Page - 21 - in options, Volume winter 2015/2016

21winter 2015/2016 + optionswww.iiasa.ac.at In a recent study presented at the international conference, “Our Common Future under Climate Change,” Kraxner, Leduc, and colleagues found that bioenergy projects proposed for Indonesia in combination with carbon capture and storage technologies—intended as a method to produce energy with net negative emissions—could actually interfere with other efforts in the country to mitigate climate change through forest protection. The study provides a better understanding of the trade-offs for forest protection that would accompany different decisions on bioenergy. The people problem Such clear results from a data-driven model can provide a great starting point for policymakers and regional planners. But what happens if the public—who may have different perspectives on how natural landscapes should be used—turn against renewable energy? One way to avoid such conflicts, researchers say, is to find ways to incorporate people’s values into the analyses, listening to all sides and incorporating their input. The  recharge.green project included a major component for stakeholder engagement and communication, leading researchers to try to account for the value of landscape beauty, recreation, and other “unmeasurable” factors. Meanwhile, researchers in the IIASA Risk, Policy and Vulnerability program are exploring the factors that influence people to support or oppose renewable energy projects as well as the willingness to use renewable energy. Researchers Masoud Yazdanpanah and Nadejda Komendatova recently conducted a series of surveys on renewable energy in Iran, a country heavily reliant on fossil fuels. They found that socio-psychological factors, such as moral norms, attitudes, and perceived behavioral control have a significant impact on support of renewable energy, and play a major role in people’s willingness to use renewable energy sources. This growing body of research will provide an important basis for energy policymakers in Iran and beyond. Kraxner says that the issue of public support is one of the most challenging research problems for many IIASA researchers. “It is extremely difficult to incorporate social issues into scientific analysis,” he says, “There is always something missing, and it is frustrating to deal with these data gaps. Yet it is vital that we try. We can fine-tune models to discover the climate impacts of small shifts in energy and technology use. But to make those results useful for policy, we need to integrate an understanding of social and political factors into our analyses.” KL Further info § Kraxner F, Leduc S, Yowargana P, Schepaschenko S, Fuss S, Havlik P, Mosnier A (2015). Negative emissions—interactions with other mitigation options: A bottom-up methodology for Indonesia. Poster presented at the International Scientific Conference, “Our Common Future under Climate Change,” 7–10 July 2015, Paris, France. § Yazdanpanah M, Komendantova N, Shirazi ZN (2015). Green or in between? Examining youth perceptions of renewable energy in Iran. Energy  Research & Social Science 8:78–85 [doi:10.1016/j.erss.2015.04.011]. § www.iiasa.ac.at/news/recharge-15 § www.iiasa.ac.at/bewhere § www.recharge-green.eu Florian Kraxner kraxner@iiasa.ac.at Sylvain Leduc leduc@iiasa.ac.at Nadejda  Komendantova komendan@iiasa.ac.at balancingact