SRREN - Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation
What is the role of renewable energy sources in pursuing GHG concentration stabilization levels? The "Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN)" contains extensive assessment and thorough analysis of renewable energy technologies and their current and potential role in the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. The analysis rests upon a comprehensive assessment of scientific literature, including specifics of individual studies, but also an aggregate across studies analyzed for broader conclusions. It covers the six most important renewable energy technologies, as well as their integration into present and future energy systems. By combining information on technology-specific studies with results of large-scale integrated models, the SRREN provides policy-relevant (but not policy-prescriptive) information to decision makers on the characteristics and technical potentials of different resources. Moreover, it covers the historical development of the technologies; the challenges of their integration and social and environmental impacts of their use; as well as a comparison in levelized cost of energy for commercially available renewable technologies with recent non-renewable energy costs. Thus, implications for sustainable development and strategies for dealing with the most relevant "unknown unknowns" can be deduced.
The Special Report for Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN) was prepared under the lead of the Co-Chairs of IPCC Working Group III. More than 130 authors from all over the world contributed to the preparation of IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN) on a voluntary basis – not to mention more than 100 scientists, who served as contributing authors.
The SRREN has been reviewed by government representatives in an official IPCC session. It has further been widely acknowledged by international science, politics and media. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon presented a report on Renewables to the General Assembly much of which is based on Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN) as a source of information [Link to report of the Secretary-General]. The SRREN has been carried out by Ottmar Edenhofer together with the TSU and the other two Co-Chairs of IPCC, Youba Sokona and Ramón Pichs Madruga. Link to the SRREN.
