• Background

• Chariman's Conclusions

• Speakers and presentations

Background

The full decarbonisation of the power sector is on the EU Agenda despite, or perhaps in part because of the disappointing outcome of the Copenhagen Climate Conference. European Commission President José Manuel Barroso addressed a low-carbon energy future for Europe in his “Political Guidelines for the next Commission” and the European Council in principle confirmed its commitment to the idea of sharp greenhouse gas reductions in October 2009. Europe must prepare now for the energy transformation that will be required to keep global average temperatures from increasing more than 2 degrees.

Several energy scenarios that address the question of how to achieve this revolutionary transformation of the power sector have been published or are in preparation. Scenarios for 2050 have been prepared not only by large energy companies, but also by the renewable energy industry, many NGOs and forward looking think tanks. These scenarios can inform the European Commission as it prepares its own proposals for the transformation ahead.

At the national level, several EU Countries have established long term commitments for sharp reductions of their green house gases. In some cases, these are backed with legally binding frameworks.  The next step is to consider what must be done at a European-level to achieve large-scale emission reductions across the EU.

In 2009, the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils (EEAC) released a Statement, “Towards Sustainable European Infrastructures”. In that statement EEAC argued for a new infrastructure planning approach that includes the development of a transeuropean electricity grid. This is necessary in order to ensure the transition towards a power sector supplied by renewable energy. There is an emerging consensus that to develop a European electricity system that is clean (i.e. based on renewables), affordable, and secure,  a new European super grid will be needed. This will require political will and a shared future vision.

It is the purpose of this workshop to bring various 2050 energy scenario writers together to discuss common and diverging assumptions, methods and outcomes, and to sketch out what a common future vision could look like. The workshop should be of interest for policy-makers as well as researchers and non-governmental organisation interested in the field of energy policy.  

Chariman's Conclusions

A key conclusion from the workshop is, that renewable sources in Europe have the potential to provide most if not all the electricity needed. 100% RES (Renewable Energy Sources) for electricity can be achieved at competitive costs while respecting biodiversity and while ensuring that the electricity demand is met at all times. The scenarios illustrate, that electricity from renewable sources may become the sustainable solution to our electricity system. read more 

Speakers and presentations                       

13:00: Welcome, Stéphane Buffetaut, EESC Sustainable Development Observatory

13:10 - 15:15 Session I: Scenarios for a Decarbonised Power Sector

• Chair and Introduction: Christian Hey (download - pdf. 45 kB)

• Kees van der Leun, Ecofys: High-renewables European electricity supply in the framework of ambitious policies for energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction (download - pdf. 113 kB)

• Mark Z. Jacobson, Stanford University: A Path to Sustainable Energy by 2030 (download - ppt. 11,6 MB)

• Miranda Schreurs: SRU Special Report on 100% Renewable Electricity - Implications for the EU (download - pdf. 1MB)

• Christine Lins (EREC): The Energy Revolution Scenario (download - pdf. 1,6 MB)

• Charlie Heaps, Stockholm Environment Institute: “Europe´s Share” (download - pdf. 840 kB)

• Jules Kortenhorst (European Climate Foundation): “2050 Roadmap” (download - pdf. 620 kB)

• Discussion: Technical and economic Implications and conditions for a renewable electricity system in Europe

15:15 - 15:45: coffee break

15:45 - 16:50 Session II: Policy Commitments

• Chair and Introduction: Miranda Schreurs

• James Greenleaf, UK SDC: UK - Climate Change Act and Implementation Process (download - pdf. 207 kB)

• Mátyás Prommer (Hungarian Council for Sustainable Development): The Hungarian Climate Act (download - pdf. 62 kB)

• Felipe Duarte Santos (CNADS, Portugal): On the way to high shares of renewables by 2020? (download - pdf. 5,3 MB)

• Claude Turmes, MEP, President EUFORES: The European Parliament's perspective (download - pdf. 5,3 MB)

• Tom Howes, European Commission: The emerging decarbonisation agenda of the Commission and the potential role of renewable energy (download - pdf. 5,3 MB)

• Discussion

16:50-18:30: Session III: Open Discussion: Chair Hubert David (Chair EEAC)

Can Europe´s energy system be built upon REN only?  What are the next steps?