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81. Securing the energy transition against cyber threats

Author:
Atlantic Council Task Force on Cybersecurity and the Energy Transition
Publication Date:
07-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
As the US energy sector’s reliance on digitalization grows, its vulnerability to cyberattacks also increases. To better understand current and future threats, the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center convened the Atlantic Council Task Force on Cybersecurity and the Energy Transition to develop a cybersecurity framework designed to protect US energy infrastructure—and by extension, national security—against cyberattacks. Former Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and former General Wesley Clark served as co-chairmen of the task force, which produced this report, “Securing the Energy Transition against Cyber Threats.” The task force found that existing efforts to strengthen cybersecurity are insufficient to meet the demands the energy transition will bring. The fragmented, sometimes rivalrous set of institutions regulating and coordinating current cyber defenses leaves many gaps, ambiguities, and weak links. This report recommends a suite of key actions that government can take to shore up the US energy sector against future cyber threats.
Topic:
Environment, Science and Technology, Cybersecurity, Innovation, Energy, and Green Transition
Political Geography:
Global Focus

82. EU in Search of a WTO-Compatible Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism

Author:
Cecilia Bellora and Lionel Fontagné
Publication Date:
05-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (CEPII)
Abstract:
To meet the targets of the EU’s ”Fit for 55” package, the European Commission proposes to implement a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). The CBAM is firstly intended to avoid carbon leakages, but it also deals with the thorny issue of the compliance by European producers in carbon-intensive industries. In addition, its design, as voted by the European Council on March 15, 2022, questions the compatibility of the CBAM with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. The CBAM puts a price on carbon contained in imported products whose production-related emissions have not been taxed (or not at the same level as in the European Union) by the exporter country, in order to offset the difference in carbon prices at the border. This paper aims to quantify the economic and environmental impacts of different CBAM design choices with the aim of complying with WTO rules. Different from the previous literature, we evaluate the various options with a dynamic general equilibrium model featuring imperfect competition, global value chains, green-house gas emissions and endogenous price of emission quotas. We show that CBAM is effective in reducing carbon leakages. But its design leads to an increase in the price of carbon quotas in the European Emission Trading System (ETS) market. Losses in competitiveness on export markets are expected, also for downstream sectors not covered by the EU ETS nor the CBAM. Eventually, offsetting the difference in carbon prices at the border comes at a cost to the enforcing jurisdiction, suggesting that the CBAM was not designed as a beggar-thy-neighbour policy.
Topic:
Energy Policy, International Trade and Finance, Regional Cooperation, European Union, Carbon Emissions, WTO, and Green Transition
Political Geography:
Europe

83. Hydrogen and Its Role in Post-Pandemic Recovery. Case Study of Portugal

Author:
Maciej Giers
Publication Date:
06-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Polish Political Science Yearbook
Institution:
Polish Political Science Association (PPSA)
Abstract:
The article aims to analyse the potential role that hydrogen could play in the post-pandemic recovery of Portugal and its climate policy. The article focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and creating new workplaces. The basis for analysis is the Portuguese hydrogen strategy, published in May 2020 and other strategic documents. In the first part of the article, climate goals adopted by the European Union and Portugal are described and analysed. Then the hydrogen strategy of Portugal was analysed from the perspective of hydrogen contribution to the emission reduction by 2030. The article describes the role of hydrogen in the Portuguese economy, paying particular attention to the 2020–2030 horizon, but also covers a period till 2040. The second part analyses the impact of COVID-19 on the Portuguese economy. Based on the International Energy Agency’s estimates, the potential for creating new workplaces is described.
Topic:
Climate Change, Recovery, Pandemic, COVID-19, Hydrogen, and Green Transition
Political Geography:
Europe and Portugal

84. Who Benefits from Tunisia's Green Hydrogen Strategy?

Author:
Aida Delpuech
Publication Date:
12-2022
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
As the global energy sector sought to revamp itself over recent years, several countries around the world have joined a race toward green hydrogen –labelled “energy of the future”. Unlike grey hydrogen, made by fossil fuels (natural gas) and a significant source of greenhouse gases,1 2 green hydrogen is generated by electrolysis whereby water is split using electricity from renewable energy sources. The combustion of 1kg of this gas produces almost four times more energy than one kilogram of gasoline.3 In 2021, the production of green hydrogen produced represents only 5% of the 94 million tons of overall produced hydrogen globally.4 However, this quantity is bound to rise, given the various strategies developed in the post-Covid economic recovery plans or by strategies to power Europe with alternatives to Russian gas.5 While a global market for green hydrogen is being shaped, Tunisia launched in early 2022 the development of its very own national strategy for green hydrogen to be finalized by 2024. The country has already announced that it will prioritise export6 of this green fuel over local use.7 “Promoting green hydrogen, a growing market in today’s world, is very important to Tunisia,” affirmed GIZ, 8 the Tunisian government’s lead partner in this strategy development project. Although the Tunisian Ministry of Energy has made green hydrogen one of its projects of high importance, civil society, scientists, and potentially affected communities have so far been left out of all conversations. Hence, the country misses a chance to map out eventual risks, environmental and social concerns and to address emerging concerns from the outset. The large-scale production – powered by solar and wind energy megaprojects – requires vast mobilization of several types of resources along the entire production chain of this fuel. When the Ministry of Energy asserts that: “these projects do not entail obvious negative impacts on the environment,” nothing is less verified than such statement. Current discussions focus mainly on Tunisia’s position in this emerging global market, but they rarely touch on the social and environmental costs of this type of major projects. Nonetheless, multiple studies9 were published more recently, warning of the impact of these projects on natural resources – water, land, etc. – in countries heavily affected by climate change. In addition, the benefit of this new sector is questionable in terms of Tunisia’s climate commitments. To this day, the country depends as much as 97% on Algerian gas to produce electricity10 and the energy transition has stagnated. However, it plans to export the bulk of the green hydrogen potentially produced on Tunisian soil mainly to Europe, This was confirmed in interviews and meetings in the context of this report While green hydrogen is a more preferable alternative than more polluting options, its mass production would primarily benefit the energy needs of Europe. This raises another fundamental issue as it is replicating an extractivist model oriented towards international export markets and build on the overexploitation of natural resources. To develop a green hydrogen production strategy, Tunisian authorities along with their European partners, namely Germany, seek to prolong the exploitation of resources of neighbouring countries without sufficiently considering the energy needs of locals, the social and environmental risks, the fact that Tunisia is a water stressed country or the financial debt resulting from such investments.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Green Technology, and Green Transition
Political Geography:
Africa and Tunisia

85. Taiwan’s Big and Clean Bets: Towards Green Cooperation

Author:
Wen-Yu Weng
Publication Date:
07-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
Wen-Yu Weng, Clean Energy and Climate Response Expert at PA Consulting, explains that "the future of Taiwan’s energy transition lies in making big bets in highly creative and highly technical approaches" and green energy "policy needs to embrace the fundamentally decentralized and democratized nature of solution-generation, agenda-setting, and experimental models."
Topic:
Climate Change, International Cooperation, Energy, and Green Transition
Political Geography:
Taiwan and Asia

86. Climate Mitigation in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Primer on Transition Costs, Risks, and Financing

Author:
Sebastian Orozco and Julián Cárdenas
Publication Date:
11-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP), Columbia University
Abstract:
Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries are among the most vulnerable in the world to climate change, experiencing at least one extreme weather-related event per country, on average, every three years over the past two decades. As signers to the Paris Agreement, LAC countries established nationally determined contributions (NDCs), pledging to significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030 and become net zero by 2050. Over the last two years, many LAC countries, including the six largest economies—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru—have updated or submitted new NDCs, raising their climate mitigation ambition. While public opinion surveys show support for climate-related policies among citizens in the region, the transition to a low-emissions economy is extremely challenging, and even out of reach, for LAC countries under current policies. Financing this transition is a key question for the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference. As part of the ongoing research on energy transition at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, this report analyzes the challenges of climate mitigation in LAC countries. The region has a unique composition of emissions: the Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector accounts for 40 percent of the region’s total emissions, almost double the global average. Deforestation and land-use change, which drive this sector’s emissions, release vast quantities of nitrous oxide and methane emissions in addition to carbon dioxide. Another characteristic of the region is its heavy dependence on fossil fuel revenues, which raises transition costs and risks of financing a low-carbon future.
Topic:
Climate Change, Carbon Emissions, Energy, Green Transition, and Mitigation
Political Geography:
Latin America and Caribbean

87. Thematic Bonds: Financing Net-Zero Transition in Emerging Market and Developing Economies

Author:
Gautam Jain
Publication Date:
12-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP), Columbia University
Abstract:
A significant gap exists globally between the financing needed and the current level of spending to meet net-zero goals. The problem is particularly acute for emerging market and developing economies (EMDE), as they face higher spending on the energy transition as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) and are likely to be affected more severely by climate change than advanced economies. Thematic bonds that target specific investment themes, including climate change mitigation, can help narrow the financing gap, but EMDE’s share of the global thematic bond market remains small. This report explains the urgency of raising financing for EMDE to address climate change and discusses the evolution of thematic bonds. It finds that the asset class has the potential to achieve significant further growth. As part of Columbia University’s Financing the Energy Transition initiative, it offers policy recommendations to governments and development banks interested in increasing thematic bond issuances from these countries. Options to consider include addressing local currency risk using structured finance, adapting institutional frameworks such as Green Bond Principles (GBP) to national contexts, addressing accessibility issues in domestic markets, and providing tax incentives.
Topic:
Development, Emerging Markets, Climate Finance, Bonds, Green Transition, and Net Zero
Political Geography:
Global Focus