This book assesses the impact of energy transitions on the future of natural gas in the EU energy mix. As we approach 2050, the requirement to sharply decrease CO2 and other GHG emissions means that the role of gas infrastructure in the EU and beyond will change drastically. But what does such change mean? To address this question the author critically analyses the EU’s evolving natural gas market policy and law. Clearly structured throughout, the book explores the following questions: How can we maximise the potential of gas infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions? What are the lessons learned from decision making experience in the natural gas sector? Is the EU moving towards or away from a climate neutral gas sector? How will green and low carbon gas technologies be supported? And, are proposals to drive a growing share of hydrogen, biomethane, and synthetic methane to the system just an excuse to prolong fossil fuel operations? The book explores whether the EU will continue to subsidy natural gas projects or decarbonise the gas grid before 2050, and at what cost. Recommendations are proposed for a new regulatory and policy framework for development and operation of hydrogen pipelines, injection of biomethane into the existing gas grid and for pipelines carrying CO2. Filling an important gap in the literature, this book aims to develop an understanding of and clarify the complex range of legislation involved within a single analytical framework. Although the focus is mainly on the future of gas in the EU, the findings and recommendations are relevant for a much wider geography. This book will be an invaluable reference to policy makers and practitioners as well as researchers and students across the social sciences interested in the future of energy.

The world is currently undergoing an historic energy transition, driven by increasingly stringent decarbonisation policies and rapid advances in low-carbon technologies. The large-scale shift to low-carbon energy is disrupting the global energy system, impacting whole economies, and changing the political dynamics within and between countries. This open access book, written by leading energy scholars, examines the economic and geopolitical implications of the global energy transition, from both regional and thematic perspectives. The first part of the book addresses the geopolitical implications in the world’s main energy-producing and energy-consuming regions, while the second presents in-depth case studies on selected issues, ranging from the geopolitics of renewable energy, to the mineral foundations of the global energy transformation, to governance issues in connection with the changing global energy order. Given its scope, the book will appeal to researchers in energy, climate change and international relations, as well as to professionals working in the energy industry.

Low-Carbon Energy Security from a European Perspective draws on the European Commission's funded project MILESECURE-2050. It considers low-carbon energy security and energy geopolitics in Europe, with a focus on four thematic clusters: challenging the energy security paradigm; climate change and energy security objectives (the components of a secure and low-carbon energy system); energy security in a geopolitical perspective, as it relates to economics, resource competition, and availability; and the influence of large scale renewable energy projects on energy security and shifting geopolitical alliances. An overarching narrative is that optimizing the energy system simultaneously across different objectives may be impossible, i.e., lowest cost, least environmental impact, minimal downtime, regional supply. This book explores these charged topics through insights from a series of novel, new energy project case studies, and demonstrates the need for difficult political conversations within Europe and beyond by posing fundamental yet new questions about the energy security paradigm. - Offers a unique perspective on low-carbon energy security by considering the assumptions behind current energy security needs - Suggests the benefit of envisioning energy security through out-of-the-box scenario development with respect to the energy system - Includes energy in an international scenario with case studies from Africa, Russia, Ukraine, Morroco, China, South America, and Europe - Draws on the European Commission's funded project MILESECURE-2050

This open access book presents detailed pathways to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2050, globally and across ten geographical regions. Based on state-of-the-art scenario modelling, it provides the vital missing link between renewable energy targets and the measures needed to achieve them. Bringing together the latest research in climate science, renewable energy technology, employment and resource impacts, the book breaks new ground by covering all the elements essential to achieving the ambitious climate mitigation targets set out in the Paris Climate Agreement. For example, sectoral implementation pathways, with special emphasis on differences between developed and developing countries and regional conditions, provide tools to implement the scenarios globally and domestically. Non-energy greenhouse gas mitigation scenarios define a sustainable pathway for land-use change and the agricultural sector. Furthermore, results of the impact of the scenarios on employment and mineral and resource requirements provide vital insight on economic and resource management implications. The book clearly demonstrates that the goals of the Paris Agreement are achievable and feasible with current technology and are beneficial in economic and employment terms. It is essential reading for anyone with responsibility for implementing renewable energy or climate targets internationally or domestically, including climate policy negotiators, policy-makers at all levels of government, businesses with renewable energy commitments, researchers and the renewable energy industry. Part 2 of this title can be found at this Link: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-99177-7

At a time when climate-change deniers hold the reins of power in the United States and international greenhouse gas negotiations continue at a slow crawl, what options are available to cities, companies, and consumers around the world who seek a cleaner future? Scott Victor Valentine, Marilyn A. Brown, and Benjamin K. Sovacool explore developments and strategies that will help fast-track the transition to renewable energy. They provide an expert analysis of the achievable steps that citizens, organizational leaders, and policy makers can take to put their commitments to sustainability into practice. Empowering the Great Energy Transition examines trends that suggest a transition away from carbon-intensive energy sources is inevitable—there are too many forces for change at work to stop a shift to clean energy. Yet under the status quo, change will be too slow to avert the worst consequences of climate change. Humanity is on a path to incur avoidable social, environmental, and economic costs. Valentine, Brown, and Sovacool argue that new policies and business models are needed to surmount the hurdles separating the current consumption model from a sustainable energy future. Empowering the Great Energy Transition shows that with well-placed efforts, we can set humanity on a course that supports entrepreneurs and communities in mitigating the environmental harm caused by technologies whose time has come and gone.

This bold and controversial argument shows why energy transitions are inherently complex and prolonged affairs, and how ignoring this fact raises unrealistic expectations that the United States and other global economies can be weaned quickly from a primary dependency on fossil fuels. Energy transitions are fundamental processes behind the evolution of human societies: they both drive and are driven by technical, economic, and social changes. In a bold and provocative argument, Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects describes the history of modern society's dependence on fossil fuels and the prospects for the transition to a nonfossil world. Vaclav Smil, who has published more on various aspects of energy than any working scientist, makes it clear that this transition will not be accomplished easily, and that it cannot be accomplished within the timetables established by the Obama administration. The book begins with a survey of the basic properties of modern energy systems. It then offers detailed explanations of universal patterns of energy transitions, the peculiarities of changing energy use in the world's leading economies, and the coming shifts from fossil fuels to renewable conversions. Specific cases of these transitions are analyzed for eight of the world's leading energy consumers. The author closes with perspectives on the nature and pace of the coming energy transition to renewable conversions.

This Handbook is the first volume to comprehensively analyse and problem-solve how to manage the decline of fossil fuels as the world tackles climate change and shifts towards a low-carbon energy transition. The overall findings are straight-forward and unsurprising: although fossil fuels have powered the industrialisation of many nations and improved the lives of hundreds of millions of people, another century dominated by fossil fuels would be disastrous. Fossil fuels and associated greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced to a level that avoids rising temperatures and rising risks in support of a just and sustainable energy transition. Divided into four sections and 25 contributions from global leading experts, the chapters span a wide range of energy technologies and sources including fossil fuels, carbon mitigation options, renewables, low carbon energy, energy storage, electric vehicles and energy sectors (electricity, heat and transport). They cover varied legal jurisdictions and multiple governance approaches encompassing multi- and inter-disciplinary technological, environmental, social, economic, political, legal and policy perspectives with timely case studies from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America and the Pacific. Providing an insightful contribution to the literature and a much-needed synthesis of the field as a whole, this book will have great appeal to decision makers, practitioners, students and scholars in the field of energy transition studies seeking a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities and challenges in managing the decline of fossil fuels.

The Energy Transition, the inevitable shift away from cheap, centralized, largely fossil-based energy systems, is one of the core challenges of our time. This book provides a coherent and novel insight into the nature of this challenge and possible strategies to accelerate and guide such transitions. It brings together prominent European scholars and practitioners from the fields of energy transition research and governance to draw attention to the current complex dynamics in the energy domain, and offer elegant and provocative explanations for current crises and lock-ins. They identify multiple energy transition pathways that emerge and increasingly compete, and emphasize the need and possibilities for novel governance. By analysing the complexity of energy transition processes and the difficulties in shifting to sustainable pathways, this text questions the extent to which actually governing energy transitions is already reality, just an illusion, or a bare necessity.

A volume on the political economy of clean energy transition in developed and developing regions, with a focus on the issues that different countries face as they transition from fossil fuels to lower carbon technologies.

This book examines the mutual interplay of climate and energy policies in eleven Central and Eastern European countries in the context of the EU's energy transition. Energy security has long been prioritised in the region and has shaped not only national climate and energy policy, but also EU-level policy-making and implementation. Whilst the region shares economic, institutional and historical energy supplier commonalities it is not homogenous, and the book considers the significant differences between the preferences and policies of these member states. Chapters also explore the effect of the EU on member states that have joined since 2004 and their influence on the EU's energy and climate policies and their role in highlighting the importance of the concepts of security and solidarity. The book highlights the challenges to, and drivers of, energy transitions in the region and compares these with those in global energy transitions.