Climate change is relevant to virtually all other SDGs, including Goal 8 on decent work and economic growth. Uncontrolled climate change will not only compromise the ability of countries to achieve this goal, but could reverse gains in economic prosperity, social progress and poverty reduction. Economic sectors particularly vulnerable, such as agriculture, are among the biggest employers. Besides, risks tend to be greater for workers and communities already in situations of vulnerability, including workers in the informal economy, indigenous and tribal peoples, migrant workers, women and youth.
The adoption of the Paris Agreement at the end of 2015 and the EU’s intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) have confirmed the EU’s commitment to achieve decarbonisation by 2050. Transport accounts for about a quarter of EU greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, representing the second-largest source of GHG emissions in Europe after the energy sector. The transport sector will play a significant role in the EU’s efforts to decarbonise its economy in line with its international commitments.
The purpose of this report is to examine different EU policy options to address transport emissions, with a special emphasis on passenger cars. It ‘thinks through’ the options that are currently assessed in the EU and considers how they could be put together in a comprehensive framework. The report concludes with a number of measures to lead EU transport decarbonisation policy. A distinction is made between i) no-regret options and ii) measures for consideration.
This technical analysis for the Nordic Green to Scale report was commissioned to CICERO (Center for International Climate and Environmental Research – Oslo), which is Norway’s foremost institute for interdisciplinary climate research. The report illustrates the scaling potential of 15 proven Nordic low-carbon solutions and presents an analysis of the greenhouse gas emissions reductions of these solutions and their scalability internationally.
Two simultaneous and interdependent issues challenge today’s development policy: poverty reduction and climate change. While economic growth is needed to tackle poverty reduction, governments need to set economic frameworks and incentive systems so that this growth remains within global environmental boundaries. When designed well, many of these measures can contribute to alleviating poverty and fostering competitiveness – that is, they can be used as green industrial policy measures.
This report aims to shed light on how EECCA countries and development co-operation partners are working together to finance climate actions, using the OECD DAC database to examine finance flows by provider, sector, financial instrument, channel, etc. A significant amount was committed by international public sources to the 11 countries comprising the EECCA in 2013 and 2014 (i.e. USD 3.3 billion per year), but the scale of such finance varies considerably from country to country and is insufficient to achieve and strengthen their climate targets communicated through the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions COP21.
In addition, while a range of climate-related policies have already been developed by the EECCA countries, the extent to which such policies are being effectively implemented and conducive to attracting climate finance is still unclear. In this respect, this report proposes a set of questions for the EECCA countries to self-assess their readiness to seize opportunities to access scaled-up climate finance from various sources: public, private, international and domestic.