The nuclear plant accident at Fukushima in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami has had a major impact on the energy strategy of Japan and the world. From a global perspective, approach to energy is of greater and greater consequence. The Global Center of Excellence (COE) Program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, with the support of university faculty members, has established an international education and research platform to foster educators, researchers, and policy makers who can develop technologies and propose policies for establishing a CO2 zero-emission society no longer dependent on fossil fuels by the year 2100. Since 2008, a program called Energy Science in the Age of Global Warming-Toward a CO2 Zero-Emission Energy System has been in progress at Kyoto University. A third international symposium, titled Zero-Carbon Energy, Kyoto 2011, was held jointly with Ajou University, Korea, in August 2011, and this book is a compilation of the lectures and presentations from the symposium. As is evident in this collection, the Global COE is promoting the establishment of Low-carbon Energy science as an interdisciplinary field integrating social science and human science with the natural sciences to confront the vital issues of energy and environment.
