Impacts of climate change on energy systems in global and regional scenarios

Although our knowledge of climate change impacts on energy systems has increased substantially over the past few decades, there remains a lack of comprehensive overview of impacts across spatial scales. Here, we analyse results of 220 studies projecting climate impacts on energy systems globally and at the regional scale.

Globally, a potential increase in cooling demand and decrease in heating demand can be anticipated, in contrast to slight decreases in hydropower and thermal energy capacity. Impacts at the regional scale are more mixed and relatively uncertain across regions, but strongest impacts are reported for South Asia and Latin America.

Our assessment shows that climate impacts on energy systems at regional and global scales are uncertain due partly to the wide range of methods and non-harmonized datasets used. For a comprehensive assessment of climate impacts on energy, we propose a consistent multi-model assessment framework to support regional-to-global-scale energy planning.

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Authors

PBL Authors
David Gernaat Detlef van Vuuren
Other authors
Seleshi G. Yalew et.al.

Specifications

Publication title
Impacts of climate change on energy systems in global and regional scenarios
Publication date
3 August 2020
Publication type
Article
Publication language
English
Magazine
Nature Energy
Product number
4257