REMIND

Introduction

REMIND (REgional Model of Investment and Development) is a numerical model that represents the future evolution of the world economies with a special focus on the development of the energy sector and the implications for our world climate. The goal of REMIND is to find the optimal mix of investments in the economy and the energy sectors of each model region given a set of population, technology, policy and climate constraints. It also accounts for regional trade characteristics on goods, energy fuels, and emissions allowances. All greenhouse gas emissions due to human activities are represented in the model.

REMIND aims to help policy and other decision makers to plan ahead by understanding the roles, synergies and trade-offs between various factors, including population, resources, technologies, policies and the environment. Using REMIND, research and policy-relevant questions related to sustainability can be explored: Which technologies should we use in the future? What is the impact of policy proposals that are meant to prevent (mitigate) climate change? What are the consequences on economic development, air pollution, and land use? For some questions, REMIND is used in connection with other models to provide a detailed answer. One such model is MAgPIE (Model of Agricultural Production and its Impacts on the Environment).

Technical background

REMIND is an energy-economy general equilibrium model linking a macro-economic growth model with a bottom-up engineering-based energy system model. It covers twelve world regions, differentiates various energy carriers and technologies and represents the dynamics of economic growth and international trade.

A Ramsey-type growth model with perfect foresight serves as a macro-economic core projecting growth, savings and investments, factor incomes, energy and material demand. The macro-economic production factors are capital, labor, and final energy. A nested production function with constant elasticity of substitution determines the final energy demand. REMIND uses economic output for investments in the macro-economic capital stock as well as for consumption, trade, and energy system expenditures.

The energy system representation differentiates between a variety of fossil, biogenic, nuclear and renewable energy resources. More than 50 technologies are available for the conversion of primary energy into secondary energy carriers as well as for the distribution of secondary energy carriers into final energy. The macro-economic core and the energy system part are hard-linked via the final energy demand and the costs incurred by the energy system. Economic activity results in demand for final energy in different sectors (transport, industry, buildings..) and of different type (electric and non-electric).

The model accounts for crucial drivers of energy system inertia and path dependencies by representing full capacity vintage structure, technological learning of emergent new technologies, as well as adjustment costs for rapidly expanding technologies. The emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and air pollutants are largely represented by source and linked to activities in the energy-economic system. Several energy sector policies are represented explicitly, including energy-sector fuel taxes and consumer subsidies. The model also represents trade in energy resources.

Code and Documentation

REMIND on GitHub:  https://github.com/remindmodel/remind
REMIND Documentation: https://rse.pik-potsdam.de/doc/remind/2.1.3
Documentation of older REMIND versions are available under the following links: REMIND1.7 ADVANCE wiki, REMIND 1.6: equations 

Selected Publications

  • Luderer, G., Pehl, M., Arvesen, A., Gibon, T., Bodirsky, B.L., de Boer, H.-S., Fricko, O., Hejazi, M., Humpenöder, F., Iyer, G., Mima, S., Mouratiadou, I., Pietzcker, R.C., Popp, A., van den Berg, M., van Vuuren, D., Hertwich, E.G., (2019) Environmental co-benefits and adverse side-effects of alternative power sector decarbonization strategies. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3529760
  • Rauner, S., Hilaire, J., Klein, D., Strefler,  J., Luderer, G., (2019) Air Quality Co-benefits of Ratcheting-up the NDCs.
  • Bertram C, Luderer G, Popp A, Minx JC, Lamb WF, Miodrag Stevanović, Humpenöder F, Giannousakis A, Kriegler E (2018) Targeted policies can compensate most of the increased sustainability risks in 1.5 °C mitigation scenarios. Environ Res Lett 13:064038 . doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/aac3ec
  • Kriegler E, Bertram C, Kuramochi T, Jakob M, Pehl M, Miodrag Stevanović, Höhne N, Luderer G, Minx JC, Fekete H, Hilaire J, Luna L, Alexander Popp, Steckel JC, Sterl S, Yalew AW, Dietrich JP, Edenhofer O (2018) Short term policies to keep the door open for Paris climate goals. Environ Res Lett 13:074022 . doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/aac4f1
  • Strefler J, Bauer N, Kriegler E, Popp A, Giannousakis A, Edenhofer O (2018) Between Scylla and Charybdis: Delayed mitigation narrows the passage between large-scale CDR and high costs. Environ Res Lett 13:044015 . doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/aab2ba
  • Kriegler E, Bauer N, Popp A, Humpenöder F, Leimbach M, Strefler J, Baumstark L, Bodirsky BL, Hilaire J, Klein D, Mouratiadou I, Weindl I, Bertram C, Dietrich J-P, Luderer G, Pehl M, Pietzcker R, Piontek F, Lotze-Campen H, Biewald A, Bonsch M, Giannousakis A, Kreidenweis U, Müller C, Rolinski S, Schultes A, Schwanitz J, Stevanovic M, Calvin K, Emmerling J, Fujimori S, Edenhofer O (2017) Fossil-fueled development (SSP5): An energy and resource intensive scenario for the 21st century. Global Environmental Change 42:297–315 . doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.05.015
  • Bertram C, Luderer G, Pietzcker RC, Schmid E, Kriegler E, Edenhofer O (2015) Complementing carbon prices with technology policies to keep climate targets within reach. Nature Clim Change 5:235–239 . doi: 10.1038/nclimate2514
  • Luderer G, Pietzcker RC, Bertram C, Kriegler E, Meinshausen M, Edenhofer O (2013) Economic mitigation challenges: how further delay closes the door for achieving climate targets. Environ Res Lett 8:034033 . doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034033
  • Bauer N, Brecha RJ, Luderer G (2012) Economics of nuclear power and climate change mitigation policies. PNAS 109:16805–16810. doi:10.1073/pnas.1201264109
  • Bauer N, Baumstark L, Leimbach M (2012) The ReMIND-R model: the role of renewables in the low-carbon transformation - first best vs. second-best worlds. Climatic Change, DOI: 10.1007/s10584-011-0129-2
  • Leimbach M, Bauer N, Baumstark L, Edenhofer O (2010) Mitigation costs in a globalized world: climate policy analysis with REMIND-R. Environmental Modeling and Assessment 15, 155-173
  • Leimbach M, Bauer N, Baumstark L, Lüken M, Edenhofer O (2010) Technological change and international trade – Insights from REMIND. Special Issue of The Energy Journal, 31, 109-136

REMIND aims to help policy and other decision makers to plan ahead by understanding the roles, synergies and trade-offs between various factors, including population, resources, technologies, policies and the environment.