Imperial College London
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Professor Adam Hawkes

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering

Professor of Energy Systems
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 9300a.hawkes

 
 
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Location

 

RODH.503Roderic Hill BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Gambhir:2017:10.3390/en10010089,
author = {Gambhir, A and Drouet, L and McCollum, D and Napp, T and Bernie, D and Hawkes, A and Fricko, O and Havlik, P and Riahi, K and Bosetti, V and Lowe, J},
doi = {10.3390/en10010089},
journal = {Energies},
title = {Assessing the feasibility of global long-term mitigation scenarios},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/en10010089},
volume = {10},
year = {2017}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - This study explores the critical notion of how feasible it is to achieve long-term mitigation goals to limit global temperature change. It uses a model inter-comparison of three integrated assessment models (TIAM-Grantham, MESSAGE-GLOBIOM and WITCH) harmonized for socio-economic growth drivers using one of the new shared socio-economic pathways (SSP2), to analyse multiple mitigation scenarios aimed at different temperature changes in 2100, in order to assess the model outputs against a range of indicators developed so as to systematically compare the feasibility across scenarios. These indicators include mitigation costs and carbon prices, rates of emissions reductions and energy efficiency improvements, rates of deployment of key low-carbon technologies, reliance on negative emissions, and stranding of power generation assets. The results highlight how much more challenging the 2OC goal is, when compared to the 2.5-4OC goals, across virtually all measures of feasibility. Any delay in mitigation or limitation in technology options also renders the 2OC goal much less feasible across the economic and technical dimensions explored. Finally, a sensitivity analysis indicates that aiming for less than 2OC is even less plausible, with significantly higher mitigation costs and faster carbon price increases, significantly faster decarbonization and zero-carbon technology deployment rates, earlier occurrence of very significant carbon capture and earlier onset of global net negative emissions. Such a systematic analysis allows a more in-depth consideration of what realistic level of long-term temperature changes can be achieved and what adaptation strategies are therefore required.
AU  - Gambhir,A
AU  - Drouet,L
AU  - McCollum,D
AU  - Napp,T
AU  - Bernie,D
AU  - Hawkes,A
AU  - Fricko,O
AU  - Havlik,P
AU  - Riahi,K
AU  - Bosetti,V
AU  - Lowe,J
DO  - 10.3390/en10010089
PY  - 2017///
SN  - 1996-1073
TI  - Assessing the feasibility of global long-term mitigation scenarios
T2  - Energies
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/en10010089
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/43269
VL  - 10
ER  -
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