Project news & events
Understanding regional aspects in the Central Asian and Caspian region: the second of a series of workshops
On March 2, 2021, the PARIS REINFORCE project held its second virtual workshop focussing upon the Central Asian and Caspian (CAC) region. The goal for the workshop was to inform regional stakeholders on the progress of the exercise presented during the 1st regional workshop (December 9, 2020) and receive a second round of insights from regional stakeholders.
To this end, stakeholders attending the first workshop (including from national governments, NGOs, the private sector, international institutions, and academia) were invited once again. Some stakeholders participating for the first time were also present. On the day, stakeholders from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan attended.
The workshop began with a brief introduction from project coordinator, Prof. Haris Doukas (National Technical University of Athens). Then, during the first session of the workshop Mr. Rocco De Miglio (E4SMA) introduced the progress of TIMES-CAC model exercise. He presented how the first round of stakeholders' insights were elaborated in the storylines and the structure of the new exploratory scenarios developed for analysis, as well as the diverging pathways of key assumptions under each scenario. Emphasis was placed on the topics investigated in the second phase of the analysis: foreign investments in the region (e.g. Belt and Road Initiative) and hydrogen chain development.
The interactive dashboard already used in the first workshop was shared and demonstrated. This dashboard allows for a user-friendly visualisation of the key performance indicators relevant to the explored storylines for the CAC region.
Participants were then invited in a discussion session to allow for more focused discussion.
The session was chaired by Mr. Rocco De Miglio (E4SMA). Some of the main topics discussed were around water consumption within the region along the energy chain, the capability to manage/analyse tariff reforms as well as international topics such as carbon border adjustment. Furthermore, the possibility to open the technology portfolio to additional solutions (e.g., nuclear for Uzbekistan) was discussed.
During the session Mr. Gabriele Cassetti (E4SMA) described the hydrogen chain included in the model, as it represented one focus of the analysis.
Key outputs from the session will be used to design further more robust and co-designed decarbonisation scenarios for the region, in view of the upcoming, final PARIS REINFORCE CAC workshop planned in May 2021. Moreover, as indicated during the workshop, additional outreach activities to attending stakeholders are planned for the coming weeks/months. Modelling teams hope to learn more from stakeholders following this discussion series on the project capabilities in the region.
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