ETC/ACM Report 5/2018: Integrating Climate and Energy Projections in Practice

Achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the European Union’s climate and energy targets for 2030, in line with the Energy Union strategy, will require fundamental changes in how we use fossil fuels – the primary source of climate changing greenhouse gases – and how we live with more variable energy supply solutions. To lay the foundations for a more sustainable future, we are now poised to make significant investments in new energy infrastructure, systems and supply chains, and to implement measures addressing energy demand. Decisions relative to these investments and to the design and evaluation of these policies and measures must be underpinned by robust analysis and tools, able to provide a range of coherent outputs relevant to several policy objectives.

This paper, developed by experts from the European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Mitigation and the European Environment Agency, outlines the role of integrated climate and energy projections as a tool supporting coherent policy interventions under the Energy Union, and proposes a number of concrete solutions to integrate climate and energy projections in practice. It is based on knowledge gained across two decades of working in support to EU policy on climate change and environment, in particular on reporting issues, and from workshops and interactions with EU Member State representatives.