Future opportunities forecasts

Vogl, O. and E. H. Immergut (eds.), Polymer Science in the Next Decade Trends, Opportunities, PrO/tnises , Wiley, New York, 1987. An international symposium honoring Herman F. Mark on his/90th birthday, it emphasizes trends in the development of polymer science in the future and forecasts new developments and new directions. 

Uncertainty in future allowance prices leads to delay in investment decisions. By waiting, a company gains more knowledge about future C02 prices, and thereby makes better decisions. Furthermore, in the presence of price uncertainty, risk aversion is also likely to reduce investment.40 The risk of low C02 prices, or even a price crash due to allocations based on high emission forecasts, represents a significant hurdle for investment in low-carbon investments. Obviously, companies are prepared to bear risks, but they generally prefer to take risks in their core business, where this can create strategic opportunities.41... 

In spite of the present cloudy skies, forecasts for the future inspire reasonable optimism. The next 10 years are expected to see a growth in the airline business, due to the increases in living standards, international trade and the leisure industry. The next decade looks very promising for space activities as well and European industry will have the opportunity of showing its maturity and capabilities in several programmes that will take it into the 21st century. 

Because of such complexity, there are scientific barriers to the advancement of lifetime prediction models that forecast damage accumulation, as well as barriers to computational design of materials for obtaining desired corrosion properties and to achieving, at the engineering level, a prognosis of future damage on the basis of physics at the materials science scale. These barriers present opportunities for improvement that include, but are not limited to ... 

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