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A just energy transition requires consideration of the needs of all people, yet disabled people are often overlooked. Ivanova and Middlemiss analyse the energy use of disabled households in the European Union, finding that on average they consume less energy and are more likely to experience energy poverty.
Billions of people still rely on polluting fuels like wood or charcoal for cooking, which impacts health and livelihoods, despite efforts to transition to cleaner fuels. This Analysis integrates a comparison of supply- and demand-side factors that determine cooking fuel use among peri-urban households in Cameroon, Kenya and Ghana.
Achieving ambitious climate goals requires the development of new technologies at rapid pace. Probst et al. analyse global patent data and find that a growth period of inventions from 1995 to 2012 was followed by a decline of ~6% annually, while invention remains concentrated in just a few countries.
Many socioeconomic growth and low-emission energy scenarios do not consider impacts on clean cooking access and have yet to account for the COVID pandemic. Pachauri et al. now examine how clean cooking access evolves under various scenarios post COVID and find the need for policy focused on increasing access more urgent.
Techno-economic studies of photovoltaic solar cells recycling and reuse often do not take into account the impact of social factors. Walzberg et al. use an agent-based model to estimate the quantitative impact of behavioural choices on photovoltaic recycling efficacy.
Behavioural interventions can reduce energy consumption and hence carbon emissions among households. Khanna et al. compare the effectiveness of different types of monetary and non-monetary household interventions using a machine learning-assisted meta-analysis, and examine the situations where each is most useful.
The impact of extreme weather events driven by climate change is increasingly disrupting energy assets and services. Using operational data of nuclear reactors, Ali Ahmad identifies how disruptions in nuclear power production have increased over the years with increasing temperature anomalies, and projects future loss of output.
Costs of renewable energy generation have fallen rapidly in recent years, often faster than predicted. Wiser et al. undertake an expert elicitation survey to project wind power costs to 2050, finding substantial continued cost reductions, and compare back to a previous survey to understand what has changed.
Current battery electric vehicles cannot meet all daily travel needs on a single charge. Wei et al. use travel survey data to model charging infrastructure scenarios under a range of battery sizes to find the best suite of charging options and use of supplemental vehicles to electrify personal vehicle transport.
City-scale emission scenarios are critical for transport and energy sector policy making. Using a model that accounts for building stock and transportation fleets, Isik et al. visualize emission changes in the transport sector in New York City under various electric vehicle adoption and grid decarbonization scenarios.