What We Learn from Country Level Deep Decarbonization Pathways

This chapter discusses what was learned from the analysis of the 15 research teams from the respective countries’ pathways to deep decarbonization. Firstly, it was discovered that deep decarbonization is feasible if strong and early action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the order of magnitude of emissions achieved by these pathways is substantial. The results show a pivotal role played by the carbon intensity of electricity, and by 2050, electricity is almost completely decarbonized. Although by 2050 all countries generate electricity almost exclusively through zero or very low carbon energy sources, they rely on very different options to do this, ranging from solar to wind to hydropower, and CCS also plays a role in some of these scenarios. These road maps need to be based on transparent assumptions regarding the availability of pre-commercial technologies, the projected costs of these technologies, and their resource requirements, as well as their possible side environmental and health impacts. The feasibility and scalability of these options is sometimes still uncertain and their costs are also likely to be quite high. This video is part of the module Deep Decarbonization Pathways: Country Case Studies.

This video is licensed under the CC BY-NC-SA license.