The ‘Winter Package’ in the EU focusses on clean energy for all Europeans and contains specific goals for energy and climate and calls upon Member States to formulate Integrated National Energy and Climate Plans (INECPs). Case study findings in support of INECP formulation are assessed in this report of three case studies: Greece, Austria and the Netherlands.
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Evaluation of climate change mitigation policy is critical for how well policies and measures work. Offering insights in the functioning of policies can enhance the transparency of policy implementation, which is essential to gain citizens’ support for those policies. The CARISMA project team carried out a meta-analysis of climate policy evaluations in EU Member States and found that the energy sector is dominant in policy evaluations. Supports future EU legislative proposals and accompanying impact assessments.
Risks are associated with policies to combat climate change and can be divided into two broad categories: Implementation risks and Consequential risks. TRANSrisk research has shown that the number and nature of risks that can be assessed using economic models is limited. Assessment work generated outcomes at the level of case studies and at meta-level. Shows how assessment of risks and their underlying dimensions changes depending on an expert’s professional background with different stakeholder groups.
About 96% of all households in the Netherlands are heated using natural gas and is still the European Union’s largest natural gas producer. The demand for heat will have to be filled in another way than using natural gas and lot of existing buildings will need to be retrofitted. The transition will also have huge social implications, as it will affect the houses of seven million households in the Netherlands.
Climate change governance requires the involvement from many actors and institutions on various levels, the European Union needs this to mitigate climate change. There are challenges to the EU’s climate governance and leadership regarding policies, interests, and lack of appetite for further integration. The EU can address these challenges internally, by increasing its climate mitigation ambitions, and externally, by reclaiming the mantle of international climate leadership.
Photovoltaics (PV) has become the cheapest source of electricity in many countries and every two years, the capacity is roughly doubled, but it is uncertain if this growth will be sustained. If potential barriers to deployment are addressed, PV could cost-competitively supply 30-50% of global electricity by 2050. Two potential barriers which need to be addresses could hinder continued growth: integration challenges, as many options exist, and the financing costs require international cooperation.
Deploying popular renewable energy technologies at scale requires significant amounts of land compared with most fossil fuels. Solar is deployed on rooftops, but increasingly also on agricultural land. Land-use change emissions could be very large if renewable electricity targets are completely met by solar or bioenergy but contains significant regional variability. This study underlines the importance of including land-use impacts in policy assessment, particularly that encourages the large-scale use of solar and bio-energy.
The Paris Agreement forms the basis for new international cooperation on climate change mitigation. However, the achievements in Paris do not mean that the UN climate regime is the only regime for climate action and other international legal regimes, climate coalitions and actions by non-Party stakeholders can play a complementary role to the Paris Agreement. Provides an overview of climate action undertaken outside of the UNFCCC context and this trend will likely continue beyond Paris.
The supply and use of reliable and affordable energy in Africa has multiple challenges and opportunities. Improving access to energy would improve people’s quality of life and boost local economies is a prerequisite for achieving many SDGs. Africa has huge potential for renewable energy deployment and stated ambitious plans through their NDC. TRANSrisk project have examined and investigated the potential and state a policy package is needed to realise the continent’s huge renewable potential.