On the road to this year’s global climate change conference (COP27) to be held on 6-18 November 2022 in Egypt, the UK’s Climate Compatible Growth programme is publishing policy briefs related to the decarbonization of energy systems, targeted to policymakers who will be present at COP27.

One of these policy briefs has been prepared by a team of the Energy Division of CyI‘s Energy, Environment and Water Research Centre, led by Associate Research Scientist, Constantinos Taliotis. It presents a model-based assessment of regional electricity trade in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (EMME) region.
EMME is very diverse, comprising countries with rich fossil fuel reserves, which are net energy exporters, and countries that heavily rely on energy imports. This policy brief highlights the large environmental and economic benefits from a future enhancement in electricity trade across the region. 

CyI’s researchers developed a model representing the national electricity systems of seventeen EMME countries and their current and potential future electricity interconnections. They used the model to assess alternative scenarios where electricity trade is limited or enhanced through further investments in infrastructure connecting national electricity grids. Scenario results quantified the impact on renewable energy deployment, greenhouse gas emissions, and overall energy system costs, and can assist in the identification of potential net exporters of carbon-neutral electricity, markets for electricity imports within the region, as well as key transit countries for a cost-effective transition to zero-carbon power generation in EMME.

The policy brief can be found here.

The Climate Compatible Growth (CCG) programme is funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to support investment in sustainable energy and transport systems to meet development priorities in the Global South. All CCG policy briefs are available here.

The work of Taliotis et al. was inspired by the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East Climate Change Initiative of the government of Cyprus, supported by The Cyprus Institute, aiming to contribute to the development of a decarbonization action plan for the entire EMME region focusing on regional policy cooperation.

Source: The Cyprus Institute I News (https://bit.ly/3qLzai7)