PARIS REINFORCE in the time of COVID-19.
The PARIS REINFORCE consortium has been considering how best to accommodate COVID-19 implications in its research, including potential long-term socioeconomic implications (e.g. economic growth), impacts on investments (e.g. post-crisis stimulus crowding out clean energy investments, or instead bringing down cost of capital in low-carbon technologies), emissions trends due to structural changes (e.g. shifts among energy sources) and new norms (like telecommuting persisting beyond the pandemic), etc.
PARIS REINFORCE researchers have published several commentaries analysing similarities of the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate emergency as well as what we can learn from the COVID-19 action into climate action.
Visit the respective page of the website and explore the newly published commentaries.
- How changes brought on by coronavirus could help tackle climate change
- Coronavirus: How we emerge from this terrible crisis could push us into a better future
- Coronavirus and climate change: “There is much uncertainty, and much to play for”
Moreover, PARIS REINFORCE researchers have participated in a podcast on “Planet Pod” and discussed the knowns and unknowns of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the climate emergency. Find it here.
PARIS REINFORCE National Stakeholder Workshops
The 1st National Stakeholder workshop of PARIS REINFORCE took place on the 28th of January 2020, in Athens, Greece. The workshop, entitled “Climate Change, Energy and the Greek Environment: What are the choices?”, was jointly organised by PARIS REINFORCE, along with the Hellenic Society for the Environment and Culture and the Convergences Greece Forum, and gave the opportunity to stakeholders from industry, government and the civil society to get informed, discuss and raise concerns on the available alternatives on climate change, energy and environmental protection.
The workshop included three sessions on “Business, Energy & Environment”, “Sustainable Energy Planning - Technologies and Policies” and “Geothermal Energy”, as well as a roundtable discussion on “Sustainable Energy Sources: Economy, Society, Environment and the case of Wind Turbines”. After the latter, an electronic poll took place in order to gather the stakeholders' perceptions on which topics they consider the most important to be further explored by PARIS REINFORCE and which factors they believe are the most impactful (either positively or negatively) towards a wide-scale deployment of renewable energy sources (RES) and the implementation of the Greek National Energy and Climate Plan. The majority of respondents was from the academic/research sector (32%), while NGOs and private sector/industry were also well represented (18% and 14% respectively). The most critical topic to further be explored were renewable energy sources and spatial planning (73%), while increased interest was also given to behavioural and lifestyle changes (66%), as well as just transition to a post-lignite Greece (50%). Finally, the four most important factors for a wide-scale development of RES were the sustainability of local communities and cities (4.5/5), social acceptance (4/5), financial viability and investments in green technologies (3.9/5 both). PARIS REINFORCE will explore these topics and respective impact factors in its modelling activities so that our recommendations reflect reality.
In between sessions, the PARIS REINFORCE project coordinator, Assoc. Prof. Haris Doukas, also gave an interview to the “Eco News” TV show on SKAI TV regarding the importance of environmental protection, as well as the objectives of PARIS REINFORCE and how the project will support the Paris Agreement.
More information as well as the workshop’s presentations (in Greek) are available online at the respective webpage!
PARIS REINFORCE national workshops, planned for the spring period coinciding with the pandemic measures, will be adjusted in order to be organised according to COVID-19 precautions and regulations. More information will be provided in due course.
In case you want to participate in the PARIS REINFORCE stakeholder consultation process, stay tuned by registering for the Stakeholder Council!
PARIS REINFORCE Participation in Conferences
PARIS REINFORCE presence in scientific and policy-making conferences and workshops.
https://paris-reinforce.eu/news-events/interventions
PARIS REINFORCE researchers have participated in several scientific conferences and high-level policy events and presented the project, its objectives, models and stakeholder engagement process as well as results so far.
Below are the events in which PARIS REINFORCE participated as presenter.
- Zero carbon emissions in the Greek energy system, 20 February 2020, Athens, Greece
- 15th Conference of the Spanish Association for Energy Economics, 30 January 2020, Toledo, Spain
- 76th Semi-Annual IEA-ETSAP Meeting, 11 December 2019, Mayfield West, Australia
- EU-Japan Climate Change Policy Symposium, 6 December 2019, Tokyo, Japan
- 2019 International workshop of EMF 35 JMIP, 6 December 2019, Tokyo, Japan
- IAMC 2019, 12th Annual Meeting, 2 December 2019, Tsukuba, Japan
https://paris-reinforce.eu/publications/deliverables
Key PARIS REINFORCE Deliverables have been published!
Explore the following newly published reports.
PARIS REINFORCE Scientific Publications
https://paris-reinforce.eu/publications/scientific-publications
A lot of PARIS REINFORCE Scientific Publications have recently been published!
Visit the respective page of the website and explore them.
- Emissions – the ‘business as usual’ story is misleading, in Nature
- Navigating various flexibility mechanisms under European burden-sharing, in Environmental Economics and Policy Studies
Developing Green: A Case for the Brazilian Manufacturing Industry, in Sustainability
2 May 2020
PARIS REINFORCE
