CANDELARIA BERGERO

The greenhouse gas emissions caused by our energy system threaten a sustainable future. To overcome this threat, we need to transition towards cleaner energy forms. We have to change nearly everything around us: from the way we heat our homes, to the ways we power our planes and produce our steel. My research focuses on how we can achieve this transition and on the environmental justice implications for people like you and me.

My passion is to establish a symbiotic relationship with our planet and with one another.

Integrated assessment modeling of Korea’s 2050 carbon neutrality technology pathways

2022

Photo by Sava Bobov on Unsplash

Energy and Climate Change

Hanwoong Kim, Haewon McJeon, Dawoon Jung, Hanju Lee, Candelaria Bergero, Jiyong Eom

DOI: 10.1016/j.egycc.2022.100075

This integrated assessment modeling research analyzes what Korea's 2050 carbon neutrality would require for the national energy system and the role of the power sector concerning the availability of critical mitigation technologies. Our scenario-based assessment shows that Korea's current policy falls short of what the nation's carbon-neutrality ambition would require. Across all technology scenarios examined in this study, an extensive and rapid energy system transition is imperative, requiring the large-scale deployment of renewables and carbon capture & storage (CCS) early on and negative emission technologies (NETs) by the mid-century. Importantly, the rapid decarbonization of the power sector, along with the rapid electrification of end-uses, seems to be a robust national decarbonization strategy. Furthermore, we contextualize our net-zero scenario results using policy costs, requirements for natural resources, and the expansion rate of zero-carbon technologies. We find that the availability of nuclear power lowers the required expansion rate of renewables and CCS, alleviating any stress on terrestrial and geological systems. By contrast, the limited availability of CCS without nuclear power necessarily demands a very high penetration of renewables and significantly high policy compliance costs, which would decrease the feasibility of achieving the carbon neutrality target.

INDEX NEXT