Reinforcing the EU Dialogue with Developing Countries on Climate Change Mitigation

The FP6 TOCSIN project has evaluated climate change mitigation options in China and India and the conditions for strategic cooperation on research, development and demonstration (RD&D) and technology transfer with the European Union. In particular, the project investigated the strategic dimensions of RD&D cooperation and the challenge of creating incentives to encourage the participation of developing countries in post-2012 GHG emissions reduction strategies and technological cooperation. This paper summarizes the main policy-relevant results of the project, including the requests for: (I) almost immediate decisions on ambitious mitigation; (II) a strong increase in Annex I support regarding R&D spending and technology transfer; (III) a well-designed mix of instruments and targets in an effective climate deal that addresses manifold national interests and concerns.Climate Policy, Technology Transfers

Assessing climate impacts on the energy sector with TIAM-WORLD: focus on heating and cooling and hydropower potential

Much research is still needed to understand the climate vulnerability of the energy sector and to identify cost-effective adaptation options. This chapter explores the coupling of the World TIMES Integrated Assessment Model (TIAM-WORLD) with an emulated version of the climate model PLASIM-ENTS to as- sess the impacts of future temperature and precipitation changes on the heating and cooling subsector and available hydropower. An absence of climate feedback induced by the adaptation of the energy system to future heating and cooling needs was found for a 1.6-5.7 K range of long-term global mean temperature increase: when aggregated at the global level, some changes compensate others, and heating and cooling represent a relatively small contributor to total energy consumption. However, significant changes are observed at the regional level in terms of additional power capacity, mostly coal power plants, to satisfy the additional cooling needs. Reduced needs for heating affect gas and coal heating systems more than biomass and electric heaters, reflecting higher costs of these heating options in the longer term. Available hydropower is estimated to increase on a seasonal basis in most regions under future climate change. It could therefore con- tribute to supply the additional electricity needed for cooling in regions where both future cooling needs and hydropower potential are expected to increase. Hydropower results are however characterized by high uncertainty due to uncertain- ties in projected precipitation changes as well as the relatively coarse resolution of PLASIM-ENTS

Las agendas de cambio climático y de desarrollo humano sostenible en las cumbres de París y Nueva York: una historia de dos ciudades

The agendas for Climate Change and for Sustainable Development launched in Paris and New York in 2015 set a fundamental milestone in the efforts that countries, international institutions, civil society and individual people endeavor to make in order to build a global sustainable equilibrium which balances the economic, social and environmental dimensions, which does not compromise the well-being of future generations while pursuing a just, fair and safe space for humanity in the coming decades. Both agendas, as well as both issues, are complexly interrelated and require a coordinated effort towards action and innovation to achieve their multiple objectives.Las agendas Climática y de Desarrollo Sostenible puestas en marcha en París y Nueva York a finales de 2015 marcan un hito fundamental en los esfuerzos que a escala global van a realizar países, instituciones internacionales, sociedad civil y también los individuos para conformar un equilibrio global y sostenible en lo económico, social y medioambiental, que no comprometa el bienestar de las generaciones futuras al tiempo que persigue un espacio justo, equitativo y seguro para todos en las próximas décadas. Ambas agendas, igual que ambos fenómenos, están complejamente interrelacionadas y requieren de un esfuerzo coordinado orientado a la acción y a la innovación para la consecución de sus diversos objetivos

Worldwide impacts of climate change on energy for heating and cooling

The energy sector is not only a major contributor to greenhouse gases, it is also vulnerable to climate change and will have to adapt to future climate conditions. The objective of this study is to analyze the impacts of changes in future temperatures on the heating and cooling services of buildings and the resulting energy and macro-economic effects at global and regional levels. For this purpose, the techno-economic TIAM-WORLD (TIMES Integrated Assessment Model) and the general equilibrium GEMINI-E3 (General Equilibrium Model of International-National Interactions between Economy, Energy and Environment) models are coupled with a climate model, PLASIM-ENTS (Planet-Simulator - Efficient Numerical Terrestrial Scheme). The key results are as follows. At the global level, the climate feedback induced by adaptation of the energy system to heating and cooling is found to be insignificant, partly because heating and cooling-induced changes compensate and partly because they represent a limited share of total final energy consumption. However, significant changes are observed at regional levels, more particularly in terms of addi- tional power capacity required to satisfy additional cooling services, resulting in increases in electricity prices. In terms of macro-economic impacts, welfare gains and losses are associated more with changes in energy exports and imports than with changes in energy consumption for heating and cooling. The rebound effect appears to be non-negligible. To conclude, the coupling of models of different nature was successful and showed that the energy and economic impacts of climate change on heating and cooling remain small at the global level, but changes in energy needs will be visible at more local scale

Impacts of Climate Change on Heating and Cooling: A Worldwide Estimate from Energy and Macro-Economic Perspective

he energy sector is not only a major driving force of climate change, it is also vulnerable to future climate change. In this paper, we analyze the impacts of changes in future temperature on the heating and cooling services both in terms of global and regional energy impacts and macro-economic eects. For this purpose, the technico-economic TIMES-WORLD and the general equilibrium GEMINI-E3 model are coupled with a climate model, PLASIM-ENTS, to assess the regional and seasonal temperature changes and their consequences on the energy and economic systems. One of the main insight of the analysis is the absence of climate feedback induced by the adaptation of the energy system to future heating and cooling needs, since the latter represent a limited share of total nal energy consumption and emissions, and the heating and cooling changes tend to compensate each other, at the global level. However, signicant changes may be observed at regional levels, more particularly in terms of additional power capacity required to satisfy the new cooling demands. In terms of macro-economic impacts, welfare gains comes from the decrease of energy for heating and to welfare loss due to an increase of electricity for space cooling. For energy exporting countries welfare gain is reduced (or lossed) due to losses of revenue coming from less energy export while for non-energy exporting countries welfare gains is linked to the decrease of energy needs for heating overcompensate the cost coming from the increase of electricity consumption