The rapidly shrinking greenhouse gas (GHG) budget needed to meet the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) targets underscores the urgent need for GHG reductions. As one of the primary sources of emissions, the energy sector must undergo a profound transformation toward defossilization. This "energy transition" is a multifaceted, interdisciplinary challenge of considerable complexity. It is widely acknowledged that energy systems have significant inertia, and transitioning them will take several decades. While this reality is largely undisputed, ongoing debates focus on potential negative consequences of inertia and actions for biodiversity, water and food cycles, and impacts on social and economic systems.

Vision

Transitioning to a sustainably and carbon-neutral powered civilization necessitates the swift defossilization of our energy systems. Currently, disciplinary divisions and limited political vision hinder the essential actions required. The DEE's independence and its interdisciplinary network aims to play a pivotal role in dismantling these barriers and accelerating the transformation.

Mission Statement

Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through the defossilization of our energy systems requires the coordinated use of all available technological and society-related approaches and resources, encompassing both supply and demand aspects. This necessitates a broad social consensus-building process to identify specific solutions and implementation measures, all firmly grounded in factual and scientifically supported information.

The DEE's mission is to formulate actionable proposals for the socially equitable, technologically sound, and economically sustainable realization of defossilization. These proposals will be grounded in thoroughly vetted knowledge and, when necessary, tested in pilot projects through financial collaboration with partners. These concrete solutions can also serve as blueprints for private investors and policymakers to advance the energy transition.

The DEE operates free from ideological or commercial interests, relying solely on facts and scientific evidence verified by the scientific community. It aims to identify best-practice standards for problem-solving approaches and to establish a scientifically sound reference system.

To this end, the DEE shall:

• Encourage and facilitate a systematic, ongoing, and scientifically rigorous interdisciplinary discourse on the diverse avenues available for defossilizing Europe's energy supply.
• Combat misinformation and publish critiques of studies that fail to meet widely accepted scientific standards.
• Collaborate with an international community of scientists, entrepreneurs, research institutions, industry leaders, financiers, and policymakers to jointly devise solutions, presenting them to the public for discussion through easily understandable policy briefs.

We operate within a highly dynamic research domain characterized by varying rates of progress. At the start of the Commission's work, its priorities are evaluated to see whether they are in line with the current state of research and to adjust planned actions.

Research questions

1. Survey of consumer demand, potential for energy conservation and options for non-fossil energy from transnational sources, based on the “Avoid-Shift-Improve” approach. In addition to technical and economic limitations in the domestic supply of renewable energies, questions of social acceptance and ecological limits (e.g., in the context of biodiversity) determine the potential for the sustainable expansion of renewable energies in Austria and Europe. These boundary conditions will be analyzed, particularly in relation to issues of national and international justice. In addition to green hydrogen, other possible carbon-neutral energy sources such as green methane, ammonia and methanol/ethanol or the use of "blue" technologies will also be evaluated.
2. Systemic consideration of the defossilization and carbon neutrality of the entire energy system including techno-economic and behavior-based challenges, in particular determination of the role and extent of electrical power including storage and synthetic energy carriers (synfuels) in the European/Austrian energy system.
3. Examination of the potential for transnational value chains for synfuels derived from CO₂ in collaboration with regions possessing significant renewable energy capabilities. Synfuels can be transported over long distances in existing infrastructure and can be stored, distributed and used in the infrastructure for liquid and gaseous energy carriers. Synfuels necessitate the establishment of innovative, transnational (and resilient) cooperations and value chains aimed at minimizing interdependencies. Concurrently, it is essential to consider the emerging geopolitical dependencies that arise in this context.
4. Performing an analysis of opportunities and risks within the Austrian economic framework in relation to the energy transition. Austria faces significant exposure and challenges in various areas, especially in the hard-to-abate (HTA) industries that are fiercely competitive internationally, such as petrochemicals, chemicals, plastics, steel, and mineral building materials, as well as in the field of waste management. However, Austria also can maintain the exposed industries and economic sectors in a sustainable manner through proactive strategies on a national and European level and to achieve technological leadership in some areas. It is likely that a future energy system will encompass a cross-sectoral, systematically organized, and internationalized carbon and raw material cycle as a key component.
5. Characterization of the technical and economic features and the availability of energy sources, along with their potential for import into Austria and Europe. This includes compiling literature on the evaluation of the social and ecological impacts and risks associated with renewable energy forms and sources.
6. Assessment of the socio-economic distributive impacts of various energy transition scenarios within Austria, as well as among potential importing and exporting countries.
7. Classification of scenarios for attaining climate neutrality in Austria, based on assumptions about the domestic production, imports of non-fossil energy carriers, and the trends in final energy consumption (in cooperation with the Austrian Panel on Climate Change, APCC, 2nd Austrian Assessment Report on Climate Change, AAR2).
8. Analysis of the effects of power harvesting and conversion into energy on indigenous populations and exploration of the relationship between international capital flows and phenomena such as green land grabbing, while considering the rise of new geopolitical dependencies.