Sustainable Solutions toward Climate Change Impacts on Renewable Energy
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 February 2021) | Viewed by 17078
Special Issue Editors
Interests: natural resource economics; environmental economics; mathematical economics; sustainable energy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Climate change mitigation will require the adoption of decarbonisation strategies in all sectors and countries. The global energy system needs an accelerated transformation to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement. The GHG emissions must be reduced in order to keep a global temperature rise this century well below two degrees Celsius and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5º C.
Renewables will be key in a low-carbon future. According to IRENA, the share of renewable energy in primary energy supply would grow from less than one-sixth today to nearly two-thirds in 2050. Moreover, electricity would progressively become the central energy carrier, growing from a 20% share of final consumption to an almost 50% in 2050, and renewable power would be able to provide 86% of global power demand economically.
However, climate change can affect the development of renewable energy in various ways. On one hand, changes in climate variables may negativelly affect the availability of renewable energy resources, which are needed in order to generate electricity with those technologies. The physical impacts of climate change are among the challenges that renewables will have to face, as they have implications for the reliability and performance of the energy systems. Initial studies on this topic addressed the vulnerability of the energy sector from a demand perspective, but there are a growing number of studies analysing impacts on supply as well. Transmission lines and other areas along the value chain of the energy sector can also be affected. One of the reasons why the energy sector has received so much attention in the literature is because of the long lifespan of energy infrastructure.
On the other hand, the sector may also face transition risks and oportunities, due to the policy, legal, technology, and market changes to address mitigation and adaptation requirements. It is to be expected that renewable energies will mainly benefit from them, due to their contribution to low-carbon development. In any case, the transition poses many relevant challenges to the whole value chain, from the availability or resources to generation or transmission networks.
This Special Issue aims to contribute to studying the sustainability aspects related to the climate change impacts on renewable energy generation.
Research and review articles are therefore invited to be submitted to this Special Issue.
Keywords
- Threats and impacts on renewable generation
- Identification and analysis of risks
- Identification and analysis of opportunities
- Climate change adaptation
- Projections on potential changes in resources or generation
- Economic estimates for the expected changes
- Asessment methodologies
- Global, continental, regional, national, or local scope
- Investment impacts
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