Christopher Flavin is the President of the Worldwatch Institute

Worldwatch Institute

The Worldwatch Institute is a globally focused environmental research organization based in Washington, D.C. Worldwatch was named as one of the top ten sustainable development research organizations by Globescan Survey of Sustainability Experts.-Mission:...

, an independent research organization focused on natural resource and environmental issues, based in Washington, DC. He is also a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences

United States National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

 Board on Energy and Environmental Systems, the Climate Institute, and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. His research and writing focus is international energy and climate policy.

Flavin has participated in several notable international conferences, including the Earth Summit

Earth Summit

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development , also known as the Rio Summit, Rio Conference, Earth Summit was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 June to 14 June 1992.-Overview:...

 in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and the Climate Change Conference in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. He has testified before national and state legislatures and meets frequently with government and international leaders.

Flavin is a native of Monterey, California

Monterey, California

The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...

 and a cum laude graduate of Williams College

Williams College

Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...

, where he studied economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

, biology

Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

, and environmental studies

Environmental studies

Environmental studies is the academic field which systematically studies human interaction with the environment. It is a broad interdisciplinary field of study that includes the natural environment, built environment, and the sets of relationships between them...

.

Quotations

• "Renewable energy
  Renewable energy
  Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
  
   provides 18 percent of total net electricity generation
  Electricity generation
  Electricity generation is the process of generating electric energy from other forms of energy.The fundamental principles of electricity generation were discovered during the 1820s and early 1830s by the British scientist Michael Faraday...
  
   worldwide. Renewable energy generators are spread across the globe, and wind power
  Wind power
  Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
  
   alone already provides a significant share of electricity in some regions: for example, 14 percent in the U.S. state of Iowa, 40 percent in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, and 20 percent in the nation of Denmark. Some countries get most of their power from renewables, including Iceland (100 percent), Brazil (85 percent), Austria (62 percent), New Zealand (65 percent), and Sweden (54 percent)."

• "Solar hot water
  Solar hot water
  Solar water heating or solar hot water systems comprise several innovations and many mature renewable energy technologies that have been well established for many years...
  
   provides an important contribution to meeting hot water needs in many countries, most importantly in China, which now has fully 70 percent of the global total (180 GWth). Most of these systems are installed on multi-family apartment buildings and meet a portion of the hot water needs of an estimated 50–60 million households in China, or more than 150 million people. Worldwide, total installed solar water heating systems meet a portion of the water heating needs of over 70 million households."

• "Renewable biofuel
  Biofuel
  Biofuel is a type of fuel whose energy is derived from biological carbon fixation. Biofuels include fuels derived from biomass conversion, as well as solid biomass, liquid fuels and various biogases...
  
  s are meanwhile making inroads in the transportation fuels market and are beginning to have a measurable impact on demand for petroleum fuels, contributing to a decline in oil consumption in the United States in particular starting in 2006. Although the rapid growth of previous years has slowed, production of biofuels for transportation grew 58 percent between 2007 and 2009. The 93 billion liters of biofuels produced worldwide in 2009 displaced the equivalent of an estimated 68 billion liters of gasoline
  Gasoline
  Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...
  
  , equal to about 5 percent of world gasoline production."

-- Christopher Flavin in REN21

REN21

REN21, the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century, is a policy network that provides a forum for international leadership in renewable energy policy, in order to share knowledge and facilitate the rapid growth of renewable energy technologies in developing countries and industrialised...

 (2010). Renewables 2010 Global Status Report p. 53.

Selected publications

• Power Surge: Guide to the Coming Energy Revolution, W.W. Norton, 1994.
• Rising Sun, Gathering Winds: Policies to Stabilize the Climate and Strengthen Economies, Worldwatch Paper 138, November 1997.
• Regular contributions to State of the World , Vital Signs and World Watch.
• Low-Carbon Energy: A Roadmap, 2008.

See also

• State of the World 2008
  State of the World 2008
  State of the World 2008: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy was a book published by the Worldwatch Institute in January 2008. The focus of State of the World 2008 is on the innovations which will make a sustainable economy possible at the global level.The book is written by Christopher Flavin...
  
  
• Lester Brown
• Amory Lovins
  Amory Lovins
  Amory Bloch Lovins is an American environmental scientist and writer, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has worked in the field of energy policy and related areas for four decades...
  
  
• Nourishing the Planet project
• State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet