{"id":33528,"date":"2016-01-05T17:17:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T17:17:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-10-27T13:17:26","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T13:17:26","slug":"8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change could cripple power generation, warns new study"},"content":{"rendered":"

A warming world will reduce water supply from rivers and lakes that are essential to many forms of electricity supply, demanding a major response from governments and the energy industry, a new study has warned today. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hydroelectric, coal, gas, nuclear and biomass plants, which currently account for around 98% of global electricity output, rely on plentiful supplies of water to operate effectively, and are a major draw on freshwater supplies that are already under pressure from climate change, pollution, and a growing global population.<\/p>\n

Forecast temperature rises will likely further dry up rivers and lakes, and increase inland water temperatures to an extent that power supply would be curtailed, said the research, which was published in Nature Climate Change<\/em><\/a>, an environmental journal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first study of its kind to examine the linkages between climate change, water resources, and electricity production on a global scale. We clearly show that power plants are not only causing climate change, but they might also be affected in major ways by climate,\u201d says Keywan Riahi,\u00a0co-author and\u00a0programme director with the Vienna-based I<\/a><\/span>nternational Institute for Applied Systems Analysis<\/a> (IIASA).<\/p>\n

The research cited US, southern Latin America, southern Africa, central and southern Europe, southeast Asia, and southern Australia as the most vulnerable regions, where climate change will likely have the biggest impact on water supplies, which help drive turbines in hydro plants or cool down coal and nuclear power stations. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The impact of climate change on water supply could affect\u00a060% of the world’s power plants in the period 2040-2069, a period by which the world will need to have shifted decisively away from coal if it is to stand a realistic chance of avoiding runaway climate change.<\/p>\n

Foretaste<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several extreme weather events in the past few decades have given governments and energy companies a foretaste of a likely\u00a0disruption to electricity\u00a0supplies and huge economic costs that climate change could wreak on the power sector.<\/p>\n

Sao Paulo<\/a>, one of the world\u2019s largest cities, endured regular power cuts last year as a major drop in rainfall,\u00a0linked to climate\u00a0change, deprived huge hydroelectric power plants of water.<\/p>\n

A sustained drought<\/a> in the western US has raised expectations that fast-growing cities in the \u2018sunbelt\u2019 will have to draw upon sources other than\u00a0hydropower supplied by huge\u00a0projects such as the Hoover Dam.<\/span><\/p>\n

A record\u00a0heatwave\u00a0in northwestern Europe in 2003 prompted shutdowns of nuclear power plants<\/a> as rising river temperatures hindered cooling systems. Low rainfall in western China earlier this decade curtailed hydro power production, ensuring that the grid had to turn to\u00a0coal before rainfall levels returned to near\u00a0normal levels.<\/p>\n

China<\/a> and India<\/a> were among the countries that put a heavy emphasis on hydro power in climate plans, known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions<\/a>,\u00a0that were the basis of the Paris climate agreement<\/a> signed in December.<\/p>\n

There was less mention\u00a0of\u00a0nuclear, amid spiralling costs of atomic power.\u00a0But for those countries considering big increases in coal, such as India, water shortages are a\u00a0potential threat to future power supplies.<\/p>\n

How to adapt<\/strong><\/p>\n

The IIASA study recommends that countries make their power plants much more efficient and encourage cooling systems that would reduce the vulnerability to dwindling water supply. Governments, as well as power companies, will also need to manage their water supplies effectively during periods of drought, points out Michelle Van Vliet, who led the study.<\/p>\n

As a result, the power sector will need to increase its focus on climate change adaptation in addition to mitigation, the academic adds.<\/p>\n

Climate campaigners hope that the 2C and 1.5C temperature targets backed by the Paris agreement, and a long-term decarbonisation goal, will speed up efforts to displace coal by encouraging big increases in the capacity of wind and solar, technologies that are much less reliant on water than thermal energy and hydro.<\/p>\n

Developing countries want rich nations to deliver on promises to funnel finance that will help countries deal with the impacts of a warming world and climate proof essential infrastructure including electricity supply.<\/p>\n

Developing and developed countries alike will also have to deal with other water-related impacts of\u00a0climate change\u00a0– such as\u00a0flooding. Record levels of rainfall in the UK in December inundated electricity\u00a0sub-stations<\/a>, cutting off power to tens of\u00a0thousands and adding to a hefty insurance bill \u00a0as\u00a0the world’s major reinsurance companies grow increasingly concerned about climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Governments and the energy industry need to plan for the impact of climate change on power plants, says new research from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1964,"featured_media":58423,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[761,757],"tags":[520,554,570],"hashtags":[],"country":[],"class_list":["post-33528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","category-energy","tag-coal","tag-hydropower","tag-nuclear"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nClimate change could cripple power generation, warns new study | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Governments and the energy industry need to plan for the impact of climate change on power plants, says new research from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Climate change could cripple power generation, warns new study\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Governments and the energy industry need to plan for the impact of climate change on power plants, says new research from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dialogue Earth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-05T17:17:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-27T13:17:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/3053712554_39a50f5ce2_b.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John McGarrity\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"John McGarrity\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/4a1a793220467560309604507a7914ae\"},\"headline\":\"Climate change could cripple power generation, warns new study\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-05T17:17:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-27T13:17:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/\"},\"wordCount\":739,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/3053712554_39a50f5ce2_b.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Coal\",\"Hydropower\",\"Nuclear\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Climate\",\"Energy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/\",\"name\":\"Climate change could cripple power generation, warns new study | Dialogue Earth\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/3053712554_39a50f5ce2_b.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-05T17:17:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-27T13:17:26+00:00\",\"description\":\"Governments and the energy industry need to plan for the impact of climate change on power plants, says new research from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/3053712554_39a50f5ce2_b.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/3053712554_39a50f5ce2_b.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":768,\"caption\":\"the Hoover Dam\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Climate change could cripple power generation, warns new study\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Dialogue Earth\",\"description\":\"Global climate and environment news\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png\",\"width\":256,\"height\":256,\"caption\":\"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DialogueEarth_\",\"\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DialogueEarth.English\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dialogue.earth\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/dialogueearth\/\"],\"publishingPrinciples\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/about\/\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/4a1a793220467560309604507a7914ae\",\"name\":\"John McGarrity\",\"description\":\"John McGarrity is a journalist and editor based in London. Before joining chinadialogue he was a specialist in energy, climate policy and low-carbon finance with Point Carbon News and Reuters. He is a graduate in history from Trinity College Dublin and studied newspaper journalism at the University of Ulster, Belfast.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/johnmcgarrity\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/johnmcgarrity\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Climate change could cripple power generation, warns new study | Dialogue Earth","description":"Governments and the energy industry need to plan for the impact of climate change on power plants, says new research from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Climate change could cripple power generation, warns new study","og_description":"Governments and the energy industry need to plan for the impact of climate change on power plants, says new research from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis","og_url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/","og_site_name":"Dialogue Earth","article_published_time":"2016-01-05T17:17:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-10-27T13:17:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":768,"url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/3053712554_39a50f5ce2_b.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John McGarrity","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/"},"author":{"name":"John McGarrity","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/4a1a793220467560309604507a7914ae"},"headline":"Climate change could cripple power generation, warns new study","datePublished":"2016-01-05T17:17:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-27T13:17:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/"},"wordCount":739,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/3053712554_39a50f5ce2_b.jpg","keywords":["Coal","Hydropower","Nuclear"],"articleSection":["Climate","Energy"],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/","name":"Climate change could cripple power generation, warns new study | Dialogue Earth","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/3053712554_39a50f5ce2_b.jpg","datePublished":"2016-01-05T17:17:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-27T13:17:26+00:00","description":"Governments and the energy industry need to plan for the impact of climate change on power plants, says new research from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/3053712554_39a50f5ce2_b.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/3053712554_39a50f5ce2_b.jpg","width":1024,"height":768,"caption":"the Hoover Dam"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/8528-climate-change-could-cripple-power-generation-warns-new-study\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Climate change could cripple power generation, warns new study"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/","name":"Dialogue Earth","description":"Global climate and environment news","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization","name":"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png","width":256,"height":256,"caption":"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/DialogueEarth_","","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DialogueEarth.English","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dialogue.earth\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/dialogueearth\/"],"publishingPrinciples":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/about\/"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/4a1a793220467560309604507a7914ae","name":"John McGarrity","description":"John McGarrity is a journalist and editor based in London. Before joining chinadialogue he was a specialist in energy, climate policy and low-carbon finance with Point Carbon News and Reuters. He is a graduate in history from Trinity College Dublin and studied newspaper journalism at the University of Ulster, Belfast.","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/johnmcgarrity\/","sameAs":["https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/johnmcgarrity\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1964"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33528"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=33528"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=33528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}