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To mitigate the impacts of the energy crisis, the European Union has proposed various measures. For the electricity sector a directive prescribes a shift of 5% of the demand in 10% of the peak hours, plus a voluntary 10% overall demand reduction. Here a power system model is used to quantify the implications of this policy for the Italian power sector, as it stands in 2022 and under the transformation required to meet the climate goals of the Fit-for-55. Findings show that it would be beneficial to incentivize electricity consumption in the middle of the day while discouraging it in the early morning and late afternoon. It is also noteworthy to observe the advantages of the decarbonization strategy in light of fluctuating gas prices and uncertainties: for a cost of gas at or above 50€/MWh, power generation through gas is reduced by more than one third, approaching what needed to comply with the Fit-for-55. Finally, the study assesses the potential of demand side management strategies to curb fossil resource consumption and to reduce curtailed electricity under a high renewable scenario. • Power system model for Italy to study synergies of climate policies and demand shifts. • Shifting power load to midday is cost optimal to exploit solar electricity production. • With low gas costs, demand side management (DSM) reduces curtailment. • DSM lowers system costs by limiting the use of gas when its price is elevate. • DSM decreases the pressure on existing storage technologies and the need for new ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Climate engineering, notably solar radiation management (SRM), is a controversial option. • We evaluate the risk of climate engineering due to lack of international cooperation. • Free driving leads to a significant overprovision of SRM. • Countries in the tropics (India and others) have highest incentives for using SRM. Abstract Growing concerns about climate change impacts on humans and eco-systems motivates exploring new strategies to complement traditional climate policies like mitigation and adaptation. Climate engineering via solar radiation management is one discussed option. However, climate engineering entails new risks, including its governance. Without sufficiently strong institutions, there is a risk that some countries will unilaterally deploy climate engineering to the detriment of other nations. This paper provides an evaluation of the risks of excess climate engineering due to lack of international cooperation. Using both an analytical and numerical model, we show how lack of cooperation leads to overprovision of climate engineering above what would be socially optimal. The regions with the highest climate change impacts deploy climate engineering at the expenses of the others. Yet, these poor countries still host the majority of the residual climate change impacts. These results suggest the importance of embedding climate engineering in the international climate policy debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The climate targets defined under the Paris agreement of limiting global temperature increase below 1.5 or 2 °C require massive deployment of low-carbon options in the energy mix, which is currently dominated by fossil fuels. Scenarios suggest that Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) might play a central role in this transformation, but CCS deployment is stagnating and doubts remain about its techno-economic feasibility. In this article, we carry out a throughout assessment of the role of CCS electricity for a variety of temperature targets, from 1.5 to above 4 °C, with particular attention to the lower end of this range. We collect the latest data on CCS economic and technological future prospects to accurately represent several types of CCS plants in the WITCH energy-economy model, We capture uncertainties by means of extensive sensitivity analysis in parameters regarding plants technical aspects, as well as costs and technological progress. Our research suggests that stringent temperature scenarios constrain fossil fuel CCS based deployment, which is maximum for medium policy targets. On the other hand, Biomass CCS, along with renewables, increases with the temperature stringency. Moreover, the relative importance of cost and performance parameters change with the climate target. Cost uncertainty matters in less stringent policy cases, whereas performance matters for lower temperature targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We test if policy support for renewable electricity have been effective in promoting renewables in the five largest European countries in the period 2000–2010. We collect data on the exact amount of monetary incentives and the average tariffs granted. The econometric analysis reveals a positive correlation between subsidies and the production of incentivized energy, as well as the installed capacity. We find that a 1% (1c€) increase in the incentive (tariff) leads to an increase in renewable generation of 0.4–1% (18–26%). Feed-in tariffs appear to outperform tradable green certificates. Overall, the analysis shows that these policies have been effective in promoting renewable energy, both in the short and in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Attention to climate change decreases with attention to COVID-19 increasing. • Worry about climate change does not decrease with attention to COVID-10 increasing. • There may be a Finite Pool of Attention to threats. • There is limited evidence for a Finite Pool of Worry about threats. The Finite Pool of Worry (FPW) hypothesis states that humans have finite emotional resources for worry, so that when we become more worried about one threat, worry about other threats decreases. Despite its relevance, no conclusive empirical evidence for the hypothesis exists. We leverage the sudden onset of new worries introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment to test the FPW hypothesis and a related hypothesis, the Finite Pool of Attention (FPA) hypothesis. The FPA hypothesis proposes that when we pay more attention to one threat, our attention to other threats decreases. To test these two hypotheses, we assessed self-reported attention, self-reported worries, and Twitter/news attention to various threats (climate change, terrorism, economic problems, and others) throughout the pandemic in three countries (USA, Italy, and China). We find that as attention to and worry about COVID-19 increases, attention to climate change decreases, but worry does not. Our results are confirmed by further analysis of a large, longitudinal U.S. sample. We find that public perceptions that COVID-19 and climate change are related do not fully explain the positive relationship in worry between the two hazards. In summary, our findings suggest that while there may be a Finite Pool of Attention to threats, there is limited evidence for a Finite Pool of Worry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper systematically compares modeled rates of change provided by global integrated assessment models aiming for the 2 °C objective to historically observed rates of change. Such a comparison can provide insights into the difficulty of achieving such stringent climate stabilization scenarios. The analysis focuses specifically on the rates of change for technology expansion and diffusion, emissions and energy supply investments. The associated indicators vary in terms of system focus (technology-specific or energy system wide), temporal scale (timescale or lifetime), spatial scale (regional or global) and normalization (accounting for entire system growth or not). Although none of the indicators provide conclusive insights as to the achievability of scenarios, this study finds that indicators that look into absolute change remain within the range of historical growth frontiers for the next decade, but increase to unprecedented levels before mid-century. Indicators that take into account or normalize for overall system growth find future change to be broadly within historical ranges. This is particularly the case for monetary-based normalization metrics like GDP compared to energy-based normalization metrics like primary energy. By applying a diverse set of indicators alternative, complementary insights into how scenarios compare with historical observations are acquired but they do not provide further insights on the possibility of achieving rates of change that are beyond current day practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper we analyze the relative importance and mutual behavior of two competing base-load electricity generation options that each are capable of contributing significantly to the abatement of global CO2 emissions: Nuclear energy and coal-based power production complemented with CO2 capture and storage (CCS). We also investigate how, in scenarios developed with an integrated assessment model that simulates the economics of a climate-constrained world, the prospects for nuclear energy would change if exogenous limitations on the spread of nuclear technology were relaxed. Using the climate change economics model WITCH we find that until 2050 the growth rates of nuclear electricity generation capacity would become comparable to historical rates observed during the 1980s. Given that nuclear energy continues to face serious challenges and contention, we inspect how extensive the improvements of coal-based power equipped with CCS technology would need to be if our economic optimization model is to significantly scale down the construction of new nuclear power plants. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]