SAUNER: Sustainability and the Use of Non-rEnewable Resources

A research Project of the European Commission

The SAUNER project: Partners

The project has involved three partners, working together from the beginning to achieve the project's aims. This page provides short summaries and links for each of the partners, outlining their main contributions to the results of the project.

The University of Bath – Department of Economics and International Development.

Description

The Department of Economics and International Development at the University of Bath has considerable expertise in the field of environmental and resource economics and has co-ordinated and participated in a number of current and recent projects. These include a project on the external costs of fuel cycles for the DGXII JOULE Programme and work on methodological support for the EUROSTAT Environmental Pressures Index. There is a team of researchers in the department with experience in large scale international research projects, an example being the Externalities of Energy (ExternE) project, funded by European Commission DG 12. The department has co-ordinated the Green Accounting Research Project (GARP), also funded by the DG XII.

Role in the SAUNER project

The team at Bath consisted of Professor Anil Markandya and Dr Pamela Mason. They were responsible for the review of the literature on sustainability and the use of non-renewable resources, and the development of "operationalised rules" for sustainability, and the application of the operationalised rules to the empirical data provided under earlier tasks of the project. The Bath team were also primarily responsible for the analysis of the sustainability implications, and policy implications of the results. Valuable advice on this part of the project was provided by Dr Hans-Holger Rogner, who was involved in the development of the IIASA/WEC scenarios that were used in the SAUNER project.

IER, University of Stuttgart

Description

The Institute for Energy Economics and the Rational Use of Energy (IER) in the energy faculty of the University of Stuttgart, which was founded on January 1st, 1990, carries out research and teaching in the field of energy system analysis, technology assessment and renewable energies, in energy economics and the rational use of energy. The main objective of the institute is to provide contributions to energy policy decisions and technology assessment with the help of systems engineering approaches developed for energy, economic and environmental analysis. IER has a broad experience in analysing energy-economy-environment linkages and has developed several software systems for energy and environmental planning. In 1999 the institute had a total staff of almost 80 persons, approximately 70 of them as scientific staff.

The institute is divided into six departments.

· system theory and modelling,

· rational use of energy and energy demand,

· energy economics and system analysis,

· energy and environment,

· new energy technologies and technology assessment,

· Material flows and sustainable development

Besides activities in the field of establishing emission inventories and evaluating external costs of energy systems, the institute has dedicated an important amount of work into the evaluation of strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid global warming.

The research activities in the field of model development concentrate on the improvement of existing linear and non-linear simulation and optimisation process engineering models, the development of macroeconomic extensions to those process-engineering models and the integration of process engineering models with general equilibrium models. The models are intended to be used for strategic long term planning on a national, regional or local level. Other model developing activities focus on life cycle analysis, integrated resource planning and demand side management, the propagation of emissions and the evaluation of environmental and human health impacts.

A team of engineers and natural and economic scientists allows the interdisciplinary treatment of energy-related and environmental research. There is a close cooperation with national and international energy and environmental research institutes. The institute has been involved in research projects with the University of Bath, including the GARP and ExternE projects mentioned above.

Role in the SAUNER project

The team at IER consisted of Professor Dr Rainer Friedrich, Marco Hacker and Alexander Gressmann. The principal role of IER in the SAUNER project has been in the compilation of scenarios of demand for hydrocarbons and platinum group metals. An important part of this analysis in the case of hydrocarbons was the development of a linear programming model to predict the way in which demands for hydrocarbons would be met by supplies from different regions, accounting both for cost and political restrictions such as a preference for exploiting domestic supplies. For the case of platinum group metals the demand models were developed without the help of previously developed scenarios, which were available for hydrocarbons.

Montanuniversität, Leoben

Description

The Department of Mining Engineering and Mineral Economics covers both underground as well as surface mining technologies and systems. It has a strong background in mine planning, rock mechanics, blasting, mechanical rock breaking and mineral economics. One of the Department’s advantages is its strong connection to industry. The Department also has access to an experimental mine at the Styrian Erzberg (Iron Mountain) .

The Department has a permanent staff of 10 and temporary staff of 8 to 12. Its annual research budget is of the order of 500 000 Ecu. A close working relationship exists with the Ecole des Mines Superieure de Paris and the School of Mines of the University of New South Wales.

Role in the SAUNER project

The team at Montanuniversität Leoben consisted of Professors Hörst Wagner and Richard Nötstaller. Advice was also provided by Dr Hans-Holger Rogner. The main role of the Leoben team was in the compilation of databases of reserves and resources of hydrocarbons and platinum group metals.