Climate Solutions Series: Decarbonizing Global Transport. Center for Strategic & International Studies. Stephen J. Naimoli, Nikos Tsafos. July 20, 2020
Transportation is the second-largest source of global carbon dioxide emissions. In the third brief of the Climate Solutions Series, the CSIS Energy Security and Climate Change Program examines various approaches to decarbonizing the sector. [Note: contains copyrighted material].
[PDF format, 12 pages].
Decarbonizing the Electric Power Sector. Center for Strategic & International Studies. CSIS Briefs. Stephen Naimoli and Sarah Ladislaw. May 12, 2020.
In 2018, the power sector emitted 13.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, 41 percent of total global emissions. To have a chance of holding global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius relative to its preindustrial level, global emissions from all economic sectors, including the power sector, must be reduced to net-zero around 2050.
One of the challenges of decarbonizing the power sector is sufficiently reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while guaranteeing reliability, security, and affordability. Solar and wind power are zero-carbon technologies, but their variability could challenge grid stability if they are not properly balanced by sufficient storage and firm power. Jesse Jenkins, a Princeton professor and one of the speakers at CSIS’s March 30 event on power sector decarbonization, likens the power system to a balanced diet: directly comparing the costs of variable renewable energy to those of firm power sources is like comparing the cost of a banana to the cost of a hamburger. Both can be evaluated on cost alone, but doing so misses the different roles they play in a balanced electric power system. [Note: contains copyrighted material].
[PDF format, 7 pages].
