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Although the transition to renewable energies will intensify the global competition for land, the potential impacts driven by solar energy remain unexplored. In this work, the potential solar land requirements and related land use change emissions are computed for the EU, India, Japan and South Korea. A novel method is developed within an integrated assessment model which links socioeconomic, energy, land and climate systems. At 25 80% penetration in the electricity mix of those regions by 2050, we find that solar energy may occupy 0.5 5% of total land. The resulting land cover changes, including indirect effects, will likely cause a net release of carbon ranging from 0 to 50 gCO2/kWh, depending on the region, scale of expansion, solar technology efficiency and land management practices in solar parks. Hence, a coordinated planning and regulation of new solar energy infrastructures should be enforced to avoid a significant increase in their life cycle emissions through terrestrial carbon losses. © 2021, The Author(s). Funding was provided by Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Gobierno de España (Grant No. MDM-2017-0714), Horizon 2020 (Grant Nos. 642260, 821105), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universi-dades (Grant No. RTI2018-093352-B-I00) and Eusko Jaurlaritza (Grant No. PRE_2017_2_0139).

Producción Científica, Achieving ambitious reductions in greenhouse gases (GHG) is particularly challenging for transportation due to the technical limitations of replacing oil-based fuels. We apply the integrated assessment model MEDEAS-World to study four global transportation decarbonization strategies for 2050. The results show that a massive replacement of oil-fueled individual vehicles to electric ones alone cannot deliver GHG reductions consistent with climate stabilization and could result in the scarcity of some key minerals, such as lithium and magnesium. In addition, energy-economy feedbacks within an economic growth system create a rebound effect that counters the benefits of substitution. The only strategy that can achieve the objectives globally follows the Degrowth paradigm, combining a quick and radical shift to lighter electric vehicles and non-motorized modes with a drastic reduction in total transportation demand., European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 691287 and 821105, respectively., Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Project ECO2017-85110-R), Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Project FJCI-2016-28833)

Hubbert based models to project future oil extraction in Ecuador were developed. Two values of ultimate recoverable resources (URR) (7860–10,700 million barrels (MMbbl)) are applied to 16 models, considering symmetric and asymmetric Hubbert models and one and two cycles under top-down and bottom-up approaches. Models are discussed based on the best fit to historical data, and year and value of maximum extraction. The peak oil extraction obtained ranges between 196 and 215 MMbbl and would be reached in the years 2014–2025. An analysis of the implications of extraction models in a Business as Usual and Alternative oil demand scenarios up to 2035 was performed. Ecuador could become a net oil importer between 2024 and 2035, depending on the model and demand scenario. Economic oil trade balance could be seriously affected, decreasing from a current positive value of around 2 billion USD to incur deficits of 0.6–16.7 billion USD in 2035. Current and future oil dependence for Ecuador would increase vulnerability and compromise the country in terms of energy security and trade balance. It is critical for Ecuador to consider more ambitious policies focused on energy efficiency, renewables and diversification of the productive structure over the next few years.

Producción Científica, Community energy (CE) initiatives are developing in many regions of the world through a great diversity of typologies. Europe has a leading role with thousands of ongoing projects of small and medium size, which are however unevenly distributed over the continent. The density of CE projects is highest in North-Western and parts of Central Europe; on the contrary, their spread in post-socialist European countries (PSECs) has been reported to be much more limited. However, the (under)development of CE in PSECs remains an understudied topic in the literature. In this paper, we present an exploratory overview of the situation and briefly discuss its potential explanatory factors for 16 PSECs. We find differing development levels of progress, with Croatia outstanding with a diversity of projects and a certain maturation of the field, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia with a reduced number of rather small-scale projects, while in the remaining countries no operational relevant projects have been found to date. We present our methods, overviews by country and some tentative explanations. We suggest further research to be directed towards in-depth analysis of single countries and relevant project cases in PSECs., Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (grant FJCI-2016–28833)

Game-based learning refers to the use of game thinking and mechanics to engage and motivate students in the learning process. We applied this innovative concept to complement the theoretical sessions of an introductory course on ecological economics in the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). A participatory simulation game originally developed by Capellán-Pérez et al. (2019) in the context of energy and sustainability education was adapted for this course; and at the same time, the theoretical sessions were reshaped to enhance the learning experience of the gaming. The pedagogical effect of the whole course was evaluated with a previous and posterior questionnaire. The results show that this combined strategy is especially suited to motivate and engage students into the discipline of ecological economics, as well as in order to promote team work and collaborative thinking. We also observed that students gained a better global vision and interrelation between the topics discussed during the course and a greater capacity to understand and interiorise the global socio-environmental crisis that humanity is currently facing

Through history, special attention has been paid to the study of the relationship between the energy use of a country and its level of development. While the interest of this research area is unquestionable, the energy indicators commonly used (e.g. total primary energy) are problematic. In the current context of globalization, the energy used by a country is not anymore a suitable indicator for measuring the total energy requirements associated with its level of development; the significant variable is the energy consumed worldwide to produce the goods and services demanded by that country, i.e. its energy footprint. In this study, we compare the human development index of 40 countries with their total primary energy demand and total primary energy footprint for the period 1995-2008. The results show that the total primary energy demand underestimates the energy required to maintain a high level of development, since a significant part of the energy used by emerging countries is being increasingly devoted to sustain the welfare of developed countries by means of international trade. We also find that the minimum total primary energy footprint per capita to achieve a high level of development is 33% higher than current world's per capita energy use. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of International Energy Initiative. Inaki Arto thanks financial support by the Seventh Framework Program (FP7) projects COMPLEX (no. 308601) and FLAGSHIP (no. 320330). Inigo Capellan-Perez is grateful for financial support received from Fundacion Repsol under the Low Carbon Programme (www.lowcarbonprogramme.org). The authors express their gratitude to Marco Vinicio Sanchez-Cantillo from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs for providing data series of the human development index, and to Gautam Dutt for his useful comments to improve the last version of the manuscript.

Actualmente, se asiste a los comienzos de un cambio en la tecnologia del transporte a medida que disminuyen las reservas de petroleo y aumenta la conciencia medioambiental de la sociedad. Se pretende que las tecnologias electricas sustituyan a las basadas en hidrocarburos ya que han sido inicialmente concebidas como mas respetuosas con el medio ambiente y mas eficientes energeticamente. Sin embargo, ha surgido el problema de la disponibilidad futura de los materiales que se requieren para este cambio. Una demanda exhaustiva de este tipo de movilidad podria contribuir al agotamiento de los mismos, derivando esto en importantes problemas para la fabricacion de vehiculos y de todas las demas tecnologias que empleen estos materiales si no encontramos alternativas que nos permitan no agotar estos recursos naturales. Estas alternativas pueden pasar no solo por el cambio en los materiales usados en los vehiculos electricos sino, tambien, en la utilizacion de modos de transporte distinto. Con el fin de estimar que materiales relacionados con la transicion en el sector transporte podrian ser mas criticos en el futuro a nivel mundial se utilizara el modelo de simulacion de dinamica de sistemas MEDEAS. Una vez ejecutadas las simulaciones sobre distintos escenarios, se observa como el aluminio, cobre, cobalto, litio, manganeso, y niquel poseen una demanda tan alta que, practicamente, provocaria el agotamiento de sus reservas en varios escenario, por ello propondremos medidas alternativas para intentar evitar su agotamiento a causa de la utilizacion de este tipo de movilidad. Palabras clave: Modos de transporte , recursos minerales, dinamica de sistemas, baterias de ion litio.

Producción Científica, A diversity of integrated assessment models (IAMs) coexists due to the different approaches developed to deal with the complex interactions, high uncertainties and knowledge gaps within the environment and human societies. This paper describes the open-source MEDEAS modeling framework, which has been developed with the aim of informing decision-making to achieve the transition to sustainable energy systems with a focus on biophysical, economic, social and technological restrictions and tackling some of the limitations identified in the current IAMs. MEDEAS models include the following relevant characteristics: representation of biophysical constraints to energy availability; modeling of the mineral and energy investments for the energy transition, allowing a dynamic assessment of the potential mineral scarcities and computation of the net energy available to society; consistent representation of climate change damages with climate assessments by natural scientists; integration of detailed sectoral economic structure (input–output analysis) within a system dynamics approach; energy shifts driven by physical scarcity; and a rich set of socioeconomic and environmental impact indicators. The potentialities and novel insights that this framework brings are illustrated by the simulation of four variants of current trends with the MEDEAS-world model: the consideration of alternative plausible assumptions and methods, combined with the feedback-rich structure of the model, reveal dynamics and implications absent in classical models. Our results suggest that the continuation of current trends will drive significant biophysical scarcities and impacts which will most likely derive in regionalization (priority to security concerns and trade barriers), conflict, and ultimately, a severe global crisis which may lead to the collapse of our modern civilization. Despite depicting a much more worrying future than conventional projections of current trends, we however believe it is a more realistic counterfactual scenario that will allow the design of improved alternative sustainable pathways in future work., Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Project CO2017-85110-R), Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Project JCI-2016–28833), MEDEAS project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon2020 research and innovation programme under grant agree-ment no. 691287., LOCOMOTION project, funded by the EuropeanUnion’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programmeunder grant agreement no. 821105

Producción Científica, A novel methodology is developed to dynamically assess the energy and material investments required over time to achieve the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources in the electricity sector. The obtained results indicate that a fast transition achieving a 100% renewable electric system globally by 2060 consistent with the Green Growth narrative could decrease the EROI of the energy system from current ~12:1 to ~3:1 by the mid-century, stabilizing thereafter at ~5:1. These EROI levels are well below the thresholds identified in the literature required to sustain industrial complex societies. Moreover, this transition could drive a substantial re-materialization of the economy, exacerbating risk availability in the future for some minerals. Hence, the results obtained put into question the consistence and viability of the Green Growth narrative., Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Project no. FJCI-2016-28833), MEDEAS project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 691287

Producción Científica, The estimation of future energy demand is a key factor for the development of effective alternative policies towards a low carbon economy. This paper describes a novel method to estimate the energy demand in the new integrated assessment framework MEDEAS based on the projection of sectoral final energy intensities. The dynamic of each of the sectoral final energy intensity is broken down into (1) improvement in energy efficiency and (2) substitution of the final energy. The speed of changes in these factors depend on physical supply-demand unbalances in the market, climate mitigation and other energy saving policies and the perception of scarcity of the different economic agents. The simulated case studies in MEDEAS-World under the narrative of the Business-as-usual (BAU) scenario have allowed validating the model's robustness and showing the potentiality of its application., European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 691287, Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Project FJCI-2016-28833)