No abstract

The principles of Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability (FAIR) have been put forward to guide optimal sharing of data. The potential for industrial and social innovation is vast. Domain-specific metadata standards are crucial in this context, but are widely missing in the energy sector. This report provides a collaborative response from the low carbon energy research community for addressing the necessity of advancing FAIR metadata standards. We review and test existing metadata practices in the domain based on a series of community workshops. We reflect the perspectives of energy data stakeholders. The outcome is reported in terms of challenges and elicits recommendations for advancing FAIR metadata standards in the energy domain across a broad spectrum of stakeholders.

Recent developments in the Arctic region, mainly marked by climate change, have caused the region to receive increasing attention from regional and non-regional actors, mainly due to emerging energy-related opportunities and environmental concerns. The main reason for non-regional stakeholders to become involved in the Arctic region to pursue their interests is to obtain the observer status in the Arctic Council. Accordingly, this manuscript analyzes the long-term perspective of Türkiye’s involvement in the Arctic region as a non-regional actor and reveals a set of enablers and disablers pertaining to energy and environmental domains. For this purpose, in-depth interviews with experts from Türkiye, with Arctic Council members, or with observer countries are conducted. Results of the analysis are also utilized to provide insights regarding countries with similar profiles to Türkiye, i.e., middle-power and developing countries that are geographically distant from the Arctic region. The results highlight energy security, hydrocarbon reserves, and climate change as significant factors for countries such as Türkiye. Scientific, private sector, or intergovernmental cooperation with regional actors to encourage global action and environmental initiatives are the main enablers. Challenges in the extraction and sharing of energy resources, high costs and high technology requirements of energy exploration and extraction activities, increasing human activity, and damages to the Arctic ecosystem are identified as significant disablers.

Energy transition is one of the main pillars of the European Union’s climate change strategy suite. The policies set forth by European Union members to support energy transition are transposed into national policies, strategies, and action plans. Energy transition calls for empowering citizens and communities regarding energy-related initiatives. Of particular importance are smart energy systems and their potential for involving individuals and communities in energy transition initiatives. However, not all citizens are willing to invest in renewable energy or smart appliances. Thus, there is a need for implementing smart energy initiatives, which have three main steps, namely, awareness, mindset (readiness for action), and action. Bearing in mind the lack of uniformity in this area across the European Union, this manuscript assesses the levels of awareness, mindset, and action utilizing the results of a comprehensive international survey, the ECHOES project, with respect to demographic and socioeconomic variables, such as age, income level, and education level. The analysis reveals that 58% of respondents from the West European sample demonstrate a high level of awareness, 56% are ready for action, and 63% already demonstrate action. The percentages are similar for the East European sample, with 56% demonstrating a high level of awareness, 55% are ready for action, and 66% already demonstrating action. Overall, women have higher levels of awareness, readiness for action, and action. For both Western and Eastern European countries, education level and income level are important factors for smart energy adoption, with education levels proving to be more significant for East European countries.