Research and Publications
Energy Position Paper
The World Future Council regards the threat of global warming as the greatest facing future generations. We urgently need to overcome the gap between "knowing" and "acting" in all areas of climate change. The global community can change course. The World Future Council believes that the point of no return has not yet been reached, if humanity acts now with consistent political will. The sky literally is the limit!! Both in terms of the limited capacity of the atmosphere to absorb greenhouse gases, but also with regard to the boundless potential of renewable energy!
Download the Sky's the Limit - the World Future Council position on energy and climate change
Feed-in Tariff Work
The World Future Council regards the Feed-in tariff system as the most effective available policy to increase the deployment of renewable energy.
Download the WFC Guide to this successful policy here
And the World Future Council has commissioned Dr. David Toke from Birmingham University to examine the performance of the UK government's Renewables Obligation (RO), and the general case for a Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (REFIT).
Read the Full Report with the list of prominent backers here
Read the Summary of the Report here
Ongoing research
As part of our commitment to identifying solutions fit for the future, the research team is engaged in an ongoing project to identify successful policies from around the world. These are those policies which have succeeded in generating meaningful, positive change in relation to the key global challenges.
The first twelve have been printed as a document 'Policies to Change the World', and include policies on energy, waste, transport, food and disarmament.
These are available to download here
Publications
Surviving the Century:
Facing Climate Chaos & Other Global Challenges
Edited by Herbert Girardet
ISBN: 9781844074587
Format: Hardback
Publisher: Earthscan
Date: April 2007
Price: £17.99 (pre-order your copy here)
This book, the first major book to be published by the World Future Council, is focused primarily on environmental issues. Above all else its eight chapters are concerned with making new choices about dealing with climate change ? probably the greatest ever collective challenge faced by humanity, and one that goes right to the heart of the growth philosophy underpinning modern urban industrial civilisation. With leading researchers saying we may have little more than ten years to stop catastrophic climate change from becoming irreversible, not facing this challenge will be an intolerable crime against the future.
As Ross Gelbspan notes in his chapter, ?a meaningful solution to the climate crisis could potentially be the beginning of a much larger transformation of our social and economic dynamics?. This book offers a contribution to this transformation. Looking in turn at issues relating to energy, agriculture, forests, cities, industrial processes, international trade, and the democratic system, this books contributors consider the gaps between where we are and where we need to be, and point to ways of bridging these.
Feed-in Tariffs: Accelerating the development of renewable energy
by Miguel Mendonça
ISBN: 9781844074662/1844074668
Format: Hardback
Publisher: Earthscan
Date: May 2007
Price: £35.00 (pre-order your copy here)
This book offers a concise and unique introduction to feed-in law ? examining the experience of countries that have implemented this model, and providing policy makers with the information required to consider feed-in tariffs as a model. The author argues that the policy should be implemented anywhere with a suitable national power grid infrastructure, and identifies variations on the policy for those areas without. Alternative models are examined, and their comparative advantages and disadvantages discussed, to provide policy makers with the information required to consider the implementation of feed-in tariffs, and to introduce the concept to renewable energy technology manufacturers, producers, investors and supporters.
A feed-in tariff is a renewable energy law which obliges energy suppliers to buy electricity produced from renewable resources at a fixed price, usually over a fixed period. These legal guarantees ensure investment security, and the support of all viable renewable energy technologies. It was recommended in the Stern Report as the best policy tool for the fastest, lowest-cost deployment of renewables, and Germany's world leadership in renewable energy is thanks largely to their exemplary version.
Shaping our Future:
Creating the World Future Council
By Jakob von Uexkull and Herbert Girardet
ISBN: 1 903998 46 8
Format: Paperback - 96 pages
Publisher: Green Books /
World Future Council Initiative
Date: June 2005 (Revised and Expanded Edition)
Price: Free to download here
As a result of rampant materialism, consumerism and a very narrow view of the world, we have created a profoundly unsustainable civilisation which is effectively a world without a future. Shaping Our Future was the first attempt to define the need for, and structure of, The World Future Council. First published in 2004 with the title Creating The World Future Council this book outlines the original vision of the WFC, set up to challenge this situation.
Cities People Planet:
Liveable Cities for a Sustainable World
by Herbert Girardet
ISBN: 0 470 85284 4
Format: Paperback - 304 pages
Date: October 2004
Price: £20 GBP + P&P
Buy Online with RIBA Bookshops
There is a huge amount of interest in the future of the planet and how architecture and design can contribute to this. This book considers the ecological design of the city and includes ideas and best practice examples of ecological architectural and urban design around the world.
The tone of the book is extremely accessible as it demonstrates how small changes in one area of the world can have impacts elsewhere. It gives an optimistic view and leaves the reader fascinated at the intricacies of the planet's ecosystems and how architecture and urban design can affect it. Examples range from Ladbroke Grove solar city in London to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Copenhagen, Curitiba, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Helsinki, Portland Oregon, New York and New Delhi.
It is an extremely well rounded book with a balance of focus across history and around the world and is set to be a complete and comprehensive work written by one of the leading figures in this field.one of the leading figures in this field.
