Consumers do not minimize the total costs of their energy-consuming investments due to a range of market and non-market based failures. This is known as the ‘Energy Efficiency Gap’. To reduce the gap and provide customers with energy consumption information, the EU has mandated that electrical appliances, cars and buildings carry information to indicate their energy consumption. There is a large knowledge gap in terms of understanding which factors are salient in consumers’ decisions, the relative importance of these factors and how these factors change by consumer group and product type. The key idea behind CONSEED is to understand how consumers make decisions which involve an energy component, and to make (energy) operating costs more salient to consumers at the point of purchase to increase efficient behaviour. CONSEED will involve four key steps. 1) Develop a theoretical framework to base our work on the best available knowledge in the field and 2) Collect empirical data on consumer behaviour through a range of different methods. Our project will involve 27 focus groups, eleven large consumer surveys, three field experiments, and three discrete choice experiments, with tailored treatments to generate a novel database consisting of empirical evidence on the salient factors impacting on the consumer decision making process. Step 3) will validate the theoretical models using our empirical data. Step 4) will deliver evidence-based research on consumer decisions involving an energy component that will enable better, more efficient and effective energy policy. Many of the challenges relating to energy efficiency policy derive from the large number of factors which potentially play a role in influencing ultimate consumer decisions. CONSEED research will directly investigate the relative importance of these factors and isolate the aspects which are likely to provide the greatest impact in terms of future energy efficiency policy.

EXtremeClimTwin aims to strengthen and improve the research and innovation capacity of the Faculty of Science, University of Novi Sad (UNSPMF; Novi Sad, Serbia) in the areas of climate change and hydro-climate extremes through twinning with internationally-leading counterparts from Member States of the EU: the SME and research company Climate Risk Analysis (CRA, Germany) and Loughborough University (LU, United Kingdom) and Associated country the Center for International Climate research (CICERO, Norway). It is expected that a warmer climate will result in a higher incidence of heat waves, less summer precipitation and at the same time higher rainfall intensities throughout much of South East Europe. Increasing heat extremes are a key hazard in this part of Europe. Together with reduced summer precipitation, they can increase drought risk, health risks and energy demand in summer. However, there is a knowledge gap in this part of Europe to properly understand how climate change will continue to affect the region. Cold waves, heatwaves and droughts in the summer, put a strain on the health system and the economy. Therefore, UNSPMF recognized the need to build capacities in detection and attribution of extreme hydro-climate events through collaborations and training with institutions that examine these events in other parts of Europe. The close collaboration between researches from UNSPMF and other experts in the field of climate change and hydro-climate extremes in the EU will form a synergistic network that will permit the transfer of knowledge and training of the existing personnel and early stage researchers of UNSPMF. As a result, the EXtremeClimTwin will have both direct and indirect scientific, social and economic impacts. In addition, the implementation of the project will facilitate future collaborations with experts in the field at EU level, increase the UNSPMF research capabilities, as well as enhance the research and academic profile of all participants.

The HYway project will be the most comprehensive study on environmental effects of large-scale hydrogen usage to date. HYway is led by a team of experienced scientists who have already conducted extensive research on the climate effects of hydrogen. To fully understand the climate effect of hydrogen emissions, HYway will constrain the hydrogen budget by novel work on surface emissions, measurements of leaks and soil uptake fluxes, and application of a global atmospheric model ensemble combined with observations to quantify the atmospheric sources and sinks of hydrogen. To improve monitoring tools for hydrogen leakages, HYway will develop novel emission modelling and installation-level emission measurements. We will measure the hydrogen soil sink using flux chambers and instrumented drones, and we will use this knowledge to improve process-based models of the sink. The Global Warming Potential of hydrogen and its Effective Radiative Forcing will be quantified, including the component contributions from methane, ozone, stratospheric water vapour and aerosols. HYway will also quantify several environmental effects associated with hydrogen emissions such as stratospheric ozone depletion and air pollution. HYway will build on existing methods to create realistic future scenarios to fully explore the climate and environmental impacts of a hydrogen economy, including co-emissions and associated reductions in fossil fuel-related emissions. HYway includes a large advisory board of industry partners, several of them from established hydrogen collaborations. The advisory board will assist in estimating hydrogen leakage rates and in establishing realistic scenarios for a future hydrogen economy. By evaluating the potential climate and environmental impacts of a hydrogen economy, HYway will provide critical information to policymakers and stakeholders, allowing them to make informed decisions about the role of hydrogen in the transition to a low-carbon economy.