Efforts to achieve decarbonization targets often fall short. Energy system modeling based on integrated assessment models (IAMs) has been used widely to assess current climate policies and quantify the additional efforts needed to close the gap. Yet, most energy modeling still lacks adequate considerations of socio-political factors that are central to climate policy making. This makes them overly abstract and simplistic to inform concrete decisions by national and subnational policymakers. 

In this talk, I will discuss our work focused on three areas to make IAMs more decision-relevant: 1) enhancing policy realism by incorporating political economy insights on policy instrument choices; 2) assessing winners and losers of climate policy by coupling IAMs with fine-scale impact assessment models; and 3) identifying robust policy strategies by assessing multiple objectives under future uncertainties. I will demonstrate a range of modeling examples, such as the impacts of near-term industrial policy on long-term decarbonization in the US and the unintended regional health effects of a global carbon price.

Bio: Wei Peng is an assistant professor in the School of Public and International Affairs and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University. She is a climate policy researcher and an integrated assessment modeler of energy, climate, and health. Her work focuses on modeling human-centered decarbonization pathways to inform energy strategies that are realistically implementable and politically durable. Her research has been published in Nature, Nature Climate Change, Nature Sustainability, PNAS among others, and was featured in national and local media such as PBS and NPR. She also served as a contributing author of the U.S. Fifth National Climate Assessment.

Peng received her PhD degree in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy from Princeton University and her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences from Peking University. She was a faculty member at the Penn State University and a postdoc fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. 

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The David Bradford Energy and Environmental Policy Seminar Series is coordinated by the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment (C-PREE), and co-sponsored by the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI). This seminar is also co-sponsored by the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, the Kahneman-Treisman Center for Behavioral Science & Public Policy, and the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance.

This in-person event is open to the public. Princeton University community members do not need to RSVP. Members of the general public should RSVP to ccrosby@princeton.edu and will be accommodated as space allows.

This seminar will be livestreamed at http://mediacentrallive.princeton.edu/.