"Pathways to climate neutrality in Europe with a spotlight in Greece: Challenges, uncertainties, solutions" - Workshop Synthesis Report.

The European Commission (EC)-funded H2020 Sustainable Energy Transitions Laboratory (SENTINEL) project has applied a participatory approach including three steps: i. investigating how to adjust modelling tools based on modelling users' needs and test their applicability in three case studies at three different geographical scales: National (Greece), Regional (Nordic region) and Continental (Europe), ii. engaging experts representing various stakeholder groups to understand the key challenges to reaching climate neutrality and specify the most critical and policy-relevant contextual questions that energy system models should be able to respond to, and iii. involving stakeholders in the model application process to implement further modelling refinements based on their feedback. This report serves as a summary of the SENTINEL stakeholder workshop and captures our discussion and findings tackling the different dimensions of the energy transition in Europe with a focus on Greece. The workshop entitled “Pathways to climate neutrality in Europe with a spotlight on Greece: Challenges, uncertainties, solutions” took place as a physical workshop in Greece on the 30th of June 2022. The SENTINEL researchers presented key modelling results from the Continental and the National case studies and collected feedback on potential further model refinements and improvements required, the usefulness of the modelling insights and how to best disseminate them, as well as the identification of any further research questions that need to be answered by the SENTINEL modelling ensemble. Participants stated a variety of different critical issues and challenges related to the energy transition of the European and Greek energy systems. These insights also meant to further inform the research questions that had been identified in previous stakeholder engagement activities. Given the recent upheaval due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the consequent energy crisis that coincides with our work, these questions could be (re)considered by the SENTINEL consortium to accurately capture current developments in Europe. Finally, discussions and inputs from stakeholders revealed meaningful viewpoints that could be incorporated in the further development of the SENTINEL modelling suite.The authors would like to thank all stakeholders for dedicating their time and providing us with important input during the workshop and all SENTINEL partners for their commitment in presenting their outcomes. The authors would, also, like to acknowledge the support from the European Commission. The content of this report is the sole responsibility of its authors and does not necessary reflect the views of the European Commission