Working Group III (on ‘Mitigation of Climate Change’) of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is currently preparing a Special Report on ‘Renewable EnergySources and Climate Change Mitigation’ (SRREN). The latter will be finalised during the second half of 2010, officially adopted in December 2010, and published in 2011. Authors are meeting these days in Oslo (1-4 Sept.), after their first meeting in January in Brazil.
According to its mandate, the report should provide a better understandingof: resources availability by region and the effects of climate change; the mitigation potential of renewable energy sources (RES); RES market and technological status; sustainable development goals and RES; relationship to energy security (global, regional and national); options and constraints for integration into the energy supply systems and other markets, including energy storage; costs and benefits; policy options and conditions for effectiveness (!).
The scope of the report is broad, in an attempt to provide expertise (not necessarily answers) and review of experiences. The draft structure of the report reflects first an assessment of the current level of development of RES, and includes some prospects and potential deployment. The strength of the Special Report will certainly be the quality and diversity of information compelled, underlying trends, risks and best practices. But its main challenge will also certainly relate to its usefulness related to its concrete application for scoping new RES-policies, and its duplication potential with policy documents from other UN or non-UN organisations. For example, could the SRREN give rise to an international cooperation on the implementation of RES-policies? If so, no other organisation than the newly established International Renewable Energy Agency would be better capable of assuming such a task. Could a data base of RES-regulatory measures be regularly updated and serve as a platform, like the one of the International Energy Agency?
The WGIII remains (for the moment) silent on the concrete exploitation of the conclusions of the SRREN. The only statement made so far is that:
‘A [SRREN] would address the information needs of policy makers, private sector and civil society in a comprehensive way and would provide valuable information for further IPCC publications. Ideally it should be finalized in time to allow integration of its findings into the next comprehensive IPCC assessment of mitigation of climate change.’ (Scoping Document)
Let’s hope that it will do more than contributing to another report, and search for synergies with other relevant forums and practical implementation in the short term, when it is the most necessary.
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