Cambridge University Press has just released the Global Energy Assessment (GEA) in partnership with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). Professors Thomas Johansson and Anand Patwardan served as Co-Chairs of the GEA Executive Council which provided scientific guidance for GEA as a whole and Prof Naki Nakicenovic and Mr Luis Gomez-Echeverri served as Director and Associate Director of the GEA Secretariat at IIASA, Laxenberg, Austria.

GEA provides an independent, scientifically based, integrated and policy-relevant analysis of current and emerging energy issues and options. It assesses the major global challenges for sustainable development and their linkages to energy; the technologies and resources available for providing energy services; future energy systems that address the major challenges; and the policies and other measures that are needed to realize transformational change toward sustainable energy futures. GEA goes beyond existing studies on energy issues by presenting a comprehensive and integrated analysis of energy challenges, opportunities and strategies, for developing, industrialized and emerging economies. 

GEA identifies the urgent need for a comprehensive energy strategy to transform the global energy system. It examines how energy systems can be transformed in order to: provide access to the 1.4 billion people without access to electricity and the 3 billion without access to modern cooking fuels; reduce negative health consequences from energy systems; minimize the adverse environmental externalities of energy; and improve energy security for all nations.

GEA establishes the fact that current energy systems do not deliver affordable, secure, and environmentally sound energy services, while current energy trends are incompatible with economic, social and environmental sustainability goals. GEA goes on to make the assertion that a transformation of current energy systems is urgently required to meet many of the sustainability goals outlined by governments, non-governmental organizations and the international community such as: 

1. providing secure and affordable energy services to all humanity 

2. improving access to clean energy sources for the three billion people who cook with solid fuels and the 1.4 billion people without access to electricity; 

3. increasing energy security for all nations, regions, and communities; 

4. limiting greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming 

5. reducing indoor and outdoor air pollution from fuel combustion and its impacts on human health and well-being; and 

6. minimizing the adverse environmental effects and diverse risks associated with energy systems.

GEA draws upon the expertise of over 500 international analysts and reviewers.  Among the authors are three TEC Fellows: Dr Olivia Agbenyega, Mr Francis Kemausuor and Prof Abeeku Brew-Hammond.  Chapter 19 of GEA, titled “Energy Access for Development”, has two Co-ordinating Lead Authors: Prof Brew-Hammond (TEC Director and Member of the GEA Executive Committee) and Dr Shonali Pachauri (Senior Research Scholar at IIASA).  Mr Kemausuor is one of the Contributing Authors for Chapter 19 and Dr Agbenyega is a Lead Author for “Land and Water - Linkages to Bioenergy”, Chapter 20 of GEA.

For a flyer on GEA and instructions for ordering copies of the book, please click here.

For more information on GEA, including briefs on all the chapters, please click here.