2009 Q3 Legislation Review

As the world economy still reels from the financial crisis that began over a year ago, various countries continue to invest in economic stimulus programmes and ‘green growth’ strategies. Several governments are apparently seizing the opportunity to turn the economic crisis into a way to promote clean energy technologies, although there is a growing chorus of dissent from those who argue that economic growth must be put ahead of environmental protection. This dissent belies the fact that there are significant economic growth opportunities in clean technologies, particularly for distributed power generation, which also offer environmental benefits. The economic and environmental potential of fuel cells is being increasingly acknowledged in the USA: in the past quarter, finalised stimulus funding for fuel cells has been announced and funding for the DOE Hydrogen programme was restored. Similarly, in South Korea a good deal of funding has recently become available through the government’s feed-in tariff while in Japan, development of the Ene-Farm residential fuel cell programme continues apace – although the election of the new Japanese governments creates some uncertainties on the future of this and other programmes. In Europe, discussions on the next stage of emissions trading are being conduced, all against the backdrop of the upcoming COP15 summit, which is due to take place in December and should provide a framework for global emissions reduction beyond 2015.