Co-benefits of renewables: Reviewing the toolbox of assessment methods

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IASS — GIZ Expert Roundtable
Side event to the 4th Berlin Ener­gy Tran­si­tion Dialogue
11.04.2018, 13:00 – 17:45
IASS Potsdam

On invi­ta­tion only

IASS — GIZ Expert Round­table with insights from the Chi­na Renew­able Ener­gy Out­look and the inter­na­tion­al COBENEFITS project: in the con­text of the 2018 Berlin Ener­gy Tran­si­tion Dia­logue, the round­table brings togeth­er experts from research, min­istries and the sci­ence-pol­i­cy inter­face to address oppor­tu­ni­ties to mobilise the social and eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties of renew­able ener­gy, open­ing and elab­o­rat­ing the tool­box of co-ben­e­fit assess­ments, and improv­ing their policy-relevance.

The glob­al tran­si­tion toward renew­able sources of ener­gy is in full swing, with Ger­many and Chi­na among the lead­ers in the emerg­ing new ener­gy world. Com­ple­ment­ing cli­mate action, the social and eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties pre­sent­ed by this trans­for­ma­tion have spurred the growth of renew­able ener­gy gen­er­a­tion in many coun­tries. The pos­i­tive effects include local eco­nom­ic val­ue cre­ation and jobs, clean air, access to cheap ener­gy, and rur­al devel­op­ment. Yet dis­cus­sions of cli­mate mea­sures too often focus on their eco­nom­ic bur­dens and over­look social and eco­nom­ic co-ben­e­fits of renewables.

Sci­en­tif­ic and reli­able meth­ods to assess socio-eco­nom­ic as well as air qual­i­ty-relat­ed co-ben­e­fits are key to mobil­is­ing social and eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties of renew­able ener­gy for ambi­tious cli­mate action and accel­er­at­ing renew­able ener­gy deployment.

Flag­ship assess­ments, like the Chi­na Renew­able Ener­gy Out­look (CREO, sup­port­ed by the Ger­man Ener­gy Tran­si­tion Exper­tise for Chi­na project), and mul­ti-lat­er­al assess­ment stud­ies, such as the inter­na­tion­al COBENEFITS project, offer impor­tant oppor­tu­ni­ties for mutu­al learn­ing both in terms of improv­ing our tool­box­es of assess­ment meth­ods and mak­ing results rel­e­vant and applic­a­ble for pol­i­cy makers.

In light of the promis­ing results of the 2017 GIZ-IASS Bei­jing Co-Ben­e­fits round­table, in this April, the Insti­tute for Advanced Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Stud­ies (IASS) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Inter­na­tionale Zusam­me­nar­belt (GIZ) will invite experts from Chi­na, Ger­many, and the USA to Pots­dam, Ger­many, to fur­ther devel­op and elab­o­rate on assess­ment meth­ods, the­o­ries and con­clu­sions achieved from last year’s event.

Roundtable Agenda

Time Con­tents Con­trib­u­tors
13:00 – 13:30 Wel­come Tea / Coffee
13:30 – 14:15 Open­ing: Mobil­is­ing the Co-Ben­e­fits of Renew­able Energy  
Objec­tives and expec­ta­tions for the work­shop — recall­ing results from 2017 GIZ-IASS Co-Ben­e­fits Round Table Sebas­t­ian Hel­gen­berg­er (IASS) & Anders Hove (GIZ)
Par­tic­i­pants’ Intro­duc­tion Round (Exper­tise / Inter­ests / Expectations) all
The COBENEFITS project approach Sebas­t­ian Hel­gen­berg­er (IASS)
14:15 – 15:30 Socio-Eco­nom­ic Co-Ben­e­fits Toolbox  
Assess­ment of socio-eco­nom­ic impacts of devel­op­ing renew­able ener­gy in Chi­na towards 2050 Dai Hancheng (CNREC)
Q&A all
Dis­cus­sion impulse: Socio-assess­ment of renew­able ener­gy in glob­al perspective Rain­er Quit­zow (IASS)
Round­table Dis­cus­sion Improv­ing our Socio-Eco­nom­ic Co-Ben­e­fits Tool­box (incl. real world lessons learned from COBENEFITS) all
Review­ing the tool­box of socio-eco­nom­ic assess­ment methods Sylvia Bor­bonus (IASS)
15:30 – 15:50 Cof­fee Break
15:50 – 16:50 Air pol­lu­tion & health Co-Ben­e­fits Toolbox  
The health ben­e­fits of devel­op­ing renew­able ener­gy in Chi­na towards 2050 Dai Hancheng (CNREC)
Q&A all
Co-pre­sen­ta­tion: Mod­el­ling Air Qual­i­ty: Need for good emis­sion scenarios”, Tim But­ler (IASS)
Round Table Dis­cus­sion: Con­nect­ing Air Qual­i­ty analy­ses with socio-eco­nom­ic assess­ments (incl. real world lessons learned from COBENEFITS) all
Air qual­i­ty: Lessons learned from a Life Cycle Analy­sis on Wind Pow­er in China Xue Bing (CAS  / IASS)
16:50 – 17:10 Cof­fee Break
17:10 – 17:45 Mak­ing Co-Ben­e­fits policy-relevant  
Socio-eco­nom­ic assess­ments: mak­ing them pol­i­cy relevant Jür­gen Kein­horst (BMU)
Response: COBENEFITS: Impact Strategy IASS (Hel­gen­berg­er)
Out­look and Closing Sebas­t­ian Hel­gen­berg­er (IASS) & Anders Hove (GIZ)
17:45 Evening Recep­tion