Navigating through an energy crisis: Challenges and progress towards electricity decarbonisation, reliability, and affordability in Italy

A stakeholder-informed modelling study of Greece's energy transition amidst an energy crisis: The role of natural gas and climate ambition

“…Despite complicating the path towards net-zero for most European countries, the current geopolitical and economic challenges have also underlined the energy security risks stemming from a continuous reliance on fossil fuels, at the national and the EU level. The policy response to the current crisis has been mixed in several EU countries; Greece [112], Italy [113], Germany [18], and the Netherlands plan new LNG-related infrastructure and compensate consumers for high fossil fuel prices, while at the same time ramping up renewables and electricity decarbonisation [114]. Fossil-fuel lock-in was an important concern raised by the stakeholders, confirming that governments should instead focus on longer-term goals and capitalise on the momentum to design clear policies for effective mitigation and acceleration of the transition.…”

“…Considering that many NECP and Climate Law provisions are being revised in response to current events and for aligning with the `Fit for 55 ′ package, an explorative scenario is also introduced, aiming for higher decarbonisation ambition with an explicit focus on phasing out all fossil fuels, including gas. Acknowledging the importance of expert input in defining the action space in the wake of the 2022 energy crisis [21], we then employ fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM), a widely established approach to eliciting expert knowledge in energy and climate policy [22], to identify critical uncertainties and/or possible bottlenecks. Drawing from this participatory process, new modelling iterations of the original scenario analysis finally sheds light on the impact of these uncertainties.…”

Life Cycle Assessment of a Wood Biomass Gasification Plant and Implications for Syngas and Biochar Utilization

“…Rapid population expansion and industrialization over the past few decades have led to a steadily rising worldwide demand for energy [1]. In addition, the unprecedented European energy crisis due to the Russo-Ukrainian conflict further stressed the need to convert energy systems toward decarbonization strategies [2]. Decarbonization, or more extensively, the reduction in the environmental impacts associated with the energy sources, highly depends on a successful replacement of fossil fuels in the electricity grid mix [3][4][5][6].…”

Enhanced energy recovery in municipal wastewater treatment plants through co-digestion by anaerobic membrane bioreactors: current status and future perspectives

“…One of today's most significant challenges is maintaining economic growth while reducing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (Papież et al 2021). Besides the environmental aspects of current energy consumption practices, the energy supply chain is remarkably fragile because of the non-uniform distribution of reserves (Frilingou et al 2023). Moreover, recent global developments, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and political instability worldwide, have severely disrupted the conventional economic structure (Zhou et al 2023).…”