Improving the Usability of Integrated Assessment for Adaptation Practice: Insights from the U.S. Southeast Energy Sector
Energy systems comprise a key sector of the U.S. economy, and one that has been identified as potentially vulnerable to the effects of climate variability and change. However, understanding of adaptation processes in energy companies and private entities more broadly is limited. It is unclear, for example, the extent to which energy companies are well-served by existing knowledge and tools emerging from the impacts, adaptation and vulnerability (IAV) and integrated assessment modeling (IAM) communities and/or what experiments, analyses, and model results have practical utility for informing adaptation in the energy sector. As part of a regional IAM development project, we investigated available evidence of adaptation processes in the energy sector, with a particular emphasis on the U.S. Southeast and Gulf Coast region. A mixed methods approach of literature review and semi-structured interviews with key informants from energy utilities was used to compare existing knowledge from the IAV community with that of regional stakeholders. That comparison revealed that much of the IAV literature on the energy sector is climate-centric and therefore disconnected from the more integrated decision-making processes and institutional perspectives of energy utilities. Increasing the relevance of research and assessment for the energy sector will necessitate a greater investment in integrated assessment and modeling efforts that respond to practical decision-making needs as well as greater collaboration between energy utilities and researchers in the design, execution, and communication of those efforts.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1167612
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-98273; KP1703030
- Journal Information:
- Environmental Science & Policy, 42:45–55, Journal Name: Environmental Science & Policy, 42:45–55
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Computational Tools and Workflows for Quantitative Risk Assessment and Decision Support for Geologic Carbon Storage Sites: Progress and Insights from the U.S. DOE’s National Risk Assessment Partnership
A special issue on the RCPs