Editing IPCC:AR6/WGIII/Chapter-6 (section)

== 6.2 The Scope of the Energy System and its Possible Evolution ==

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For this chapter, energy systems are defined broadly to include both physical and societal elements. The physical infrastructure includes all the infrastructure and equipment used to extract, transform, transport, transmit, and convert energy to provide energy services. In addition to the physical system, a broad range of societal systems and dynamics are relevant to the energy system. Human societies use energy to transport themselves and the goods that they use and consume, to heat, cool, and light their homes, to cook their food, and to produce goods and services. Energy systems are therefore tied to the systems involved in the provision of these various goods and services. All energy users engage in the operation of energy systems by demanding energy at particular times and in particular forms. They can adjust their behaviour and demands, for example, by using less energy or by changing when they use energy. Consumers can invest in equipment that reduces their energy needs, and they can invest in technologies that transform energy (e.g., rooftop solar) or store energy (e.g., batteries). Firms and governments invest in equipment to produce, transform, and transport energy such as power plants, refineries, electric transmission lines, and oil tankers. All aspects of energy systems are governed by laws, regulations, and actual institutions that reside within businesses and governments at all levels. This includes, for example, rules for trading emissions permits, deciding when particular electricity generation technologies might come online, water management and related environmental rules that define the availability of hydropower or influence water availability for cooling power plants, regulations for injecting CO 2 into underground reservoirs or disposing of nuclear waste, and even company policies regarding work hours or teleworking, which can have important implications for energy demand profiles. Many people are employed in the energy sector, and energy system mitigation will eliminate some jobs while creating others.

This broader view of energy systems is essential for understanding energy system mitigation, as these broader societal and institutional factors can have an important influence on energy system transformations and the potential to rapidly reduce energy CO 2 emissions. Energy system mitigation is as much about the challenges of societal change as it is about the challenges of changes in physical infrastructure, technologies, and operations. While this chapter does not attempt to draw a specific boundary around all the different systems that interact with the energy system, it frequently explores these broader system interactions when assessing different mitigation options and strategies.

There is no single spatial scale at which energy systems might be defined and assessed. They can be assessed at the scales of homes, cities, states or provinces, countries, regions, or the entire world. These different scales are frequently both distinct with their own internal dynamics yet al.o connected to one another. This chapter most frequently assesses energy systems from the country and global perspective.

Because the energy system is so complex, it can be hard to define particular parts of it precisely, and there may be competing definitions in the literature. For the purposes of this chapter, ‘energy supply‘ encompasses all primary energy, conversion, and transmission processes with the exception of those that use final energy to provide energy services in the end-use sectors (transport, buildings, industry and agriculture). The ‘energy system‘ includes energy end uses sectors along with energy supply. ‘Low-emissions‘ is used for energy technologies that produce little CO 2 or no CO 2 or that remove CO 2 from the atmosphere. Similarly, ‘low-carbon‘ transitions is used to describe transitions that limit likely to 2°C (&gt;67%) or below. ‘Net-zero‘ energy systems refer to those that produce very little or no CO 2 or may even sequester CO 2 from the atmosphere.

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