Shaping the market for clean technologies: managing the transition to sustainable automotive cooling systems.

Few car owners regularly think of the environmental impact of the refrigerant used in the air conditioning systems of their vehicles. However, the cooling agents most commonly used in these systems, have in the past decades been recognised to be potent greenhouse gases, and therefore direct contributors to climate change. Currently driven by regulation, technological development for climate-friendly cooling agents is occurring rapidly, but we are now seeing an industry wide shift to a synthetic solution in place of a natural alternative. Recent measurements show that the former could pose a threat to ecosystems; potentially toxic for plants, animals and algae. A natural and safe solution exists - but is somewhat more expensive and technically demanding. In this highly uncertain regulatory and scientific environment, the project hypothesises that short-term fixes are being relied upon, in place of long-term economically and environmentally viable options. Research into the dynamics at play is crucial for the prospect of sustainable business to develop, as the project will identify the (potential) impact and future role of different stakeholders on the shaping of the market - from the private sector, to consumers, science and the state, through both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis. Based on a conceptual framework, we study how consumers can drive technological change (using discrete choice experiments) and how the supply of technologies available can be clarified (using techno-economic analysis). The state of the art perspective will have significant implications for policymakers and businesses shaping the energy agenda and instigating technological innovation.

Keywords:ECONOMY AND ENVIRONMENT

Disciplines:Applied economics, Agricultural and natural resource economics, environmental and ecological economics