Achieving Low Carbon Economies (Attainability)

Achieving deep reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will require radical changes in how societies produce and use energy, and those changes will depend on such factors as the pace of new technology development, the speed of capital turn-over, the creation of appropriate incentives, and the removal of institutional barriers. 

This project is developing methodologies to identify conditions for meeting ambitious GHG mitigation targets. IIASA researchers will first determine the limiting factors (physical, technological, economic, and behavioral) in the transition to low carbon economies, and then analyze which are physical constraints that are difficult to alter and which constraints could be relaxed by an appropriate change in policies and incentive structures. 

Researchers will then be able identify policy decisions that must be made in the near term to reduce GHG emissions and those that can be taken later when more knowledge is available. Cost considerations will play a role, but the fundamental trajectories consistent with long-term mitigation targets will not be restricted by a least-cost paradigm. Cost factors will be balanced by non-economic factors that identify benefits of GHG mitigation.

Last edited: 27 August 2014