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L'urgence climatique appelle des politiques de réduction de gaz à effet de serre ambitieuses. Depuis la mise en oeuvre du protocole de Kyoto les avancées sont réelles avec notamment la création du marché carbone européen (EU ETS) pour les entreprises fortement émettrices. Cependant, il apparaît aujourd'hui que cette direction ne peut à elle seule suffire à placer les économies sur des sentiers de croissance suffisamment vertueux. Dans ce contexte, les villes qui sont les hôtes principaux des populations (plus de 50% de la planète vit en zone urbaine depuis 2007) et des activités consommatrice d'énergie (transport, bâtiment...), apparaissent comme une « nouvelle » aire d'investigation pour les politiques climatiques constituant d'immenses potentialités de réduction de gaz à effet de serre. De nombreux territoires sont convaincus de leur rôle fondamental dans la bataille du climat et tendent à se regrouper et à s'engager dans des plans climat locaux que des éclairages scientifiques pourraient contribuer à rendre plus efficaces. L'émergence de la ville / du territoire comme niveau approprié de mise en oeuvre des politiques climatiques, impose aux chercheurs de renouveler outils et approches méthodologiques afin de pouvoir rendre compte des nouvelles options techniques et organisationnelles et éclairer la décision politique. Ce chapitre explore les pistes d'amélioration possibles des outils de prospective dans le domaine énergie – climat, pour apporter aux collectivités territoriales des éclairages appropriés à des politiques climatiques locales plus ambitieuses.

International audience; Dans un contexte de raréfaction des ressources en énergie fossile et de changements climatiques, la Nouvelle-Calédonie, qui n'est pas actuellement soumise au protocole de Kyoto, doit répondre aux préoccupations environnementales et trouver les voies et moyens d'une moins grande dépendance énergétique. Au moment où le Territoire définit son Schéma d'aménagement et de développement 2025 et, dans le prolongement, son Schéma de l'énergie et du climat, le Gouvernement de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et l'ADEME, via le Comité territorial pour la maîtrise de l'énergie (CTME), ont demandé à l'Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) de produire un état des lieux complet et une analyse pluridisciplinaire des enjeux constitutifs de la question de l'énergie dans le développement de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. La maîtrise de l'énergie, les nouvelles technologies en matière de production et de stockage d'énergie, les moyens de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre, la géopolitique de l'énergie et du climat et la coopération régionale, la gouvernance de l'énergie et du climat en Nouvelle-Calédonie, ont ainsi été examinés au cours de l'année 2009 par un collège d'experts qui en restitue ici le bilan détaillé. Cette expertise collégiale qui a mobilisé l'ensemble des données scientifiques disponibles pour les décliner sur le cas particulier de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, livre une série de recommandations qui pourront utilement venir à l'appui des politiques que le Territoire est sur le point de se donner.

This article presents some difficulties encountered by rural electrification programmes in developing countries: rising costs of connection in sparsely populated areas, financial drain to electric utilities, uncertainties concerning the economic impact of electrification, etc. Given the economic characteristics of grid extension, it underscores the importance of technical innovation toward less capital intensive solutions in order to accelerate the pace of electrification and avoid marginalization. Lastly, it raises the issue of an appropriate solidarity mechanism between urban and rural residents which would not disadvantage local solutions, as price equalization does.

Energy labelling and minimum efficiency performance standards have proved to be very effective in stimulating energy efficiency improvement in the domestic appliance sector. But standards suffer from long and often difficult implementation periods because of the resistance of the industrial sector. As a consequence, the question has been raised as to whether similar results could not be obtained more easily and at lower cost with voluntary agreements, which offer flexibility margins in the achievement of commitments. This paper analyses the specific advantages of voluntary agreements compared with efficiency standards in the domestic appliance sector. We conclude that voluntary agreements may be an effective instrument in this respect but in certain conditions. The alternative of regulatory measures must remain a credible, realistic threat if voluntary agreements are to have a really significant impact on performance improvement.

International audience; The aim of the present paper is to analyse the effect of electricity sector liberalisation on the development of distributed generation, and more specifically to examine the conditions in which these new electricity generating technologies can be diffused in a liberalised framework. The paper looks first at how competition has affected the electricity market. This analysis is followed by an examination of the problems of inte-grating distributed generation into electricity systems. In the third part of the paper, three brief case studies highlight the principal differences between Germany, the United Kingdom and France in the field of distrib-uted generation. This brief analysis reveals that the institutional framework in which distributed generation must operate and the price signals given to electricity sector actors play as big a part as traditional incentives, certificates, bidding systems or guaranteed feed-in tariffs in driving the deployment process.

Note de travail Lepii-epe ; 2003/1, 14 p.; Les problèmes que soulève l'intégration de la production intermittente sont de nature technique (risque de non disponibilité à la pointe, besoins de réserve supplémentaires) mais les modalités de fonctionnement des marchés électriques lui imposent des pénalités économiques qui dépassent largement ces surcoûts techniques. Dans ce texte, les auteurs examinent la nature des problèmes techniques posés par l'intermittence et les surcoûts qui en résultent, puis analysent l'origine des pénalités économiques qu'impose le fonctionnement des marchés électriques libéralisés, en prenant notamment l'exemple du marché britannique, le New Electricity Trading Arrangement (NETA). Il apparaît que les règles de fonctionnement des marchés peuvent dans certains cas entrer en contradiction avec les objectifs de promotion de la production d'électricité d'origine renouvelable. Deux types de solutions sont alors envisageables : un aménagement des règles pour en limiter l'impact sur la production intermittente ou un traitement collectif de l'ajustement, pour la production d'origine renouvelable, tel qu'il existe sur le marché nordique de l'électricité.

Without reinforced energy saving policies, residential consumption of electricity will increase sharply over the next 20 years, in particular, as a result of expected growth in the specific uses of electricity. The main problem is not a lack of energy-efficient technologies, which do indeed exist for electrical appliances, but one of slow diffusion of existing technologies due to the weakness of the price signal and the purchasing behaviour of consumers. In association with energy labelling, minimum energy performance standards have proved to be very effective in stimulating technological progress and organising market transformation. But standards also suffer from long and often difficult implementation periods because of the resistance of the industrial sector. For manufacturers, similar results could be obtained more easily and more rapidly with voluntary agreements because they introduce flexibility margins in the achievement of commitments. This paper analyses the specific advantages of voluntary agreements for improving energy efficiency in the domestic appliances sector. We conclude that voluntary agreements may be an effective instrument for market transformation in certain conditions, but the alternative of regulatory measures must remain a credible, realistic threat if voluntary agreements are to have a really significant impact on performance improvement.

International audience; This paper deals with a comparative analysis of the economic and social efficiency of the instruments used to promote renewable energy sources (RES), first from a static standpoint and then using dynamic criteria to assess their ability to stimulate technological progress and cost reduction. First, the instruments are analysed in relation to the classical discussion of environmental policy that opposes price-based instruments versus quantity-based instruments in an uncertain environment (feed-in tariffs as price based system on one hand, quotas + green certificates, competitive bidding as quantity-based instruments on the other hand). Next, the incentives to invest and innovate in the context of each framework are analysed in relation to the sharing of the surplus associated with each of them between producers/constructors and consumers or the public budget. Finally, the paper looks at the overall cost-efficiency of the policies on the basis of each instrument, by referring to factual evidence in European experiences. It concludes that if social preference is attached to climate change prevention and reflected in a high quantitative objective for renewables, sliding scale feed-in tariffs are a good compromise in order to promote technical progress and national RES industry also. The quota/certificate system also presents a number of advantages in terms of static efficiency, but its ability to stimulate innovation still has to be confirmed by experience.

An Agreement on CDM rules in important both for industrialised and developing countries. As a flexibility mechanism, it will allow industrialised countries to benefit from low cost emission reductions but the CDM, as a main goal, should stimulate a more sustainable economic development in DCs. The CDM is the sole instrument, with GEF, proposed for DCs' participation in climate change prevention. This situation satisfies a majority of DCs, but CDM may not offer sufficient perspectives for some countries with rapid industrialisation given the huge economic stakes linked to the creation of a carbon credits market between Annex I countries. The operationality of the CDM is not yet established and important questions, such as environmental additionality, are still unresolved. Here we first examine the rules in order to validate project additionality and its possible consequences on the effectiveness and the scope of the mechanism. The different reactions of major DCs groups on the structure of the mechanism will then be analysed. This will lead us to examine the possibilities to enlarge participation of DCs in climate change prevention according to the apparent wish of semi-industrialised countries.

The emergence of a new lighting technology in the residential sector at the beginning of the 1980s has created a situation of technological competition with an existing and mature technology. Despite specific advantages in terms of durability and energy efficiency, the new compact fluorescent lamp faced numerous adoption barriers when introduced on the market. Further improvement of performance and characteristics has been necessary to reduce these barriers and establish a solid driving force for dissemination. The authors point out the importance of public programmes in this respect, which created initial niche markets and allowed a technological learning process to become established.

There has been a sharp downturn in the building of electricity production and distribution facilities in sub-Saharan Africa due to economic and financial constraints. In part this was due to the steady decline in GDP in sub-Saharan Africa throughout the 1980s. The slackening growth of demand and the continuing decline in existing generating capacity have led to a shift in emphasis towards the restructuring of electricity companies, management improvements and the rehabilitation of existing plants rather than new investment in production and distribution facilities. Nevertheless, valid doubts remain as to the ability of the African electricity sector to mobilize sufficient resources in the medium term to ensure its development.

Selected papers from 4th ULCOS SEMINAR, October 2008; Modeling activities and scenario building are at the heart of the economic analysis delivered by the ULCOS program. Two main objectives were followed in the framework of SP9. First the modeling team had to provide a set of coherent energy economic scenarios using POLES model. Second, the economic conditions for the emergence of the ULCOS technologies were analyzed. ULCOS contributes to the elaboration of contrasted scenarios that the steel industry could face in the long term. To aim at these objectives specific tools have been used: POLES model for the global energy system modeling and ISIM model for the steel sector based prospective ([1] Hidalgo, 2003). The most promising steel production technologies identified in ULCOS Phase 1 have been introduced into ISIM as generic technologies. ISIM was then integrated as a module into POLES modeling system. The main model outputs are the energy prices and mixes and the steel sector balances with a focus on the technology mix. Actually the climate policy scenarios developped in project allow making recommendations to the steel industry in terms of sustainable development but also in terms of business strategy.