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Recent progress demonstrates the potential of hydrogen as a vector for decarbonization in different sectors of the energy system, but continued support is required to avoid losing momentum in delivering solutions to climate and energy goals.

Accelerating innovation is as important as climate policy Rapid and deep reductions in greenhouse gas emission are needed to avoid dangerous climate change. This will necessitate low-carbon transitions across electricity, transport, heat, industrial, forestry, and agricultural systems. But despite recent rapid growth in renewable electricity generation, the rate of progress toward this wider goal of deep decarbonization remains slow. Moreover, many policy-oriented energy and climate researchers and models remain wedded to disciplinary approaches that focus on a single piece of the low-carbon transition puzzle, yet avoid many crucial real-world elements for accelerated transitions ( 1 ). We present a “sociotechnical” framework to address the multidimensionality of the deep decarbonization challenge and show how coevolutionary interactions between technologies and societal groups can accelerate low-carbon transitions.

An article in Joule examines the distribution of jobs in low-carbon, neutral and high-carbon industries across Europe and the effectiveness of support from the European Commission to reskilling and upskilling at-risk workers.

Emissions inevitably approach zero with a “carbon law” Although the Paris Agreement's goals ( 1 ) are aligned with science ( 2 ) and can, in principle, be technically and economically achieved ( 3 ), alarming inconsistencies remain between science-based targets and national commitments. Despite progress during the 2016 Marrakech climate negotiations, long-term goals can be trumped by political short-termism. Following the Agreement, which became international law earlier than expected, several countries published mid-century decarbonization strategies, with more due soon. Model-based decarbonization assessments ( 4 ) and scenarios often struggle to capture transformative change and the dynamics associated with it: disruption, innovation, and nonlinear change in human behavior. For example, in just 2 years, China's coal use swung from 3.7% growth in 2013 to a decline of 3.7% in 2015 ( 5 ). To harness these dynamics and to calibrate for short-term realpolitik, we propose framing the decarbonization challenge in terms of a global decadal roadmap based on a simple heuristic—a “carbon law”—of halving gross anthropogenic carbon-dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions every decade. Complemented by immediately instigated, scalable carbon removal and efforts to ramp down land-use CO 2 emissions, this can lead to net-zero emissions around mid-century, a path necessary to limit warming to well below 2°C.

A future electric transportation market will depend on battery innovation Electric vehicles are poised to transform nearly every aspect of transportation, including fuel, carbon emissions, costs, repairs, and driving habits. The primary impetus now is decarbonization to address the climate change emergency, but it soon may shift to economics because electric vehicles are anticipated to be cheaper and higher-performing than gasoline cars. The questions are not if, but how far, electrification will go. What will its impact be on the energy system and on geoeconomics? What are the challenges of developing better batteries and securing the materials supply chain to support new battery technology?

The article presents an analysis of the statistical relationship between the determinants of and barriers to the development of renewable energy sources (RESs) in the macroeconomic system and the development of renewable energy source consumption in individual European Union countries. The article considers four key categories of RES development barriers in the European Union: political, administrative, grid infrastructural, and socioeconomic. The work is based on publicly available historical data from European Union reports, Eurostat, and the Eclareon RES Policy Monitoring Database. The empirical analysis includes all 27 countries belonging to the European Union. The research aimed to determine the impact of all four types of factors, including socioeconomic, on the development of RESs in European Union countries. The analysis uncovered that describing the European Union as a consistent region regarding the speed of renewable energy advancement and the obstacles to such progress is not accurate. Notably, a significant link exists between a strong degree of societal development and the integration of renewable energy sources. In less prosperous EU nations, economic growth plays a pivotal role in renewable energy development. Barriers of an administrative nature exert a notable influence on renewable energy development, especially in less affluent EU countries, while grid-related obstacles are prevalent in Southern–Central Europe. In nations where the proportion of renewable energy sources in electricity consumption is substantial, an excess of capacity in the renewable energy market significantly affects its growth.

Purpose of Review This paper reviews recent literature on the combined use of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) in the industries of steel, cement, paper, ethanol, and chemicals, focusing on estimates of potential costs and the possibility of achieving “negative emissions”. Recent Findings Bioethanol is seen as a potential near-term source of negative emissions, with CO 2 transport as the main cost limitation. The paper industry is a current source of biogenic CO 2 , but complex CO 2 capture configurations raise costs and limit BECCS potential. Remuneration for stored biogenic CO 2 is needed to incentivise BECCS in these sectors. BECCS could also be used for carbon–neutral production of steel, cement, and chemicals, but these will likely require substantial incentives to become cost-competitive. While negative emissions may be possible from all industries considered, the overall CO 2 balance is highly sensitive to biomass supply chains. Furthermore, the resource intensity of biomass cultivation and energy production for CO 2 capture risks burden-shifting to other environmental impacts. Summary Research on BECCS-in-industry is limited but growing, and estimates of costs and environmental impacts vary widely. While negative emissions are possible, transparent presentation of assumptions, system boundaries, and results is needed to increase comparability. In particular, the mixing of avoided emissions and physical storage of atmospheric CO 2 creates confusion of whether physical negative emissions occur. More attention is needed to the geographic context of BECCS-in-industry outside of Europe, the USA, and Brazil, taking into account local biomass supply chains and CO 2 storage siting, and minimise burden-shifting.

Abstract A sustainable low-carbon transition via electric vehicles will require a comprehensive understanding of lithium-ion batteries’ global supply chain environmental impacts. Here, we analyze the cradle-to-gate energy use and greenhouse gas emissions of current and future nickel-manganese-cobalt and lithium-iron-phosphate battery technologies. We consider existing battery supply chains and future electricity grid decarbonization prospects for countries involved in material mining and battery production. Currently, around two-thirds of the total global emissions associated with battery production are highly concentrated in three countries as follows: China (45%), Indonesia (13%), and Australia (9%). On a unit basis, projected electricity grid decarbonization could reduce emissions of future battery production by up to 38% by 2050. An aggressive electric vehicle uptake scenario could result in cumulative emissions of 8.1 GtCO2eq by 2050 due to the manufacturing of nickel-based chemistries. However, a switch to lithium iron phosphate-based chemistry could enable emission savings of about 1.5 GtCO2eq. Secondary materials, via recycling, can help reduce primary supply requirements and alleviate the environmental burdens associated with the extraction and processing of materials from primary sources, where direct recycling offers the lowest impacts, followed by hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 61, 51, and 17%, respectively. This study can inform global and regional clean energy strategies to boost technology innovations, decarbonize the electricity grid, and optimize the global supply chain toward a net-zero future.

The electrical power sector plays an important role in the economic growth and development of every country around the world. Total global demand for electric energy is growing both in developed and developing economies. The commitment to the decarbonization of economies, which would mean replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources (RES) as well as the electrification of transport and heating as a means to tackle global warming and dangerous climate change, would lead to a surge in electricity consumption worldwide. Hence, it appears reasonable that the electric power sector should embed the principles of sustainable development into its functioning and operation. In addition, events such as the recent European gas crisis that have emerged as a result of the massive deployment of renewables need to be studied and prevented. This review aims at assessing the role of the renewable energy in the sustainable development of the electrical power sector, focusing on the energy providers and consumers represented both by businesses and households that are gradually becoming prosumers on the market of electric energy. Furthermore, it also focuses on the impact of renewables on the utility side and their benefits for the grid. In addition, it identifies the major factors of the sustainable development of the electrical power sector.