“Three Policy Responses to the Energy Crisis: The Co-benefits of Energy Efficiency”: IAM COMPACT policy brief published

The first output of our work with the IAM COMPACT project is the policy brief “Three Policy Responses to the Energy Crisis: The Co-benefits of Energy Efficiency”.

In this brief we explore three scenarios to replace Russian gas imports:

➡️increasing gas imports from other regions
➡️increasing domestic production
➡️accelerating energy efficiency

1. Using four IAMs (GCAM, TIAM, MUSE, PROMETHEUS) and two sectoral models (MARIO, EXPANSE), we find that
   eliminating reliance on Russian natural gas can drive emissions reductions in hard-to-abate sectors and speed up the transition to renewables and electrification.
2. Replacing Russian gas with other imported gas would have a very small impact on EU energy-related emissions, while replacing it with domestic clean energy alternatives would lead to an interplay between demand-side energy-related emissions decreasing and supply-side energy-related emissions increasing.
3. Energy efficiency could lead to the highest emissions reduction in the demand side, although concerns remain over a post-2040 rebound. Other benefits of energy savings and energy efficiency measures include reduced investment needs and lower electricity prices.

The policy brief has successfully fed into the European Commission 2040 target planning process.

Read more here