Accelerating Community Energy Transformation

世界各地的社区都宣布了气候紧急情况，迫切需要创新的解决方案来减少温室气体排放和建立复原力。加拿大和其他《巴黎协定》签署国已经承诺到2030年大幅减排，其中许多国家（包括加拿大）希望到2050年实现净零排放。然而，国际能源署指出，要实现这些目标，“就必须彻底改变全球能源体系。”推进加拿大的能源转型，并适用于世界其他国家，提供了一个独特的机会，可以利用加拿大高等教育机构的研究优势，在与当今世界面临的最紧迫问题直接相关的领域取得全球成功。拟议的加速社区能源转型（ACET）倡议将支持次大都市规模的城市，包括偏远和土著社区，在实施能源转型方面寻求突破，包括利用沿海海洋可再生资源和非电力能源载体。ACET的跨学科系统方法战略性地融合了来自工程、地理、法律、政治学、土著治理、公共管理、商业、经济和环境研究的专业知识。维多利亚大学（UVic）和不列颠哥伦比亚大学（UBC）、皇家道路大学（RRU）、育空大学（Yukon U）和quit<s:1> <s:1>三河渡长大学（UQTR）的研究人员在这些学科应用于能源解决方案方面处于世界领先地位。在技术创新、社区参与、政策制定、商业创新和本土研究的整合基础上，它们具有独特的优势，可以帮助社区绘制能源弹性和可持续性的路径。ACET将在社区参与的优先事项和愿望的推动下，通过采用新的跨学科观点和科学方法，采用新的商业模式和治理方法，追求可再生能源技术的突破，并在社区一级实施。社区一级的ACET产出将根据自下而上的社区能源转型见解，转化并扩大到国家的全球脱碳努力。

Communities around the world have declared climate emergencies and urgently require innovative solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build resiliency. Canada and other Paris Agreement signatories have already committed to making significant reductions by 2030, with many (including Canada) hoping to hit net zero emissions by 2050. However, the International Energy Agency notes meeting these objectives "will require nothing short of the complete transformation of the global energy system." Advancing energy transitions in Canada, with applicability to other nations around the world, presents a unique opportunity to leverage the research strengths of Canadian postsecondary institutions and achieve global success in areas with immediate relevance to the most pressing problem facing the world today. The proposed Accelerating Community Energy Transformation (ACET) initiative will support sub-metropolitan sized municipalities, including remote and Indigenous communities, seeking breakthroughs in implementing their energy transition, including capitalizing on coastal marine renewable resources and non-electric energy vectors. ACET's interdisciplinary systems approach strategically incorporates expertise from engineering, geography, law, political science, Indigenous governance, public administration, business, economics and environmental studies. Universities of Victoria (UVic) and British Columbia (UBC), Royal Roads University (RRU), Yukon University (Yukon U), and the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) researchers are world leaders in these disciplines as applied to energy solutions. They are uniquely positioned to assist communities in charting paths to energy resilience and sustainability, based on integration of technological innovation, community engagement, policy development, business innovation and Indigenous research. ACET will pursue breakthroughs in renewable energy technologies and their implementation at the community level by engaging new, interdisciplinary perspectives and scientific approaches, informed by novel business models and governance approaches, driven by community-engaged priorities and aspirations. Community-level ACET outputs will be translated and scaled to national global decarbonization efforts, informed by bottom-up community energy transition insights.