This webinar seeks to discuss some of the policy implications which arise from the modelling of Net Zero GHG emissions in 2050 within a sector coupling approach. We draw on a major study of the EU-UK energy system in 2050 produced by the Centre for Regulation in Europe (Chyong et al. 2021) summarised in EEEP 10(2), which involved stakeholders from both electricity and gas sectors in a year-long modelling exercise of the European energy system. This highlights that the achievement of Net Zero depends on the massive scale up of variable renewable electricity, biomethane, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. Failure to simultaneously scale up these technologies quickly will threaten the ability to achieve the Net Zero target by 2050.

Speakers: Kong Chyong and Michael Pollitt

Kong Chyong is a Research Associate at the Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. Kong is an expert in energy economics and modelling focusing on natural gas & electricity markets and energy infrastructure and networks. His research interests include policy and economics of international gas and electricity markets, implications of decarbonisation agenda on gas and electricity, energy system modelling for Net Zero policy analyses, geopolitics of Russian natural gas export strategy, and Russo-Ukrainian energy relations. Kong holds a PhD in Energy Economics and Policy from Cambridge Judge Business School and an MPhil in Technology Policy from Cambridge

Michael Pollitt is Professor of Business Economics at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge. His current research interests are in the areas of network regulation, electricity market design, carbon pricing and productivity analysis. He has published papers across a wide range of disciplines including ethics, engineering, economics and management. He is an Assistant Director of the Energy Policy Research Group (EPRG) at the University of Cambridge and an academic director in energy for the Centre on Regulation in Europe in Brussels. From 2007 to 2011 he was external economic advisor to Ofgem. He has published more than 100 referred journal articles and 13 books and is the current Vice President for Publications of the IAEE. His latest book, edited with Jean-Michel Glachant and Paul Joskow, is the Handbook on Electricity Markets (Edward Elgar).