for food commodities." - abstract.

International trade and climate change : economic, legal, and institutional perspectives [book]
World Bank
"Provides a comprehensive look, from economic, legal, and institutional perspectives, at the intersections and potential synergies between climate change objectives and international trade obligations. ... Identifies the key issues at stake, where they mesh and where they do not, as well as opportunities for aligning development and energy policies in ways that could stimulate production, trade, and investment in cleaner technology options." - cover.

Electric water : the emerging revolution in water and energy [book]

Christopher C. Swan

"Offers a vision of a near future where quality of life is dramatically improved for all without drastic scalebacks. The vision is based on technology - solar energy, water purification, transportation and eco-restoration - that already exists. It is attainable within 20 years and represents thousands of jobs, in urban and rural areas, and economic development globally." - cover.

Biofuel support policies : an economic assessment [online resource]

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

"Shows that the high level of policy support contributes little to reduced greenhouse-gas emissions and other policy objectives, while it adds to a range of factors that raise international prices for food commodities." - abstract.

Start Thinking About Carbon Assets -- Now
By Alex Rau and Robert Toker
From Harvard Business Review Vol. 86 Issue 9 Sept 2008, pp. 28-30
"The article poses and answers questions about carbon assets and mitigation strategy including questions on the value of a carbon credit or financial contract that has been issued to countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol, the reason why the replacement of incandescent lighting with compact fluorescent light bulbs does not qualify as a carbon asset, and the cost of carbon-related projects."

Approaches to urban water pricing [online resource]

Australia. National Water Commission

Assesses the current arrangements, scarcity pricing and urban user trading against a number of criteria, including economic efficiency, revenue adequacy, flexibility, ease of operation, and transparency.

Broadband and the economy : ministerial background report [online resource]

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

"Examines the way in which broadband networks interact with the economy, the role they play in creating the conditions for sustainable economic growth and prosperity, and the structural changes they enable." - page 5.

International Energy Agency (IEA). Coal Information [online resource]

International Energy Agency (IEA)

Reviews the world coal market developments in 2008 and provides coal statistics for OECD and non-OECD countries in tabular and graphic form.

Global environment outlook 4 : environment for development [reference book]
United Nations Environment Program

"Provides an overview of the global and regional environmental, social and economic state-and-trends over the past two decades. It highlights interlinkages, challenges and opportunities which the environment provides for development and human well-being." - cover.

Now available in Library & Research Services' Reference Collection.

The transfer and commercialisation of nanotechnology: a comparative analysis of university and company researchers (journal article)
by Christopher Palmberg
from Journal of Technology Transfer Volume 33, Number 6 / December, 2008 pp. 631-652
Nanotechnology has been proposed as the next general purpose technology and engine for growth for the 21th century. Increasing public R&D investments are foremost reflected in the growth of scientific publications, while nanotechnology still is in an uncertain phase of development with various directions of commercialization pending. This paper focuses on the challenges, modes and outcomes of nanotechnology as an emerging science-based field in Finland. The paper contributes by interrogating how challenges and modes of nanotechnology transfer differ across universities and companies and determine outcomes broadly defined. The results of a survey show significant differences in the perceptions of researchers across these organisations, and highlight specific challenges and modes as determinants of outcomes.

Globalization of technology-based growth: the policy imperative (journal article)
by Gregory Tassey
from Journal of Technology Transfer Volume 33, Number 6 / December, 2008 pp. 560-578
The United States became the dominant technology-based economy after World War II and held that position for decades by accumulating a huge base of superior technical, physical, organizational, and marketing assets. However, the world is witnessing the rapid globalization of technology-based competition, which is the result of major commitments by many nations to investment in technology and its effective utilization. The changing dynamics of such competition requires revisions to the centuries’ old law of comparative advantage and the Schumpeterian process of creative destruction. However, U.S. technology-based growth policies have at best stood still for most of this period.

Register of Australian Mining 2008/09

Resource Information Unit

"It provides a comprehensive analysis of all mines, projects and prospects in Australia in a user-friendly, state-by-state, commodity-by-commodity format, which is fully indexed. It includes full geology details. It also provides a financial and editorial summary of all Australian Stock Exchange-listed mining companies and more than 300 private mining companies. It includes names and titles and contact details (including email addresses) for management staff and company directors at company offices and mine sites. " - publisher's website.

Now available in Library & Research Services' Reference Collection.

What if they had never existed? [book]

Nicola Sasanelli

Pays tribute to some of the great inventors and scientists including Pythagoras, Leonardo da Vinci, and Marie Curie.

Mapping the frontiers of evaluation of public sector R&D programs (journal article)
by Irwin Feller
from Science and Public Policy Vol 34 No 10 December 2007, pp. 681-690
Evident in recent requests by policy-makers for evidence about the effectiveness and impacts of public-sector R&D programs and associated calls for a science of science policy is a call for new and improved approaches to evaluation. The trend is towards ex ante questions directed at providing analytical frameworks, metrics or methodologies relevant to future decisions, rather than ex post questions related to whether programs are working or had worked. Evaluators thus confront an evolving research agenda consisting both of new questions and old questions asked with increased emphasis. Among these are: how to set priorities among and within fields of scientific and technological inquiry; how to effectively and equitably choose among competing performers and proposals; and how to aggregate and integrate findings relating to specific policies and programs into an overarching national innovation systems framework.

A Question of balance : weighing the options on global warming policies [book]

William D. Nordhaus

"Integrates the entire spectrum of economics and scientific research to weigh the costs of reducing emissions against the benefits of reducing the long-run damages from global warming." - cover.

People and biodiversity policies : impacts, issues and strategies for policy action [online resource]

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Aims to "help policy-makers who are responsible for designing and implementing biodiversity policies understand the relevance of distributive issues (for both equity and efficiency), and how to integrate them into policy formulation." - page 10.

Visual design for the modern web [book]

Author: Penny McIntire

"Shows novice web designers how their tools - including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript - in conjunction with the principles of aethetics and usabililty to become masters of their craft." - cover.

Strategies for today's energy challenge (Journal article)
by Jeff Bingaman
from Issues in Science and Technology Summer2008, Vol. 24 No 4, pp. 33-38
Developing new energy sources provides an economic and technological opportunity for the United States.

Effects of university characteristics on scientists’ interactions with the private sector: an exploratory assessment (Journal article)
by Branco L. Ponomariov
From Journal of Technology Transfer Vol 33 No 5 October 2008, pp. 485-503
This paper estimates the effect of select university characteristics on the propensity of individual scientists to interact with private sector companies. The academic prestige of an institution has a direct negative effect on scientists’ interactions with the private sector, while the level of industrial R&D expenditures has a direct positive effect on such interactions. Institutional characteristics also moderate the effect of some individual-level variables such as tenure status, grant activity, involvement with students and disciplinary effects.