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- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
- Creators: Breetz, Hanna
- Creators: Eakin, Hallie
- Status: Published
Description
Global decarbonization requires a large-scale shift to sustainable energy sources. Innovation will be a key enabler of this global energy transition. Although the energy transition and innovation literatures overwhelmingly focus on the Global North, energy innovation is arguably even more important for the Global South because it can enable them to grow their energy demand and power their development with sustainable resources. This dissertation examines three aspects of energy innovation, focusing on Mexico, to advance the understanding of innovation systems and identify policy levers for accelerating energy innovation in emerging economies. The first project utilizes econometric models to assess patenting drivers for renewable energy (wind and solar) and enabling technologies (energy storage, high voltage direct current technologies, hydrogen technologies, and fuel cells) across 34 countries, including Mexico. The examination of enabling technologies is a particular contribution, since most research on energy innovation focuses on renewable generation technologies. This research finds that policies have differential effects on renewable technologies versus enabling technology, with innovation in enabling technologies lagging behind the deployment of renewable energy. Although renewable energy policies have some spillover effects on enabling technologies, this research suggests that targeted policy instruments for enabling technologies may be needed for global decarbonization.
The second and third projects apply the innovation systems framework to understand energy innovation in Mexico. The second project analyzes the sectoral innovation system (SIS) for wind and solar technologies, using expert interviews to evaluate SIS structure and functions systemically. It finds that this innovation system is susceptible to changes in its structure, specifically institutional modifications, and encounters cultural and social aspects that reduce its performance. Further, it finds that non-government organizations and local governments are trying to support the SIS, but their efforts are hampered by low participation from the federal government.
The third project studies the technology innovation system (TIS) for green hydrogen, an emerging industrial opportunity for Latin America. It evaluates this TIS's functionality and identifies 22 initiatives to improve its performance by interviewing green hydrogen experts in Mexico. The most important initiatives for strengthening the green hydrogen TIS are information campaigns, policy and regulation (taxes, subsidies, standards, and industrial policies), pilot or demonstration projects, and professional training.
Overall, this dissertation contributes to the nexus of energy transition and innovation studies by advancing the understanding of energy innovation in an emerging economy.
ContributorsAguiar Hernandez, Carlos Gabriel (Author) / Breetz, Hanna (Thesis advisor) / Parker, Nathan (Committee member) / Solis, Dario (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Anthropogenic land use has irrevocably transformed the natural systems on which humankind relies. Understanding where, why, and how social and economic processes drive globally-important land-use changes, from deforestation to urbanization, has advanced substantially. Illicit and clandestine activities--behavior that is intentionally secret because it breaks formal laws or violates informal norms--are poorly understood, however, despite the recognition of their significant role in land change. This dissertation fills this lacuna by studying illicit and clandestine activity and quantifying its influence on land-use patterns through examining informal urbanization in Mexico City and deforestation Central America. The first chapter introduces the topic, presenting a framework to examine illicit transactions in land systems. The second chapter uses data from interviews with actors involved with land development in Mexico City, demonstrating how economic and political payoffs explain the persistence of four types of informal urban expansion. The third chapter examines how electoral politics influence informal urban expansion and land titling in Mexico City using panel regression. Results show land title distribution increases just before elections, and more titles are extended to loyal voters of the dominant party in power. Urban expansion increases with electoral competition in local elections for borough chiefs and legislators. The fourth chapter tests and confirms the hypothesis that narcotrafficking has a causal effect on forest loss in Central America from 2001-2016 using two proxies of narcoactivity: drug seizures and events from media reports. The fifth chapter explores the spatial signature and pattern of informal urban development. It uses a typology of urban informality identified in chapter two to hypothesize and demonstrate distinct urban expansion patterns from satellite imagery. The sixth and final chapter summarizes the role of illicit and clandestine activity in shaping deforestation and urban expansion through illegal economies, electoral politics, and other informal transactions. Measures of illicit and clandestine activity should--and could--be incorporated into land change models to account for a wider range of relevant causes. This dissertation shines a new light on the previously hidden processes behind ever-easier to detect land-use patterns as earth observing satellites increase spatial and temporal resolution.
ContributorsTellman, Elizabeth (Author) / Turner II, Billie L (Thesis advisor) / Eakin, Hallie (Thesis advisor) / Janssen, Marco (Committee member) / Alba, Felipe de (Committee member) / Jain, Meha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019