Energy Transition

Scientific data on the effect of CO2 and other greenhouse emissions into climate change is raising serious concerns from the environmental and economic perspectives, and plea for coordinated actions from academy, industry, and governmental institutions, including clear policies and technology development to reduce them.

According to the Paris Agreement, two of the industrial sectors with a greater contribution to CO2 emissions are the energy and transportation sectors.

Hence, providing sustainable energy to meet the demands for quality of life and economic growth without compromising the environment is one of the greatest challenges we are facing today. Recognizing this challenge and the need to address it, several countries, including the UAE, are actively working on an energy transition, and have already launched their net zero strategies. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), achieving net zero emissions requires radical transformations of the energy sector, including energy efficiency, behavioral changes, electrification, renewables, bioenergy, hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels, and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS). For some industrial and fuel transformation processes, CCUS is one of the most cost-effective solutions available for large-scale emissions reductions in the short to medium term, as also identified by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III report, Climate Change 2022. Furthermore, in the recent “World energy transition outlook” report launched by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), there are six technological avenues to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050: renewable energies, electrification, energy efficiency, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage from fossil-fuels or bioenergy sources. However, the data evaluating the progress up to 2030 to achieve these goals recently published by the IEA shows that no one the processes identified for the energy transition are on track, and considerable efforts are needed in this direction, including radical technology transformations. Khalifa University is heavily involved in the different aspects of the energy transition, including research, development and innovation through different centers and labs, teaching, outreach activities, international collaborations, etc.