Demand-side strategies key for mitigating material impacts of energy transitions

Felix Creutzig; Sofia G. Simoes; Sina Leipold; Peter Berrill; Isabel Azevedo; Oreane Edelenbosch; Tomer Fishman; Helmut Haberl; Edgar Hertwich; Volker Krey; Ana Teresa Lima; Tamar Makov; Alessio Mastrucci; Nikola Milojevic-Dupont; Florian Nachtigall; Stefan Pauliuk; Mafalda Silva; Elena Verdolini; Detlef van Vuuren; Felix Wagner; Dominik Wiedenhofer; Charlie Wilson

doi:10.1038/s41558-024-02016-z

Demand-side strategies key for mitigating material impacts of energy transitions

Felix Creutzig^*
, Sofia G. Simoes
, Sina Leipold
, Peter Berrill
, Isabel Azevedo
, Oreane Edelenbosch
, Tomer Fishman
, Helmut Haberl
, Edgar Hertwich
, Volker Krey
, Ana Teresa Lima
, Tamar Makov
, Alessio Mastrucci
, Nikola Milojevic-Dupont
, Florian Nachtigall
, Stefan Pauliuk
, Mafalda Silva
, Elena Verdolini
, Detlef van Vuuren
, Felix Wagner

Dominik Wiedenhofer, Charlie Wilson

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

As fossil fuels are phased out in favour of renewable energy, electric cars and other low-carbon technologies, the future clean energy system is likely to require less overall mining than the current fossil-fuelled system. However, material extraction and waste flows, new infrastructure development, land-use change, and the provision of new types of goods and services associated with decarbonization will produce social and environmental pressures at localized to regional scales. Demand-side solutions can achieve the important outcome of reducing both the scale of the climate challenge and material resource requirements. Interdisciplinary systems modelling and analysis are needed to identify opportunities and trade-offs for demand-led mitigation strategies that explicitly consider planetary boundaries associated with Earth’s material resources.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	561-572
Number of pages	12
Journal	Nature Climate Change
Volume	14
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02016-z
Publication status	Published - Jun 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Springer Nature Limited 2024.

Funding

The authors disclose support for the research of this work from Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement numbers 101056810 (F.C., P.B., I.A., H.H., V.K., A.M., N.M.-D., F.N., M.S., F.W. and D.W.), 101056868 (O.E., T.F., E.H., S.P. and D.v.V.), 101056862 (S.G.S. and A.T.L.), 101003083 (C.W.) and 853487 (E.V.). This work was also supported by the Energy Demand Changes Induced by Technological and Social Innovations (EDITS) network, an initiative coordinated by the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and funded by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan.

Funders	Funder number
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme	101056868, 101056810, 101056862, 101003083, 853487

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy
SDG 13 Climate Action
SDG 15 Life on Land

Keywords

Environmental impact
sustainability

Access to Document

10.1038/s41558-024-02016-z

s41558-024-02016-zFinal published version, 1.14 MBLicence: Taverne

Cite this

Creutzig, F., Simoes, S. G., Leipold, S., Berrill, P., Azevedo, I., Edelenbosch, O., Fishman, T., Haberl, H., Hertwich, E., Krey, V., Lima, A. T., Makov, T., Mastrucci, A., Milojevic-Dupont, N., Nachtigall, F., Pauliuk, S., Silva, M., Verdolini, E., van Vuuren, D., ... Wilson, C. (2024). Demand-side strategies key for mitigating material impacts of energy transitions. Nature Climate Change, 14(6), 561-572. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02016-z

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abstract = "As fossil fuels are phased out in favour of renewable energy, electric cars and other low-carbon technologies, the future clean energy system is likely to require less overall mining than the current fossil-fuelled system. However, material extraction and waste flows, new infrastructure development, land-use change, and the provision of new types of goods and services associated with decarbonization will produce social and environmental pressures at localized to regional scales. Demand-side solutions can achieve the important outcome of reducing both the scale of the climate challenge and material resource requirements. Interdisciplinary systems modelling and analysis are needed to identify opportunities and trade-offs for demand-led mitigation strategies that explicitly consider planetary boundaries associated with Earth{\textquoteright}s material resources.",

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doi = "10.1038/s41558-024-02016-z",

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Creutzig, F, Simoes, SG, Leipold, S, Berrill, P, Azevedo, I, Edelenbosch, O, Fishman, T, Haberl, H, Hertwich, E, Krey, V, Lima, AT, Makov, T, Mastrucci, A, Milojevic-Dupont, N, Nachtigall, F, Pauliuk, S, Silva, M, Verdolini, E, van Vuuren, D, Wagner, F, Wiedenhofer, D & Wilson, C 2024, 'Demand-side strategies key for mitigating material impacts of energy transitions', Nature Climate Change, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 561-572. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02016-z

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AU - Creutzig, Felix

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AU - Azevedo, Isabel

AU - Edelenbosch, Oreane

AU - Fishman, Tomer

AU - Haberl, Helmut

AU - Hertwich, Edgar

AU - Krey, Volker

AU - Lima, Ana Teresa

AU - Makov, Tamar

AU - Mastrucci, Alessio

AU - Milojevic-Dupont, Nikola

AU - Nachtigall, Florian

AU - Pauliuk, Stefan

AU - Silva, Mafalda

AU - Verdolini, Elena

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AU - Wagner, Felix

AU - Wiedenhofer, Dominik

AU - Wilson, Charlie

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Demand-side strategies key for mitigating material impacts of energy transitions

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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