Every year governments spend $543 billion subsidising fossil-fuels to consumers. A new report on Fossil-Fuel Subsidies and Climate Change for the Nordic Council of Ministers from the IISD finds that removing these subsidies to consumers and society could lead to global GHG emissions reductions of between 6-13% by 2050.
With potential domestic savings to some government of between 5-30% of expenditures, and in the context of the low oil price many governments are removing subsidies. This report shows how to include national emissions reduction estimates within country contributions towards the UNFCCC using the Global Subsidies Initiative – Integrated Fiscal (GSI-IF) model.
To meet climate change targets, European Union (EU) countries need to significantly increase investment in carbon capture and storage (CCS) and show greater urgency to develop and deploy the technology. Installing 11 GW of CCS electricity generation in the EU by 2030, as envisaged by the EU Energy Roadmap, could cost between €18 and €35 billion. Current policies, including those envisaged by the 2030 framework for climate and energy and the emerging Energy Union, are unlikely to deliver this investment. Economic models indicate that CCS is crucial to the cost-effectiveness of Europe’s emissions reduction targets. CCS can provide flexible, mid-merit electricity generation, which will be much needed as the share of electricity from variable renewable sources increases. It is also, to date, the only technology that can help reduce emissions from industrial installations.
This report, from the New Climate Economy, provides 10 practical recommendations to boost economic growth and reduce climate risk. These recommendations could deliver up to 96% of the emissions reductions required by 2030 to keep our planet on a pathway to keep global warming under 2 degrees celsius. And these are actions that would also deliver multiple economic benefits.
The report calls for stronger cooperation between governments, businesses, investors, cities and communities to drive economic growth in the emerging low-carbon economy. International and multistakeholder cooperation can scale up technological change, expand markets, reduce costs, address concerns about international competitiveness, spread best practice and increase the flows of finance.
This report produced in co-operation between the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Transport Forum (ITF) and the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) identifies the misalignments between climate change objectives and policy and regulatory frameworks across a range of policy domains (investment, taxation, innovation and skills, trade, and adaptation) and activities at the heart of climate policy (electricity, urban mobility and rural land use).
Outside of countries’ core climate policies, many of the regulatory features of today’s economies have been built around the availability of fossil fuels and without any regard for the greenhouse gas emissions stemming from human activities. This report makes a diagnosis of these contradictions and points to means of solving them to support a more effective transition of all countries to a low-carbon economy.
Shifting public and private investment from "brown" to "green" is an essential part of climate change. The post-2020 climate agreement to be agreed at COP 21 in December 2015 has the potential to play a significant role in signalling the importance of such a shift. This paper explores how the 2015 agreement could spur further mobilisation of climate finance by examining the current state of play regarding existing financing environments and mechanisms. These include examining the existing international institutional arrangements under the UNFCCC to see how balanced financing, co-ordination, streamlining and complementarity between institutions could be achieved. The paper also highlights the key role that in-country enabling environments can play in further mobilising public and private climate finance, and discusses how the 2015 agreement could enhance both "pull" and "push" factors for mobilisation. In addition, the paper also discusses how the agreement could facilitate the broad use of a spectrum of financial instruments and the further development of an enhanced system for measurement, reporting and verification of climate finance.