China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Energy transition in the Baltic Sea Region
Published in Farid Karimi, Michael Rodi, Energy Transition in the Baltic Sea Region, 2022
An energy transition, as is used here, aims to decarbonise the energy system (or, broadly speaking, the economy) and secure the energy supply in order to ensure sustainable development and mitigate climate change. Such transitions entail a significant set of changes to the patterns of a society's energy use, with likely effects on resources, carriers, converters, institutions, services and behaviours (e.g., Sovacool et al., 2016). In the context of sustainable development, energy transition is a specific term used to describe a transformation of the economy from fossil-based to carbon-neutral by 2050 in an effort to mitigate climate change (European Commission, 2020a, 2020b). It is a process intended to significantly reduce global CO2 emissions in line with the objectives of both Article 2 of the Paris Agreement (UNFCCC, 2016) and the European Green Deal (European Commission, 2020a). These ambitious objectives demand clear and effective strategies and policies, adequate resources and funding, and cultural and behavioural changes at all levels (Karimi and Rodi, 2021).
South Asian Dual Challenges: Energy and Environment
Published in Asif Muhammad, Energy and Environmental Outlook for South Asia, 2020
John Andrew Howe, Kankana Dubey
The conceptual framework is difficult to achieve, as there is a need for several checks and balances. It is a complex framework requiring integration between various stakeholders, partnership between public and private enterprises, and the implementation of stringent regulations (building codes, permits, energy efficiency ratings, carbon taxes) to encourage emissions reductions and energy supply access and security. Environmental protection laws are equally important to protect the biosphere and its diversity. In addition, proactive campaigns are needed to inform and promote change in consumer behavior, energy subsidies need to be reduced/abolished, and incentive mechanisms should be implemented to support innovation, technological development, and market creation. Energy transition requires effective planning to move toward building a greener economy that will not only help the countries in the region, but can also have a positive impact on mitigating global climate change. The South Asian region has a large share of the global population, and thus requires systematic energy planning to meet both short-term and long-term economic and social objectives.
Introduction
Published in Angèle Reinders, Designing with Photovoltaics, 2020
Angèle Reinders, Wouter Eggink, Marjan van Aubel
To reach the goals of the Paris Agreement signed in 2015 (UN 2015), 100% renewable supply will be necessary by 2050. Therefore, a smooth energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is one of the principal challenges that mankind faces at the moment. It will delay and hopefully stop climate change caused by the emission of large quantities of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Namely, these emissions largely originate from our fossil energy demand, which as such should be drastically reduced. In 2015, it was therefore agreed upon by the Paris Agreement that the global temperature rise should stay below 2°C, actually preferably below 1.5°C, compared to preindustrial levels. This change from a fossil fuel society to one based on renewable energy will require a huge effort by a varied group of stakeholders: the public, policy makers, scientists, industry, engineers, and designers. Many international and national agreements state that solar PV energy technologies will be one of the main contributors to achieve a prospective 100% renewable energy supply. And it is generally believed that both societal acceptance and technology development will be key to realize this goal. It is known that the interdisciplinary field of design can bring these two aspects together by the creation of products or systems, which people like to use.
Exploring energy transition in European firms: the role of policy instruments, demand-pull factors and cost-saving needs in driving energy-efficient and renewable energy innovations
Published in Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning, and Policy, 2021
Claudia Capozza, Marialuisa Divella, Alessandro Rubino
In recent years, rising energy prices and growing concerns about environmental issues related to the massive use of fossil fuels have emphasized the need for many countries to pursue transition toward more efficient and sustainable energy systems (Demirbas and Bakis 2005; Shi et al. 2020). Energy transition is crucially driven by firms’ willingness and ability to develop, or even simply adopt, energy technologies, that is, aimed at reducing fossil energy consumption and/or at exploiting alternative energy sources. Governments worldwide have thus prompted (and are currently prompting) actions for incentivizing firms to take care of energy-environmental objectives in their innovative activities (Ratliff and Smith 2005). This paper aims at investigating the specificities of energy innovations to highlight the main drivers motivating their introduction by firms.
Electricity market coupling and investment in renewable energy: East Africa Community power markets
Published in International Journal of Sustainable Energy, 2020
Energy transition has varied definitions, but the underlying factor revolves around climate change and the deliberate move away from the use of fossil fuel towards renewable energy sources. The objective of this move underlies the need to reduce associated environmental impacts as well as increasing the resource adequacy to meet the inelastic but increasing demand for energy. Brown (2015) identifies three critical reasons for an energy transition: climate change, concerns over future generations amidst air pollution and energy security. In the EU, Newbery (2016) highlights primary policy instruments to guide this transition and advocates for elaborate green accounting, especially in electricity markets. He further points out the need to draft policies that promote less mature renewable technologies through adequate funding of Research and Development. Pérez de Arce and Sauma (2016) and Novan (2015) detail a comprehensive study on these policy instruments while Allan et al. (2015) provide a comprehensive literature review on the economics of distributed renewable energy sources.
Bases for a sustainable energy model. Case study: Basque autonomous community
Published in International Journal of Sustainable Energy, 2019
Juan Ángel Balbás Egea, Jose Alberto Eguren Egiguren
In the examples of good practice studied, it has been observed that citizens’ initiative plays an important role. For example, in Germany, 60% of installed capacity is owned by families and farmers (Energiewende Team 2016) and (Burger 2015), while the oligopolies have around 6.5%. In the USA, 25% of Americans have their own electricity company through cooperatives or through municipal or regional enterprises (counties). In Denmark there are more than 100 energy cooperatives and they have 2/3 of the turbines installed in the country; in addition, there are municipal companies for generation, distribution and sales (Leidreiter, Moss, and Markus 2013). In Germany, installed photovoltaics reduced the price of electricity by 40% in the period 2008–2012 (Díaz Mendoza et al. 2016). The German energy transition model (Alvarez Pelegry and Ortiz Martínez 2016) aims to achieve 38% renewable electricity generation by 2020, 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2050 (in terms of final energy, 18% by 2020, 30% by 2030 and 60% by 2050), and to reduce primary energy consumption by 20% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 through energy efficiency. This model also offers interesting lessons regarding the relationship between energy and the country’s industrial vocation and growth.