Date : Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Time : 9:30am to 12:30pm
Venue : Suntec Convention Centre, Level 3, Room MR 326
For those interested in attending, please register your name, organization, designation and email address via the SIEW 2011 website here. For enquiries, please contact Ms Jan Lui at 65162000.
About the Roundtable:
Behavioural economics is an increasingly popular branch of economics that incorporates elements from psychology to explain why people make seemingly irrational decisions such as under-saving for retirement or why they buy energy-inefficient light bulbs and appliances. Of late, behavioural economics has been increasingly used to formulate energy policy, often prescribing cheaper solutions to reduce carbon emissions or energy consumption. However, not all energy analysts are convinced that these policy prescriptions will be of any consequence. Key questions to be discussed include:
- Are policy prescriptions that stem from behavioural economics a substitute for more mainstream economic interventions in energy markets?
- To what extent can behavioural economics help mitigate climate change?
- How can behavioural economics affect energy consumption?
- What lessons can Asia learn from energy policy-making exercises in the developed countries?
- Professor James Sweeney, Director, Precourt Energy Efficiency Center, Stanford University.
- Dr. Kenneth Gillingham, Assistant Professor of Economics, Yale University; and former Fellow for Energy and the Environment at the White House Council of Advisers.
- Professor Dr Lucia A. Reisch, Professor and Chair for Intercultural Behaviour and Consumer Policy at Copenhagen Business School, Department of Intercultural Communication and Management, Denmark.
About the Speakers:
Professor Sweeney of Stanford University, is Director of the Precourt Energy Efficiency Center and Professor of Management Science and Engineering. His professional activities focus on economic policy and analysis, particularly in energy, natural resources and the environment. He is currently a Senior Fellow of: the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research; Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace; Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; Woods Institute for the Environment; and Precourt Institute for Energy. Prof. Sweeney is also a Senior Fellow of the U.S. Association for Energy Economics, a lifetime National Associate of the National Academies, a council member and senior fellow of the California Council on Science and Technology and a member of the External Advisory Council of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from MIT in electrical engineering and his PhD from Stanford University in engineering-economic systems.
At Stanford he has served as Director of the Energy Modelling Forum, Chairman of the Institute for Energy Studies and Director of the Center for Economic Policy Research (now the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research). He was a founding member of the International Association for Energy Economics, co-editor of the Journal Resource and Energy Economics and vice-president for publications of the International Association for Energy Economics. In the early 1970s he was Director of the Office of Energy Systems Modelling and Forecasting of the U.S. Federal Energy Administration. He has served as a member of numerous committees of the National Research Council including: America’s Energy Future, Benefits of DOE R&D in Energy Efficiency and Fossil Energy, Effectiveness and Impact of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards and Alternatives and Strategies for Future Hydrogen Production and Use.
Dr Kenneth Gillingham is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. He is an energy and environmental economist with research focused on energy efficiency, the adoption of new energy technologies and quantitative policy and programme analysis. He has publish widely in the energy economics and engineering literatures. Recent publications have focused on the adoption of solar photovoltaic technology, market failures in household energy efficiency and alternative fuels for transportation.
On-going research delves deeply into the effects of different policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel efficiency in the transportation sector. He was a Fulbright Fellow in New Zealand and a Fellow for Energy and the Environment at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. He also spent two years at Resources for the Future, a think-tank in Washington, DC devoted to the quantitative analysis of environmental and energy policies. His PhD is in Management Science & Engineering and Economics from Stanford University, where he was affiliated with the Precourt Energy Efficiency Center (PEEC). He also holds a Masters in Statistics and a Masters in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University. His undergraduate degree was an A.B. in Economics and Environmental Studies from Dartmouth College.
Professor Dr Lucia A. Reisch is full professor and Chair for Intercultural Consumer Behaviour and Consumer Policy at Copenhagen Business School, Department of Intercultural Communication and Management, Denmark. Based in both Den-mark and Germany, she also holds a Professorship for Consumer Research and Consumer Policy at the Zeppelin University of Friedrichshafen in Germany. She is also a Research Professor at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin.
An economist and social scientist by training (University of Hohenheim, University of California Los Angeles), she holds a doctorate degree in economics. Her main research focus is on sustainable consumption, intercultural consumer behaviour, consumers and new technologies, consumer policy issues, behavioural economics and corporate sustainability.
She is currently involved in several EU large scale research projects on consumer behaviour and policy (FP6 and FP7) as well as in German and Swedish research projects on sustainable consumption and sustainability policy. She is Editor of the international publication “Journal of Consumer Policy” (Springer Publishers) and has published more than 200 scientific publications. This includes a 2010 review report on the future of national energy research.<
As a policy consultant, she serves in national and international advisory boards. Among others, she chairs the Scientific Board of Advisors to the German Ministry of Consumer Affairs and is a member of the German Council for Sustainable Development consulting for the German government.
After 3/11 (Fukushima), she was invited by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to be one of 12 members of the “Ethics Commission” to consult the German government about Germany’s energy future and its pathway with respect to nuclear energy. She is presently consulting for the German Minister of the Environment in matters relating to consumer energy policy and demand side politics.
About Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW)
Securing Our Energy Future
31 October – 4 November 2011, Singapore
The 4th Annual SIEW 2011 is the foremost platform for top policymakers, industry players and commentators to discuss energy issues, strategies and solutions. SIEW 2011 brings together the world’s leading conferences, exhibitions, workshops and networking events in one week, in one location. Covering key issues such as oil & gas, energy trading, clean energy and smart grids, SIEW 2011 provides the ideal focal point to dis-cuss energy security through the generation of ideas and exchange of best practice. SIEW is your opportunity to connect with energy leaders, impact the energy debate and define the future of energy. Visit http://www.siew.sg/ for more information or email siew2011@tricom.com.sg