Environmental impacts of restructuring the EU’s natural gas supply and consumption: Learnings from the 2022 energy crisis
Summary: In 2022, the European Union put forward the REPowerEU plan in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, aiming at enhancing short-term energy security by diversifying imports and reducing natural gas demand while accelerating the deployment of renewable alternatives in the long term. Here,...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2025-01-01
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| Series: | iScience |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004224028025 |
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| author | Lucas F. Santos Robert Istrate Niall Mac Dowell Gonzalo Guillén-Gosálbez |
| author_facet | Lucas F. Santos Robert Istrate Niall Mac Dowell Gonzalo Guillén-Gosálbez |
| author_sort | Lucas F. Santos |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Summary: In 2022, the European Union put forward the REPowerEU plan in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, aiming at enhancing short-term energy security by diversifying imports and reducing natural gas demand while accelerating the deployment of renewable alternatives in the long term. Here, we quantify the life cycle environmental impacts of both REPowerEU’s short-term measures, including the controversial extended coal-fired power plant operations, and how the first year of the crisis was managed in practice. We find that the policy measures’ impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions would be negligible, although they could have detrimental effects on other environmental categories. In practice, GHG emissions dropped by 8.6% driven by energy savings, yet other environmental burdens worsened, primarily due to coal and oil use. Our results could support the development and analysis of long-term policies to enhance energy security via natural gas demand reduction while considering multiple environmental sustainability indicators to avoid collateral damage. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a66a6dc66d8142e48a02026616606d8f |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2589-0042 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | iScience |
| spelling | doaj-art-a66a6dc66d8142e48a02026616606d8f2025-01-09T06:14:24ZengElsevieriScience2589-00422025-01-01281111575Environmental impacts of restructuring the EU’s natural gas supply and consumption: Learnings from the 2022 energy crisisLucas F. Santos0Robert Istrate1Niall Mac Dowell2Gonzalo Guillén-Gosálbez3Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 1, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland; Department of Chemical Engineering, State University of Maringá, Avenida Colombo 5790, Maringá 87020900, Brazil; Institute of Chemical Process Engineering, University of Alicante, Ap. Correos 99, 03080 Alicante, SpainInstitute for Chemical and Bioengineering, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 1, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland; Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Leiden University, Einsteinweg 2, 2333 CC Leiden, the NetherlandsCentre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, London SW7 1NA, UK; Centre for Process Systems Engineering, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ, UKInstitute for Chemical and Bioengineering, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 1, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland; Corresponding authorSummary: In 2022, the European Union put forward the REPowerEU plan in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, aiming at enhancing short-term energy security by diversifying imports and reducing natural gas demand while accelerating the deployment of renewable alternatives in the long term. Here, we quantify the life cycle environmental impacts of both REPowerEU’s short-term measures, including the controversial extended coal-fired power plant operations, and how the first year of the crisis was managed in practice. We find that the policy measures’ impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions would be negligible, although they could have detrimental effects on other environmental categories. In practice, GHG emissions dropped by 8.6% driven by energy savings, yet other environmental burdens worsened, primarily due to coal and oil use. Our results could support the development and analysis of long-term policies to enhance energy security via natural gas demand reduction while considering multiple environmental sustainability indicators to avoid collateral damage.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004224028025Energy policyEngineeringEnergy systems |
| spellingShingle | Lucas F. Santos Robert Istrate Niall Mac Dowell Gonzalo Guillén-Gosálbez Environmental impacts of restructuring the EU’s natural gas supply and consumption: Learnings from the 2022 energy crisis iScience Energy policy Engineering Energy systems |
| title | Environmental impacts of restructuring the EU’s natural gas supply and consumption: Learnings from the 2022 energy crisis |
| title_full | Environmental impacts of restructuring the EU’s natural gas supply and consumption: Learnings from the 2022 energy crisis |
| title_fullStr | Environmental impacts of restructuring the EU’s natural gas supply and consumption: Learnings from the 2022 energy crisis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Environmental impacts of restructuring the EU’s natural gas supply and consumption: Learnings from the 2022 energy crisis |
| title_short | Environmental impacts of restructuring the EU’s natural gas supply and consumption: Learnings from the 2022 energy crisis |
| title_sort | environmental impacts of restructuring the eu s natural gas supply and consumption learnings from the 2022 energy crisis |
| topic | Energy policy Engineering Energy systems |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004224028025 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lucasfsantos environmentalimpactsofrestructuringtheeusnaturalgassupplyandconsumptionlearningsfromthe2022energycrisis AT robertistrate environmentalimpactsofrestructuringtheeusnaturalgassupplyandconsumptionlearningsfromthe2022energycrisis AT niallmacdowell environmentalimpactsofrestructuringtheeusnaturalgassupplyandconsumptionlearningsfromthe2022energycrisis AT gonzaloguillengosalbez environmentalimpactsofrestructuringtheeusnaturalgassupplyandconsumptionlearningsfromthe2022energycrisis |