This open access book brings together concrete analyses from around the world, spanning various scales, that shed light on strategies for implementing essential energy and climate transitions within the broader context of UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) imperatives. Specifically, the book exemplifies the advancement, adaptation, and utilization of energy systems models to address intricate policy issues around pathways to achieve net-zero emissions, enhance energy security, optimize investments, and understand their societal implications. It explores the intricate connections between the SDGs concerning energy, climate action, and other developmental priorities such as employment and economic growth, industrial innovation, urban development, responsible consumption and production, and collaborative partnerships. Organized into four sections, the book illustrates the necessary adjustments of energy system models to guide SDGs, evaluates the role of modeling to advance both renewable energy and energy security, and showcases how energy systems are harnessed to engage with international, national, and local policymakers.

The fate of our planet hangs in the balance, making the pursuit of sustainable development more than a mere aspiration, it is an imperative. Green Economy and Renewable Energy Transitions for Sustainable Development delves deep into the intricate web of interconnections between the environment, green economies, and energy transitions, and lays down the intellectual foundation for a sustainable future. Drawing on the wisdom of experts in fields ranging from environmental science to policy analysis, this book unveils the multifaceted strategies needed to reduce pollution, conserve biodiversity, and effectively mitigate the relentless march of climate change. Central to sustainability is a green economy—a holistic economic system that transcends profit margins to prioritize social equity, ecological balance, and robust economic growth. Through rigorous exploration and analysis, this volume showcases how sustainable production and consumption practices and judicious investments in renewable energy sources can catalyze a transformative shift towards a more sustainable global economy. The energy transition, a substantial shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, emerges as the linchpin of our battle against climate change. This book deciphers the intricate dance of policies, technologies, and behavioral changes required to usher in this transition. It reveals how renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and hydropower hold the key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and staving off the catastrophic consequences of global warming. This monograph is an invaluable resource for policymakers, researchers, educators, and anyone who aspires to be a custodian of our planet's future.

The United States and China are the world's top two energy consumers and, as of 2010, the two largest economies. Consequently, they have a decisive role to play in the world's clean energy future. Both countries are also motivated by related goals, namely diversified energy portfolios, job creation, energy security, and pollution reduction, making renewable energy development an important strategy with wide-ranging implications. Given the size of their energy markets, any substantial progress the two countries make in advancing use of renewable energy will provide global benefits, in terms of enhanced technological understanding, reduced costs through expanded deployment, and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to conventional generation from fossil fuels. Within this context, the U.S. National Academies, in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), reviewed renewable energy development and deployment in the two countries, to highlight prospects for collaboration across the research to deployment chain and to suggest strategies which would promote more rapid and economical attainment of renewable energy goals. Main findings and concerning renewable resource assessments, technology development, environmental impacts, market infrastructure, among others, are presented. Specific recommendations have been limited to those judged to be most likely to accelerate the pace of deployment, increase cost-competitiveness, or shape the future market for renewable energy. The recommendations presented here are also pragmatic and achievable.

This report outlines how providers can make changes at home, in developing countries and in the international development co-operation system, to help create low-emissions, climate-resilient economies, and how they can avoid supporting activities that lock the world into an unsustainable future.

This open access book is an encyclopaedic analysis of the current and future energy system of the world’s most populous country and second biggest economy. What happens in China impacts the planet. In the past 40 years China has achieved one of the most remarkable economic growth rates in history. Its GDP has risen by a factor of 65, enabling 850,000 people to rise out of poverty. Growth on this scale comes with consequences. China is the world’s biggest consumer of primary energy and the world’s biggest emitter of CO2 emissions. Creating a prosperous and harmonious society that delivers economic growth and a high quality of life for all will require radical change in the energy sector, and a rewiring of the economy more widely. In China’s Energy Revolution in the Context of the Global Energy Transition, a team of researchers from the Development Research Center of the State Council of China and Shell International examine how China can revolutionise its supply and use of energy. They examine the entire energy system: coal, oil, gas, nuclear, renewables and new energies in production, conversion, distribution and consumption. They compare China with case studies and lessons learned in other countries. They ask which technology, policy and market mechanisms are required to support the change and they explore how international cooperation can smooth the way to an energy revolution in China and across the world. And, they create and compare scenarios on possible pathways to a future energy system that is low-carbon, affordable, secure and reliable.