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"As a result of the COVID 19 pandemic, irrevocable loss has been experienced in the personal circles that each of us identifies as family/friends and in the intersecting and rippling circles that expand from there. This book has been written in the margins of grief, and in the midst of the real-time widow work of making sure my sons who tragically and brutally lost their beloved father before his time somehow didn't shatter under the weight of sadness. But, writing a foreword for a book that is inextricably interwoven with profound loss also comes with a sense of gratitude for the courage and loyalty of true friends, and for the tireless advocates who have spoken out for climate justice but are now silenced."--

The 21st Conference of the Parties (CoP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) shifted the nature of the political economy challenge associated with achieving a global emissions trajectory that is consistent with a climate. The shifts generated by CoP21 place country decision-making and country policies at centre stage. Under moderately optimistic assumptions concerning the vigour with which CoP21 objectives are pursued, nearly every country in the world will set about to design and implement the most promising and locally relevant policies for achieving their agreed contribution to global mitigation. These policies are virtually certain to vary dramatically across countries. In short, the world stands at the cusp of an unprecedented era of policy experimentation in driving a clean energy transition. This book steps into this new world of broad-scale and locally relevant policy experimentation. The chapters focus on the political economy of clean energy transition with an emphasis on specific issues encountered in both developed and developing countries. Lead authors contribute a broad diversity of experience drawn from all major regions of the world, representing a compendium of what has been learned from recent initiatives, mostly (but not exclusively) at country level, to reduce GHG emissions. As this new era of experimentation dawns, their contributions are both relevant and timely.

Emissions taxes are likely the least bad way to reduce emissions. Exceptions are possible, but clean energy subsidies deserve careful scrutiny, even if political constraints make emissions taxes impossible. Sometimes doing nothing is better than the feasible alternatives.

"This book systematically constructs theories of clean energy diplomacy in the context of the changing international strategic landscape of energy and climate. It aims to explain the scientific connotations and innovative significance of clean energy diplomacy. The book focuses on analyzing how the development of renewable energy, including wind, solar, and biomass, plays out in the evolution of the international power system. It also touches upon energy efficiency and complementary energy technologies. This book integrates the studies of traditional energy and environmental diplomacy, and defines its connotations and extensions from the perspective of major country diplomatic strategy. Based on the latest developments of international clean energy diplomacy, the author also discusses China's strategic option of clean energy diplomacy in the broad context of the profound changes in global energy and climate governance. As a new diplomatic model to enhance national competitive advantages, clean energy diplomacy has attracted the attention of many countries. This book will therefore be of great interest to students and scholars of sustainable energy and environmental management, environmental politics and policy, and those interested in the low-carbon economy in general"--

The EU Clean Energy Package, proposed by the European Commission in November 2016, includes eight legislative texts on the electricity market and consumers, Energy Efficiency and Energy Efficiency of buildings, Renewables & bioenergy sustainability as well as governance of the Energy Union. They were all published in the Official Journal of the European Union by June 2019. In this report, we will focus on two of the eight legislative texts; the Directive on common rules for the internal market in electricity (e- Directive) and the Regulation on the internal market for electricity (e-Regulation). We will assess their impact on the European internal electricity market rules compared to the framework established by the Third Energy Package, including the first generation of network codes. In the different topics, we present the final versions of the CEP provisions and highlight the main differences compared to initial proposals of the Commission. The structure of this report follows the structure of the Clean Energy Package online course. The first section on Electricity Markets is 'Ensuring the internal market level playing field.' The second section on Electricity Grids is 'Adapting to the decentralization of the power system.' The third, on the New Deal, is 'Empowering customers and citizens.' Keywords: European regulation, public interventions in electricity prices, network tariffs, capacity mechanisms, network codes, bidding zones, interconnectors capacity, EV charging infrastructure, electricity storage, DSO planning, DSO active network management, procurement of flexibility services, TSO-DSO coordination, EU DSO entity, active customers, smart metering, dynamic pricing, aggregators, citizens energy communities.

AbstractTechnology costs and deployment rates, represented in experience curves, are typically seen as the main factors in the global clean energy transition from fossil fuels towards low-carbon energy sources. We argue that politics is the hidden dimension of technology experience curves, as it affects both costs and deployment. We draw from empirical analyses of diverse North American and European cases to describe patterns of political conflict surrounding clean energy adoption across a variety of technologies. Our analysis highlights that different political logics shape costs and deployment at different stages along the experience curve. The political institutions and conditions that nurture new technologies into economic winners are not always the same conditions that let incumbent technologies become economic losers. Thus, as the scale of technology adoption moves from niches towards systems, new political coalitions are necessary to push complementary system-wide technology. Since the cost curve is integrated globally, different countries can contribute to different steps in the transition as a function of their individual comparative political advantages.

Eight years ago in 2015, I published "Britain and the World in 2050," setting out my predictions for the world ahead of us. It was widely covered in the media, with journalists going to town on the recreated woolly mammoths and dinosaurs, not revived from mosquitos preserved in amber, but by back breeding and genetic manipulation of flightless birds.Some also picked up and covered my remarkable prediction that the cost of energy would have dropped dramatically by 2050. I wrote:"Energy costs will by 2050 be a fraction of their present-day costs. For most consumer uses, energy will be effectively free."The cost of energy has witnessed several spikes since then, and is now more expensive than it was. Partly this is down to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with some contribution made by a go-green agenda that shuns the cheaper sources in favour of more expensive ones. Nonetheless, I remain convinced that my prediction will come about. The fossil fuel we'll still be using will be gas, but nuclear will take a larger share, particularly with the new small reactors coming on line. Solar will be making a major contribution, as ways are found to increase the efficiency of photo-voltaic cells by combining ultra-thin surfaces on the silicon.There are several new technologies that could be game changers. There are vast reserves of natural hydrogen beneath the Earth's surface, more than previously supposed, and more accessible. The US Geological Survey concluded in April that there is probably enough accessible hydrogen in the earth's subsurface to meet total global demand for "hundreds of years". Currently, the effort to extract it commercially resembles the early days of fracking, with 'wildcatters' setting the pace. It portends cheap and clean generation of electricity, bypassing fossil fuels and emitting no greenhouse gases.Another possible technology involves the use of thin layers of materials flecked with nanoholes. The pores are essentially small enough (100nm) that the molecule's electrical charge can pass through them and be harvested to generate electricity. Water molecules pass through, generating a charge imbalance that produces harvestable electricity plucked not from thin air, but from naturally moist air.The device is called an Air-gen and can operate at all times despite the weather conditions because moisture is always in the air. When scaled up, it offers low-cost, clean electricity.A newer technology from scientists at the University of Rochester uses semiconductor nanocrystals for light absorbers and catalysts and bacteria to donate electrons to the system. The system is submerged in water and driven by light. Bacteria interact with nanoparticle catalysts to make hydrogen gas more cheaply than can be achieved by electrolysis. It is not that any of these might necessarily be the magic bullet that gives us cheap, clean energy. It is that some of them, in combination with yet more ingenious ways still to be developed, will give us the energy we need at a price we will be prepared to pay. And that price will be very low. We won't use less energy; we'll just produce it more cleverly.

AbstractThe energy transition is affected by a 'double geopoliticisation': global competition for hydrocarbons has increased, due to the sudden turmoil in the energy markets, whilst the urgency to clean energy transition has exacerbated competition for green technological leadership. This article investigates whether the EU has adapted its goals and instruments to these intertwined geopoliticisation pressures and, if so, under what conditions has it been able to wield geoeconomic power. Using Barnett and Duvall's taxonomy of power, this article argues that geoeconomic power presupposes a shift from diffuse to direct forms of power and theorises the factors that facilitate or constrain the EU's ability to exercise this type of power. This article finds that the EU has significantly transformed the goals and instruments of its external energy policy. Yet the extent of its geoeconomic power depends on a combination of often‐overlooked domestic enabling factors and the external geopolitical environment.

This book capitalizes on two hot topics: the Low Carbon Emission Development Strategies and climate change in Asian cities. There is resurgence in making policies to investigate more aspects of the energy-environment spectrum for the global energy market in the future. This book helps the policy makers and researchers to understand which actions should be taken to reduce the environmental impacts of economic activities in different regions in Asia. The clean energy strategy proposed in this book refers to the development and implementation of policies and strategies that simultaneously contribute to addressing climate change and solving local environmental problems, which also have other development impacts. It provides insights to a wide audience on successful ways to promote, design and implement the clean energy policies in Asian cities. To determine the global actions, it is necessary to make breakthroughs by promoting further research and to present scenarios that achieve Low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS) goals without dependence upon fossil fuels. The scenarios and case studies discussed in this book are helpful to plan for the SDGs, where various objectives have to be achieved at the same time. The UN 2030 development agenda needs innovative planning to achieve multiple goals with limited resources and generate synergy among sectors. This book will be one of the first books available on this subject.

Our society increasingly depends on power and fuel in daily life. This reliance encourages legislators and regulators to place the ongoing energy supply at a relatively low and fixed price – what is often referred to as energy security – as one of their most crucial policy goals. Contemporary research has already established that energy diversification (i.e., adding renewables to non-renewable sources) is remarkably beneficial to this objective. The main reason for this is that the different origin of energy is affected by different uncertainties and thus may remain stable when the conventional courses fail. This article aims to provide arguments for energy sources diversification. It explains why policymakers should encourage the development of specific clean energy technologies. Moreover, it assesses the advantages and risks of such a decision, and explores the involvement of the public sector in renewable technologies.

The EU Clean Energy Package (CEP) was finalised in June 2019 after the publication of its final texts in the Official Journal of the European Union, following trilogue negotiations between the European Commission, Council, and Parliament. It includes eight legislative texts - four directives and four regulations - on the electricity market and consumers, energy efficiency and the energy efficiency of buildings, renewables and bioenergy sustainability as well as governance of the Energy Union. In this report, we will focus on three of the eight legislative texts. First is the Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action (Regulation (EU) 2018/1999). Second is the directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (Directive (EU) 2018/2001) that is commonly referred to as RED II. Third is the directive on common rules for the internal market in electricity (Directive (EU) 2019/944). We will assess the impact of this legislation on the European internal electricity market rules compared to the framework established by the Third Energy Package. In this report, we present the background to the CEP provisions and weigh the possible implications of these measures.

The 21st Conference of the Parties (CoP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) shifted the nature of the political economy challenge associated with achieving a global emissions trajectory that is consistent with a climate. The shifts generated by CoP21 place country decision-making and country policies at centre stage. Under moderately optimistic assumptions concerning the vigour with which CoP21 objectives are pursued, nearly every country in the world will set about to design and implement the most promising and locally relevant policies for achieving their agreed contribution to global mitigation. These policies are virtually certain to vary dramatically across countries. In short, the world stands at the cusp of an unprecedented era of policy experimentation in driving a clean energy transition. This book steps into this new world of broad-scale and locally relevant policy experimentation. The chapters focus on the political economy of clean energy transition with an emphasis on specific issues encountered in both developed and developing countries. Lead authors contribute a broad diversity of experience drawn from all major regions of the world, representing a compendium of what has been learned from recent initiatives, mostly (but not exclusively) at country level, to reduce GHG emissions. As this new era of experimentation dawns, their contributions are both relevant and timely.