The Asia Energy and Sustainability Initiative (AESI) leverages the Ash Center’s depth in the study of governance and policy innovation in Asia, the Belfer Center’s expertise in energy technology and energy policy, and draws on the Sustainability Science Program’s system-based analysis of sustainable development. Three key questions motivate the AESI research agenda:
- Is State-led Capital “Patient” in the Energy Innovation Process? AESI’s work investigates how government finance, ownership, monopsony, and other levers shape risk-sharing models between state and private actors as well as pressures for innovation in technology development and deployment.
- Is Electrification Advancing? Research identifies strategies that Asian nations are employing to electrify greater swathes of their economies, including transportation and heating.
- What is the Future of Coal Use in Asia? The market effects and environmental effects of coal's rise are particularly critical to understand as this fuel becomes more diversified through both gasification and liquefaction advancements in the region.
AESI work is disseminated through academic journals and the popular press, academic conferences and workshops, and executive education programs tailored for government officials and company executives from Asia.
Current Research
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Edward Cunningham. "The State and the Firm: China’s Energy Governance in Context." The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Boston University, March, 2015.
- Wing Ho Tom Cheng, Gautam Kamath, Kevin Rowe, Eleanor Wood, and Taisen Yue. “Low Carbon Shanghai: Avoiding Carbon Lock-In through Sustainable Urbanization.” Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, August 2014.
- Howell, Sabrina, Lee, Henry, and Heal, Adam. “Leapfrogging or Stalling Out? Electric Vehicles in China.” Discussion Paper, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School. May 2014.
- Skalamera, Morena. “Booming Synergies in Sino-Russian Natural Gas Partnership.” Paper, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, May 2014.
- Moore, Scott. “The Politics of Thirst: Managing Water Resources under Scarcity in the Yellow River Basin, People’s Republic of China.” Discussion Paper 2013-08, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Sustainability Science Program, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, December 2013.