China's regional assessment of renewable energy vulnerability to climate change

Renewable energy development is a major response to address the issues of climate change and energy security. The utilization of renewable resources, however, highly depends on the climate conditions, which may be impacted in the future due to global climate change. Based on literature analysis, this paper presents a general framework for renewable energy vulnerability assessment and applies grey cluster analysis method to demonstrate the features of vulnerability, and then employs the simple additive weighting approach to address the multiple-attribute decision problems of vulnerability assessment in China. The categorized results imply that the proposed index system is suitable for decision-making analysis and comparative analysis of renewable energy vulnerability to climate change in China. In terms of exposure part, the cluster results are complex and varied due to the unique combination of natural factors, social factors and the energy structure. In the sensitivity section, the results are presented on the distribution of areas rich in hydropower, wind power and solar energy potential. Moreover, the main results of this study are the higher renewable energy vulnerability of the poorer regions of China to climate change and the relative higher importance of adaptive capacity building in vulnerability management. Finally, policy recommendations on regional renewable energy vulnerability management are also made.