Early successes in reducing CO2 emissions have focused largely on the power sector, where accelerating deployment of wind and solar have been leading successes. We are now beginning to make significant progress in other parts of the energy sector – transportation, industry, and residential and commercial buildings – by, for example, electrifying transportation. Hydrogen provides a particularly interesting example of a vehicle for minimizing CO2 emissions, because of its ability to contribute across all parts of the energy sector and to meet energy needs that are difficult to do in other ways.
The cross-sectoral interactions within the energy sector provide a multitude of pathways for creating decarbonized energy systems. Because of variations in regional energy resources, different countries will no doubt select different pathways and energy systems to meet their needs for transportation, industry, and building energy needs. Here we illustrate the Sustainable Energy Systems Analysis and Modeling Environment (SESAME) for strategic planners and policy makers to use in evaluating and choosing among different possible future energy systems.