Research Activities

The Program aims to support policy making by studying mechanisms and levers that would permit the transformation of the present energy system to a cleaner and more sustainable one. The research strategy combines basic and applied research with a focus on integrated assessment, energy policy modeling, and the development of decision-analytical frameworks for policy integration. Science-based policy advice is achieved through an integrated assessment and modeling of how to simultaneously address the major energy policy challenges in the areas of environment (climate change and air pollution), energy poverty (or access to affordable and clean energy for the poor), energy security and reliability. The Program’s niche builds upon the systematic and holistic analysis of energy policy objectives and their interactions in order to identify possible synergies and trade-offs. This includes the identification of salient co-benefits from meeting a range of energy-development objectives that at the same time are robust against the multiple uncertainties that the future entails.

The Energy Programs main areas of research comprise:

Integrated Assessment

The Energy Program develops tools to address complex interrelated sustainability issues that involve energy systems and their interactions with other major economic sectors, including land, forest, and agriculture. More

Energy System Transformations

Providing universal energy access, improving energy security, reducing of health impacts of energy systems as well as limiting the magnitude of climate change to below 2°C are all vital objectives in today’s world. More

Energy and Environment

The Energy Program plays a major role in contributing to research on a global scale focused on better understanding the link between global energy systems and the environment. More

Analyzing the Energy Dimensions of Poverty

The ENE Program is analyzing how improving access to modern energy carriers and technologies in developing countries can potentially improve human health and well-being. More

Last edited: 20 August 2020