29 July 2015

Existing
climate policies have major potential

Replicating climate and energy policies with proven potential around the world could significantly contribute to bringing GHG emissions towards being on track to meet the 2°C target. 

© Sergey Nivens | Dollar Photo Club

© Sergey Nivens | Dollar Photo Club

Climate and energy policies with proven effectiveness are already in practice in a number of countries and across key sectors. According to a new study from IIASA, the NewClimate Institute, and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), replicating these “good practice policies” on a wide scale around the world could take the world a long way towards meeting climate goals.

The study estimated the impact of current good practice policies on greenhouse gas emissions, using existing scenarios and model calculations from the IIASA Global Biosphere Management Model (GLOBIOM) and Global Forest Model (G4M), across the energy and land use sectors. IIASA researchers working on the report focused on the implications of good policies within the land use sector. The study covers on an illustrative set of sectors, and provides detail for six example large emitting countries (China, United States, India, Brazil, the Russian Federation and Japan).

Source: http://newclimate.org/

“There are already a number of good climate policies in place in individual countries across the world. Our study shows that if policy makers were to implement these good practice policies on a wider scale, we could make significant progress towards limiting climate change to internationally agreed targets,” says IIASA researcher Nicklas Forsell, a study co-author.

The report finds that one key to success would be implementing policies across many different sectors. The researchers found that among the greatest potential for emissions reductions are electricity production with renewable energy sources, reducing fluorinated gases, and promoting efficiency in vehicles and industry.


Key findings


  • Global emissions in 2020 and 2030 after implementation of best good practice policies in nine selected policy areas are projected to decrease emissions close to the range necessary to hold temperature increase below 2°C
  • Good practice policies can halt emissions growth in most regions significantly, already around before 2020
  • Replicating good practice policies with a broad coverage across many different sectors would deliver most significant emission reductions
  • Replicating good practice policies can decrease the energy and carbon intensity to levels required for 2°C in the assessed sectors.

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Last edited: 10 July 2018

CONTACT DETAILS

Nicklas Forsell

Senior Research Scholar Integrated Biosphere Futures Research Group - Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Phone: (+43 2236) 807 0 Fax:(+43 2236) 71 313