Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
to a larger share of the population in a warming world without signiicantly increas-
ing carbon emissions from electricity generation; and enhanced regional connections as
ways to add lexibility to risk management strategies surrounded by uncertainties about
future conditions.
A further topic that could emerge is geo-engineering as a climate change response
option related to both mitigation and adaptation (see NRC 2010 and 2011).
5) INDIRECT IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON ENERGY SYSTEMS
SAP 4.5 broke new ground partly by recognizing that impacts of climate change on en-
ergy systems are related not only to direct impacts, such as reduced snowfall on hydro-
power potentials, but also to indirect impacts. Examples cited in that report included
possible efects on energy planning, energy technology development and use, energy in-
stitutions (and supporting institutions such as inance and insurance), energy-related di-
mensions of regional and national economies, energy prices, environmental emissions,
energy security and energy technology and service exports. The report also noted that
climate change efects in other countries could afect US energy supply and use.
In the period since 2007, some of the issues have not received signiicant further re-
search atention - such as implications for regional economies of changes in energy re-
source/technology trajectories - but several issues have been examined in further detail.
a) Relating climate change responses and energy security concerns.
Relationships between
national energy strategies and U.S. energy security have been a topic of discussion since
the 1970s. In recent years, this issue has been connected directly with climate change. For
instance, a “Climate Change War Game” was organized by the Center for New Ameri-
can Security in July 2008 to explore national security implications of global climate
change (htp://www.cnas.org/node/956). Most recently, Faeth, 2012, has raised questions
about water requirements for a number of energy options related to U.S. energy secu-
rity. Meanwhile, a 2010 paper in
Energy Policy
(Greene et al.) examined requirements for
technological progress in eleven technology areas in order to achieve both CO
2
emission
reduction and reduced oil dependence, concluding that each technology area must have
a much beter than 50/50 probability of success and that ive technology areas (such as
carbon capture and sequestration) are virtually essential.
More speciically, environmental dimensions of energy security have been examined
by Brown and Dworkin (2011) and Brown and Sovacool (2011), who note that global
inancial markets - with which the US energy sector is linked - are subject to climate
change vulnerabilities in many parts of the world. A recent reminder of possible vulner-
abilities of supply-chain linkages as well as inancial linkages has been the efect of the
Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan on supplies of electronics, generators, and turbines
for electricity construction projects. Flooding and other extreme weather events can af-
fect areas to which manufacturing has been outsourced, adding to energy security con-
cerns, at least in the short term.
b) Technology research and development to expand the range of response options.
Another
issue that has been discussed actively at the annual Energy Modeling Forum and is also
addressed by NAS, 2011, is the role of technology research and development in making
the stabilization of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere more feasible and afordable.
