The objective of this effort is to improve the way that technology and uncertainty are represented and treated in integrated assessment models (IAMs) of the coupled human-climate system. The research project will address key gaps in representing technological change and the treatment of risk and uncertainty within IAMs.
The goal of this project is to perform a comparison of policy options for reducing transportation emissions in China and to communicate our results to policymakers through an ongoing and interactive process over the course of the project.
To provide a quantitative evaluation of the commercial potential for biofuels produced through a variety of pathways and using a range of crops (current food/feed crops and dedicated grasses or woody crops), including representation of constraints (imposed by physical limits or related policy) due to water and land availability, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and food prices.
In this project we are using a global economic model with land-use linked to a model of vegetation and soil processes to investigate how to extend carbon taxes to create incentives to avoid land use emissions or to increase carbon storage on land, or otherwise limit the climate implications of land use change. Carbon taxes could be a highly efficient policy tool for regulating emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
This research collaboration between NREL and the MIT Joint Program will establish and contribute market and policy analysis with a strategic intent to transform global energy systems to a sustainable energy. NREL developed and currently maintains the Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) Model; the MIT Joint Program developed and currently maintains the U.S. Regional Energy Policy (USREP) Model. The institutions jointly developed a linked version of the two models.
Alternative jet fuels hold the promise of energy supply diversification in the face of rising oil prices. In addition, alternative fuels may reduce environmental impact from aviation-related combustion emissions. The focus of Project 28 is on the creation and use of an aviation-specific life-cycle analysis framework to assess the alternative fuel environmental impacts from "well-to-wake", building on existing well-to-tank and tank-to-wake methodologies.
This project aims to increase understanding of the direct and indirect impacts of transportation-related policies, including impacts on land use, fuel use, greenhouse gas emissions, changes in the energy sector, and other economy-wide effects.
The goal of this project is to demonstrate that the operation of electricity generation and water supply infrastructures can be made more resilient and sustainable by integrating assessments of air quality and water availability into electricity generation dispatching decisions. The project will:
This project is focused on the application of the MIT Integrated System Model (IGSM) to the study of climate change issues. The effort encompasses utilization of the IGSM in analysis of climate-system uncertainty, analysis of uncertainty in human-climate interaction, and analysis of climate policy.
This agreement will support collaboration between researchers at the Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy and the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. Researchers will focus on modeling the future of China’s transportation energy demand.
