Creating sustainable renewable energy futures with low climate risks
SusRenew addresses two challenges: The climate challenge of transition towards a renewable energy system with net-zero GHG emissions and low climate risk, and the energy challenge of ensuring access to enough energy at an affordable price. The European Environment Agency shows that without effective climate action, climate change will result in direct costs to the European energy system of several billion euros per year by the end of the century, with much greater indirect costs. Although Norway is a superpower in the energy field, we see few signs of putting these issues on the political agenda in any systematic way. The main message in recent policy documents is that climate change may be beneficial for the Norwegian energy system, because of the combined effects of increased hydropower production capacity due to expected increased precipitation and reduced energy consumption for heating due to increased temperatures. Major changes in the global energy system are needed to counteract climate change. At the same time, demand as well as the production of energy are affected by climate change. Nevertheless, studies show that ‘energy’ is the sector that has received the least attention in research on climate change adaptation. The research questions for SusRenew are: (1) How can the Norwegian renewables sector achieve low-emission targets set by the Norwegian authorities in 2050 and at the same time make the energy system sufficiently climate robust? (2) To what extent do current energy models used in energy policy decisions capture climate risk? (3) What are the most important climate hazards that may contribute to climate risk in a future renewable energy system? (4) What are the climate risks associated with a future renewable energy system? (5) How can new knowledge about climate risk be implemented in energy models that are used in energy policy decision-making processes? (6) How can climate risk be reduced in the ongoing transition to a renewable energy system?
