Alexandros Flamos

• Professor
• Professor at University of Piraeus

Cities across Mediterranean Europe face common climatic threats. They are highly vulnerable and very likely to suffer losses and damages due to heat waves, droughts, wildfires, landslides, and extreme coastal events. To this date, however, there is no systematic understanding of how cities in Mediterranean Europe are preparing to adapt to these imp...

Triggering a massive wave of renovation in buildings and sustaining it over the long term requires a mix of policy instruments ranging from regulations, renovation incentives, and financial models. In this context, an innovative financing approach to consider is Pay-for-Performance (P4P) programmes, which use data-driven measurement and verificatio...

Defining and measuring progress in adaptation are important questions for climate adaptation science, policy, and practice. Here, we assess the progress of urban adaptation planning in 327 European cities between 2005 and 2020 using three ‘ADAptation plan Quality Assessment’ indices, called ADAQA-1/ 2/ 3, that combine six plan quality principles. H...

Energy efficiency investments are subject to various risks and uncertainties, which may affect involved actors’ profitability, and as such, there is a need for developing tools to support their decisions. So far, the developed methodological frameworks that aim at projecting the profitability and risk of such investments present a high technical co...

Households in the private rented sector (i.e., households renting properties at a market rate from a private landlord), and especially those of lower income, face far more energy poverty issues than the general population, meaning that they are often unable to afford socially and materially required levels of energy services. In this context, energ...

There are considerable differences in the pace and underlying motivations of the energy transition in the different geographical contexts across Europe. The European Union's commitment to climate neutrality by 2050 requires a better understanding of the energy transition in different contexts and scales to improve cooperation of involved actors. In...

Energy models are used to inform and support decisions within the transition to climate neutrality. In recent years, such models have been criticised for being overly techno-centred and ignoring environmental and social factors of the energy transition. Here, we explore and illustrate the impact of ignoring such factors by comparing model results t...

To achieve the European Union's target for climate neutrality by 2050 reduced energy demand will make the transition process faster and cheaper. The role of policies that support energy efficiency measures and demand-side management practices will be critical and to ensure that energy demand models are relevant to policymakers and other end-users,...

Given the abundant availability of resources, the market potential, and their cost competitiveness, onshore wind farms and photovoltaic units are expected to drive the overall growth of renewable energy sources in the next decade. However, Europe is a small and densely populated continent, which results in many countries experiencing a severe short...

Energy efficiency targets and funding for reducing energy consumption in buildings play a significant role in the international policy landscape. Energy efficiency can deliver both sustained reductions in energy usage by improving baseline efficiency as well as targeted peak demand reductions. However, despite the many benefits, energy efficiency f...

Energy efficiency from behavioural changes will play a key role in meeting future climate targets. Current energy management actions, however, are still dominated by conventional interventions. Furthermore, demand-side transformations based on behavioural actions are hitherto underrepresented in modelling scenarios informing climate policy. In this...

Energy system models are advancing rapidly. However, it is not clear whether models are becoming better, in the sense that they address the questions that decision-makers need answered to make well-informed decisions. Therefore, we investigate the gap between model improvements relevant from the perspective of modellers compared to what users of mo...

The ever-growing need for boosting energy efficiency implementation towards achieving the targets set at a European level till 2050, has made the upscaling of energy efficiency investments an imperative. This endeavor requires the analysis and evaluation of energy efficiency investments with respect to all the related technical aspects and uncertai...

The demand side plays a pivotal role in order to understand the expanse of the whole energy system, especially when one considers the European Union’s (EU) commitment to climate neutrality by 2050, in the context of which, energy demand needs to be reduced substantially. Therefore, the role of policies that support energy efficiency measures and de...

Currently electricity markets worldwide encounter a transition phase into cleaner energy. This is specially the case in Greece, where not only the market structure changes to a harmonized EU target model, but also ‘green electricity’ is projected to reach 50% share by 2030 according to the National Energy and Climate Plan of Greece. This paper pres...

It is evident that energy efficiency (EE) investments are inherently risky. A growing body of literature has identified that this is due to the multitude of uncertainties associated with the future cash flows of ΕΕ projects, such as the price of energy and technology risk. Therefore, their risk evaluation becomes a complex procedure, while also som...

In Europe, regions in the Mediterranean area share common characteristics in terms of high sensitivity to climate change impacts. Does this translate into specificities regarding climate action that could arise from these Mediterranean characteristics? This paper sheds light on regional and local climate mitigation actions of the Mediterranean Euro...

As energy models become more and more powerful, they are increasingly used to support energy policymaking. Although modelling has been used for policy advice for many years, there is little knowledge about how computer-based models actually influence policymaking, and to what extent policymakers influence the modelling process. Here, we empirically...

Although energy models advance rapidly in terms of technical and techno-economic details, social and political aspects and environmental burdens beyond greenhouse gas emissions are currently underrepresented. However, in light of the European Green Deal and the EU Energy Union Strategy, models must advance in terms of social and environmental consi...

Energy demand globally has been increasing over the last few decades and, in order to achieve climate neutrality in the EU by 2050, the demand for energy needs to be reduced without affecting the comfort of the citizens. Therefore, the role of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy use has become pivotal in energy science. However, designi...

Cities across the globe recognise their role in climate mitigation and are acting to reduce carbon emissions. Knowing whether cities set ambitious climate and energy targets is critical for determining their contribution towards the global 1.5 °C target, partly because it helps to identify areas where further action is necessary. This paper present...

Greece has historically been one of the most lignite-dependent countries in Europe, due to the abundant coal resources in the region of Western Macedonia and the municipality of Megalopolis, Arcadia (region of Peloponnese). However, a key part of the National Energy and Climate Plan is to gradually phase out the use of lignite, which includes the d...

In this report, we identify the needs of the energy model users and the users of energy model results in policy, industry, civil society, and science, both in the present and future. Based on a comprehensive literature review, qualitative interviews in five European jurisdictions, a survey, and a workshop, we identify what different user groups nee...

Europe's capacity to explore the envisaged pathways that achieve its near-and long-term energy and climate objectives needs to be significantly enhanced. In this perspective, we discuss how this capacity is supported by energy and climate-economy models, and how international modelling teams are organ-ised within structured communication channels a...

Cities are critical actors in reducing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; the level of knowledge, skills, and capacity, especially regarding innovative project planning such as sustainable energy (SE) projects, is fundamental for cities to meet their untapped potential. A range of indicator-based frameworks have been developed, focusing on gene...

Raising the penetration of renewable energy sources constitutes one of the main pillars of contemporary decarbonization strategies. Within this context, further progress is required towards the optimal exploitation of their potential, especially in terms of dispatchability, where the role of storage is considered vital. Although current literature...

One way to perceive the electricity market is as a network of actors connected through transactions and monetary flows. By exploring the monetary flows in the electricity market, one adopts a holistic view which can provide insights on the interactions between different components of the benefits and costs, as well as on the possible conflicts or a...

Achieving the EU’s commitment under the Paris Agreement, the Energy Union Strategy, and the European Green Deal, requires a significant transformation of current energy systems. Renewable energy is a major component of this transition, and thus, policymakers face the challenge of making decisions about new renewables-dominated energy systems. Becau...

This article explores technology ownership patterns to reveal adoption trends for energy efficiency measures (EEMs) in the Greek residential sector. To do so, we couple observational survey data with discrete choice modeling. Household preferences are revealed through EEMs owned by Greek householders, after having been questioned for a variety of e...

Efficient policymaking is crucial towards climate change mitigation. However, policies’ successful implementation depends largely on the context where they are applied. Classic decision-making used to be based on a static plan that was considered optimal for the “most likely” future contextual outcome. However, predicting the most probable evolutio...

Increasing shares of renewable energy sources and managing total demand are considered pivotal for energy transitions that fundamentally re-envisage the electricity system. A key challenge of such transitions is integrating and absorbing increased shares of non-dispatchable renewable energy sources, without jeopardizing the security and the reliabi...

Background This article presents the main findings from a meta-analysis of how climate change mitigation policy evaluations have been undertaken in the European Union (EU) and six of its Member States: Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece and the United Kingdom. It aims to provide insights into how policy evaluations are carried out and...

A good estimation of consumers' expected response to specific policy measures is of paramount importance in the design of effective schemes for the adoption of new technologies. The decision-making process of consumers is influenced by a multitude of factors. In this context, agent-based modeling techniques provide an appropriate framework to model...

Cities are gaining prominence committing to respond to the threat of climate change, e.g., by developing local climate plans or strategies. However, little is known regarding the approaches and processes of plan development and implementation, or the success and effectiveness of proposed measures. Mainstreaming is regarded as one approach associate...

In this chapter, a step-by-step application of calibrating an agent-based model is presented. In particular, an agent-based model for small-scale PV adoption was calibrated on the historical data for the small-scale solar PV capacity additions that took place in Greece from January 2010 to February 2013. The process of the model calibration allowed...

This open access book analyzes and seeks to consolidate the use of robust quantitative tools and qualitative methods for the design and assessment of energy and climate policies. In particular, it examines energy and climate policy performance and associated risks, as well as public acceptance and portfolio analysis in climate policy, and presents...

In Greece, the renewable energy potential and a low-quality building stock constitute the background of a possible low-carbon energy transition. This transition, however, faces significant uncertainties, ranging from long-term effects of the ongoing economic recession and technological lock-ins, to the stability of the regulatory framework and issu...

The Paris Agreement aims to limit global mean temperature rise this century to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. This target has wide-ranging implications for Europe and its cities, which are the source of substantial greenhouse gas emissions. This paper reports the state of local planning for climate change by collecting and analysing i...

Solar Photovoltaics (PV) is considered a highly competitive technology supporting the transition towards a low-carbon energy system. However, increased shares of its deployment have caused a set of mainly regulatory and financial challenges which require solutions. This paper identifies key research challenges for the further development and deploy...

Assessing the performance or the implications of climate change mitigation options (CCMOs) is instrumental in achieving research and innovation efficiency in the field of climate change and becomes more imperative considering the Paris Agreement (‘the Agreement’). Many climate scientists already believe that meeting the Agreement’s goals and stabil...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify knowledge gaps on insinuations of possible directions of European Union (EU) and international climate policies. Design/methodology/approach This study has used participatory approach of highly experienced stakeholders’ engagement, involved directly or indirectly in the process of policymaking. A ra...

The aim of this paper is to identify the financial impact imposed by cost containment measures and especially by the feed in tariff (FiT) reduction upon the profitability of different photovoltaic (PV) investments and the electricity charge faced by consumers. A fully parametric analysis is carried out by varying the following parameters: total ins...

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly aware of the benefits of closing loops and improving resource efficiency, such as saving material costs, creating competitive advantages, and accessing new markets. At the same time, however, various barriers pose challenges to small businesses in their transition to a circular economy, nam...

Purpose The Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Union provides another element to cross-border cooperation by allowing Member States to fulfill their 2020 renewable energy sources (RES) targets by implementing joint projects in third countries through the cooperation mechanisms. The purpose of this paper is to assess the country r...

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the current energy status in the West Balkan countries and the related perspectives for renewable energy sources (RES) cooperation mechanisms, within the framework of RES Directive 2009/28/European Commission (EC), through the elaboration of a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. Part...

In the challenging context of intense negotiations and radical developments in the field of climate policy, informing stakeholders about opportunities and pathways and about scientific insights and warnings is important to help create positive dynamics. Policy makers need digestible information to design good policies, and understand their options...

The influence of context dynamics in the course of the climate change mitigation policy instruments’ (PIs) deployment cycle, usually causes a need for policy adaptation mechanisms to ensure that policies can meet the sector needs efficiently and effectively. In this paper, we argue that important contextual factors are the ones that are perceived t...

Sustainability indicators have been broadly used to assess energy technologies both at the national and local levels. However, very few studies have addressed the issue of resilience of energy technologies. Moreover, there is a lack of an integrated framework that combines both sustainability and resilience indicators for the assessment of energy t...

Hydrocarbon-concentrated economies would have to determine prospects and opportunities for the development of a more sustainable future. The vast unexploited renewable energy sources (RES) potential of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states in conjunction with increased cash liquidity within new climate regimes is paving the way toward technologies...

This paper applies a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) to evaluate public policy mechanisms that foster energy efficiency and renewable energy sources in the Greek building sector, based on stakeholders' understanding and perceptions of the functionality of policy instruments. The objective is to shed light on the implementation of currently employed p...

Generating policy-relevant scenarios is instrumental for understanding and developing policy measures. These are especially relevant to the power sector. Practitioners have been working on policy-relevant scenarios for the ex-ante assessment of policy measures in a meaningful way for end-users related to climate change mitigation and adaptation str...

The efficiency of fiscal support for electricity generation from renewable energy sources (RES-E) is a multifaceted notion that cannot be adequately described by a single metric. Efficiency is related to the ability of a policy measure to support deployment without creating negative feedback effects. These negative effects may stem from saturation...

The main objective of this article is to assess the priorities of local governments (LGs) in Europe regarding climate change mitigation technologies evaluation in the electricity sector and to provide important insights for energy policy design. The study applies a hybrid weighting methodology to elicit LGs’ preferences in a constructive and iterat...

This research paper aims at developing and applying a constructive weighting methodology for the elicitation of local stakeholders’ preferences regarding a set of sustainability evaluation criteria during the assessment of low-carbon energy technologies. The overall methodology has been applied and tested for the sustainability evaluation of select...

This article presents the state of play and possibilities of Europan Union- Gulf Cooperation Council (EU-GCC) cooperation. Furthermore, it argues that the development of an EU-GCC “Clean Energy” Network of academic-research and business (commercial, industrial, etc.) entities may catalyze developments in the GCC in the field of clean energy. This w...

Hastening the energy saving rate in the built environment is a common goal of both the Dutch and the Greek government within the context of EU2020 strategy. In view of the recast Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD) (2010/31/EC), considered to be an important route towards exploiting the energy saving potential of the building st...

The aim of this article is the assessment of low-carbon energy technologies in Europe against a set of sustainability and resilience criteria. The assessment was based on a survey that was conducted among 40 European experts. Solar Photovoltaic was the technology that proved to achieve high performance against many criteria, whereas nuclear was ass...

Focal point of this review is to provide a comparative display of qualitative and quantitative methodologies employed for the appraisal of interacting energy and climate policies, underlying their key features while presenting the most critical issues and limitations not addressed so far. Qualitative approaches provide a descriptive explanatory ana...

Robust strategic planning is considered crucial for the sustainability of the Greek energy sector, especially within the current highly volatile international environment. The application of multi-stakeholder foresight approaches facilitates the familiarization of key energy market players with the energy policy decision-making process. In this res...

In this article we present an application of the energy and climate policy Interactions (ECPI) decision support tool for qualitative ex-ante assessment of 21 combinations of energy policy instruments. Considering the weight given to each criterion of ECPI, we reached an overall result that policy instruments are considered quite fungible as regards...

In this article we present an application of the energy and climate policy Interactions (ECPI) decision support tool for qualitative ex-ante assessment of 21 combinations of energy policy instruments. Considering the weight given to each criterion of ECPI, we reached an overall result that policy instruments are considered quite fungible as regards...

Although Gulf economic development has drawn much attention from international banks and consultancies, there is limited integrated research into the region's long-term institutional and sectoral development and hence its long term geoeconomic significance. The aim of this article, is to point out the limited diversification of Gulf Cooperation Cou...

Energy policy formulation is the process of identifying the policy options mixture with the greatest potential to achieve the long-term goals for an energy system's economic and environmental performance. However, the impact of a policy option adopted today will be visible in a time frame that exceeds the decade. In fact, the longer the time for a...

Purpose – The paper aims to provide the prospects and challenges of cooperation concerning natural gas (NG) resources between the European Union (EU) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), based on a “critical review” of the current state of the GCC region regarding NG production, consumption, trading movements, policy framework and existing/planned p...

Greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction projects implemented at European Union Member States in non-Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) sectors are referred to as domestic offset (DO) projects. The aim of this article is the presentation of DO projects implementation modalities, their interactions with subsidy programs and the analysis of impacts on their financ...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the Business Strategy Assessment Model (BSAM) approach, in an attempt to explore the principle dynamics of an energy‐economic system with emphasis on the private actors' point of view and the impact different policy instruments may have on the decisions of private actors with different characteristi...

Emission reduction activities in the European Union (EU) in- and outside the European Trading System (ETS) thus far have largely taken place separately. One possibility to combine the two is through linking Non-ETS offset project-based crediting schemes in the form of Joint Implementation or domestic offset (DO) projects with the EU ETS. Linking wo...

Next to energy efficiency, in the context of GHG reductions, additional policy mechanisms to the incumbent EU Emissions Trading scheme (EU ETS) are discussed. Such is the case of Non-ETS Domestic Offset (DO) schemes, which can reduce CO2-eq.emissions in the non-ETS sectors and trade these as CO2 credits on the ETS market. Taking into account that t...

In this article we explain why traditional risk management techniques in the energy sector are not suitable for constructing and quantifying an Energy Security Index which will incorporate all risk parameters that endanger the uninterrupted flow of energy supplies among the numerous energy routes from their destination to European countries. Follow...

The aim of this article is the comparative analysis of oil and gas supply for the 27 European Union member countries throughout the measurement of the vulnerability that their economies exhibit to oil and natural gas. In this framework, 6 indicators that quantify the core concepts that affect the security of supply of a country have been integrated...

European energy demand and import dependence continues to increase and primary energy sources are mainly used to cover European energy needs, making clear that the risks of energy security of supply and their minimization is a critical issue. The aim of this article is to address the energy supply status, considering the energy supply corridors to...

There are several technoeconomic modeling approaches that provide quantitative results such as costs and the level of achievement of certain renewable energy (RE) policy targets. These approaches often do not consider other important factors for policy implementation (such as socio-political aspects and stakeholders' preferences). Recent multicrite...

In an effort to monitor its ambitious energy targets toward a “green Europe,” the European Commission has set up a project to enhance the availability, completeness, and quality of data regarding Green Energy Technologies. The Scientific Reference System (SRS) established in the framework of this project intends to support better-informed decisions...

Purpose – The European Union (EU) energy supply environment is changing significantly and in a dynamic way, establishing the issue of safe energy imports as main priority. Greece relies heavily on energy imports. Furthermore, Greece aims to be elevated into an energy cross road for the energy supply to the EU. In this respect, the aim of this paper...

The aim of this article is the presentation of the Energy and Climate Policy Interactions decision support tool for assessing qualitatively ex-ante combinations of various energy and climate policy instruments. This tool integrates six methodological steps, wherein a policymaker can intervene and set preferences that affect the outcome of policy in...

Small hydro systems can provide electricity for: central-grid, isolated-grids, and/or remote power supplies. Small hydraulic power also provides an extra contribution to national electrical production in the case of consumption peaks. Although hydro is currently the second most used renewable energy source in the world, still there is a significant...

Bioenergy is considered an option of significant potential for both industrialized and developing countries and its exploitation can strive toward more sustainable energy systems. In this framework, the main scope of this paper is an analysis of three bioenergy options, namely biomass combustion, biomass gasification, and production of biofuels for...

The enhancement of EU-GCC cooperation on energy issues could be significantly facilitated from the establishment and operation of an EU GGC clean energy network (EU-GCC CLEANERGY.NET). CLEANERGY.NET would have to act as a catalyst and a coordinator for EU-GCC energy cooperation on different levels: research, technology and industry, but also on the...

A new research agenda and ground breaking approaches should be adopted in order to overcome energy system inertia and pass through the current carbon constrained economy to new prosperous and more sustainable energy development paths. The wide consensus of the energy sector community (business, academic, policy, etc.) is considered a necessity for...

Climate policy assessments often appear to lack a multi-analytical approach capable of considering different dimensions of sustainability during policy design. This paper presents an integrated assessment framework of climate policy instrument interactions by reconciling environmental, socio-economic, political, and institutional aspects for the in...

Purpose Evaluation of energy and climate policy interactions is a complex issue, whereas stakeholders' preferences incorporation has not been addressed systematically. The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated weighting methodology that has been developed in order to incorporate weighting preferences into an ex ante evaluation of climat...