The 34th edition of the International Energy Workshop (IEW) took place in Abu Dhabi from the 3th to 5th June 2015, hosted by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The IEW is one of the leading conferences for the international energy modelling research. This year’s selected papers covered a range of topics including, amongst others, the comparison of low-carbon technologies, climate policy, the integration of variable renewable energies, macroeconomic impacts of energy transitions, financing of sustainable development as well as co-linkages of energy with other resource systems. 

Members of UCL's wholeSEM team have contributed chapters to a new book looking at how energy systems models are used to underpin and support energy and climate mitigation policy decisions. The book 'Informing Energy and Climate Policies Using Energy Systems Models: Insights from Scenario Analysis Increasing the Evidence Base' published by Springer (Editors: Giannakidis, G., Labriet, M., Ó Gallachóir, B., Tosato, G.) brings together a range of methodological approaches and case studies of good modelling practice on a national and international scale. The book, developing from an IEA-ETSAP energy technology initiative, demonstrates the high degree of flexibility of modelling tools used to represent extremely different energy systems, from national to global levels and how they are used to answer complex policy questions. wholeSEM's Research Associates Dr Hannah Daly and Dr Birgit Fais contribute chapters ('Integrating Policy Instruments into Energy System Models—From Theory to Application to Germany' and 'Modal Shift of Passenger Transport in a TIMES Model: Application to Ireland and California'). wholeSEM's Principal Investigator Professor Neil Strachan also contributes to chapters looking at the Economic Impacts of Future Changes in the Energy System - from a Global and National Perspective.