PRE – RICOMET 2023
Tabloo, Dessel, Belgium
First ECOSENS Scientific Event
29 August 2023, 13:30-17:00
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The first ECOSENS Scientific Event will take place immediately prior to the RICOMET conference, on 29th August 2023 from 13:30 to 17:30 in Tabloo, the visitor and meeting centre located in Dessel, Belgium. The focus of the Scientific Event will be the ECOSENS sustainability assessment methodology integrating a societal perspective on Europe’s future energy system that includes advanced and innovative technologies including nuclear. The influence of the stakeholder input gathered at the ECOSENS workshops in March 2023 will be consolidated. Results from the morning 2050 Scenario workshop will be shared. The event will be hybrid, and will welcome not only RICOMET conference participants, but also a wider audience interested in social, economic and environmental issues of future energy.
The draft agenda:
13:30 – 14:30 The ECOSENS project and progress
- Overview of ECOSENS – Daniela Diaconu (RATEN), project coordinator
- Feedback from the morning’s “2050 Here & Now” Scenario workshop – Marc Poumadère (Symlog) (Open to pre-registration by all ECOSENS and RICOMET participants)
- The March 2023 methodological workshop and stakeholder insights – Claire Mays (Symlog)
- Methodological progress and uptake of insights for the ECOSENS sustainability assessment – Marin Constantin (RATEN)
14:30 – 15:30 Panel discussion: Moderation by Gaston Meskens (SCK.CEN)
At the ECOSENS workshops in March 2023, a diverse set of experts/stakeholders debated methodologies and indicators for the sustainability assessment of energy production systems. They identified critical issues for both the future ECOSENS life cycle assessment, and the overall pertinence and realism of such approaches for decarbonizing Europe. Definitions and practices of social sustainability emerged as key considerations, alongside the actual institutional will and ability to conduct sufficiently democratic decision making. Participants revealed the risky narrow path between quantifying assumptions and “gaming” the numbers, and underlined the need to perform iterative assessments to capture effects of earlier actions. They eloquently and patiently argued for whole-system approaches capable of taking into account cumulative risks and bio planetary limits.
Invited panellists: Willy Melis, STORA; Robert Vandevoorde, MONA; Luc Van Wortswinkel, VITO; Jan Haverkamp, Greenpeace/NTW; Tracey Strange, Galaxea SD; and Yves Marignac, negaWATT.
15:30 -16:00 Coffee Break
16:00 -17:00 Group work on Energy Demand Drivers: Moderation by Aylin Erden (SYMLOG) and Marin Constantin (RATEN)
Participants will check and debate the societal and technological assumptions used for the ECOSENS 2050 energy demand scenario.
17:00 Closing remarks: wrap up by Daniela Diaconu (RATEN), project coordinator
