Just a month before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, energy experts who had gathered in Washington, DC, for the Emerging Technologies/Emerging Economies conference headed to Capitol Hill to talk about how technology and innovation will help emerging economies limit energy consumption and production of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon was the first speaker at the November 5 event, which drew several dozen Capitol Hill staffers, media, researchers, and others. Wyden, a Democrat who serves on the Senate Energy Committee, chairing its Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests, and on the Finance Committee, chairing the Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs and Global Competitiveness, emphasized the importance of innovative technologies—like those being developed and disseminated by conference participants—for a more sustainable for future. He pledged to keep a close eye on how new and existing technologies could help solve global crises like environmental problems, emerging challenges, shortage of clean water and food, and health problems.

The Capitol Hill event was organized by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, which partnered with the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to organize the Emerging Technologies/Emerging Economies conference in Washington, DC, November 4-6. The event was moderated by David Rejeski, who directs the center’s Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies.

After Senator Wyden spoke, Anuradda Ganesh, professor and head of the Department of Energy Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, talked about the work going on in India on energy efficient devices and new technologies to help bring power to the many rural areas without it.

Anuradda Ganesh of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

David Irvine-Halliday, founder of Light Up the World

Chen Wang, director of China's National Center for Nanoscience and Technology

She was followed by David Irvine-Halliday, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Calgary in Canada, and founder of the Light Up the World, who spoke about the humanitarian organization’s work to offer inexpensive, energy-efficient lighting—and a brighter future—to impoverished communities in places like Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Honduras, and Zambia.

Chen Wang, director of China’s National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, then talked about ways of reducing energy consumption—and associated air pollution—in urban areas of China, while making energy available in rural parts of the rapidly growing country.

For more information on the Emerging Technologies/Emerging Economies conference, visit the conference website.

Senator Wyden (L) chats with Emerging Technologies/Emerging Economies conference organizer Richard Appelbaum at the event on Capitol Hill