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ENERGY SCENARIOS

An electrified road to climate goals

Nature Energy volume 7, pages 9–10 (2022)Cite this article

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Renewable energy costs have fallen precipitously over the past decade. New analysis explores how an extension of these trends, plus complementary technology innovation and market-based climate policy, could lead to a future energy system dominated by electricity.

It is difficult to overestimate the immense challenge of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) notes that limiting warming to 1.5 °C requires nearly eliminating CO2 emissions worldwide by 2050 along with deep cuts to methane and other GHG emissions1. These deep decarbonization pathways entail major changes across all levels and sectors of the economy. Critical strategies include enhancing energy efficiency, decarbonizing electricity, electrifying end-use sectors and switching to other low-carbon fuels, reducing non-CO2 emissions from agriculture and other sectors, and removing CO2 from the atmosphere via natural sinks or capture and storage in geological reservoirs1. Because of these far-reaching impacts, integrated assessment models (IAMs), which represent interconnections between all energy sectors as well as the land system, are often used to understand the transition to a decarbonized world.

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References

  1. IPCC. Summary for Policymakers. In Global Warming of 1.5 °C (eds Masson-Delmotte, V. et al.) (WMO, 2018).

  2. Glasgow Climate Pact (UNFCCC, 2021).

  3. Dyke, J., Watson, R. & Knorr, W. Climate scientists: concept of net zero is a dangerous trap. The Conversation (2021).

  4. Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2020 (IRENA, 2021).

  5. Luderer, G. et al. Nat. Energy https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-021-00937-z (2021).

  6. BloombergNEF. Battery pack prices cited below $100/kWh for the first time in 2020, while market average sits at $137/kWh. BloombergNEF Blog https://go.nature.com/3E4rFqw (2020).

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  1. Joint Global Change Research Institute (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and University of Maryland), College Park, MD, USA

    Matthew Binsted

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  1. Matthew Binsted
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Correspondence to Matthew Binsted.

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Binsted, M. An electrified road to climate goals. Nat Energy 7, 9–10 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-021-00974-8

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