An agenda for energy policy - an element of innovation policy

Whereas the other contributions focused on regulatory issues of electricity and gas markets from the point of view of economic efficiency, this paper tries to broaden the view of future context of all energy markets, or even all energy-related markets. It will not consider energy supply policies and specific market regulation or re-regulation needs, but it starts from the basic human needs leading to material and energy demand and the challenges humankind is likely to be increasingly faced during the next decade. These may influence not only energy research and policy agendas, but rather change its isolated policy understanding into a concept as part of innovation policy designed for sustainable development. Several suggestions are made to enlarge the R&D energy policy agenda as well as to improve the effectiviness of energy and climate policies, and analytical methods and tools are presented.