Each of the last several years has seen a fresh record high in global carbon dioxide emissions, and scientists say if this trend continues the planet will suffer a catastrophic increase in temperature. With electricity generation responsible for about half of recent growth in emissions, a new IEA book looks at ways the power sector can keep up with an improvement in global living standards while minimising the risk of drastic climate change.
In Electricity in a Climate-Constrained World, IEA experts consider potential solutions ranging from the design of a Chinese emissions trading programme to stand-by consumption of networked appliances to carbon capture and storage.
The book lays out the reasons electricity generation must get cleaner, and do so quickly. Higher temperatures will affect all aspects of human life, including the very electricity sector that emits so much of the cause of climate change.
Low Carbon Development: Key Issues is the first comprehensive textbook to address the interface between international development and climate change in a carbon constrained world. It discusses the key conceptual, empirical and policy-related issues of low carbon development and takes an international and interdisciplinary approach to the subject by drawing on insights from across the natural sciences and social sciences whilst embedding the discussion in a global context.
This publication serves as a background document highlighting initiatives which have been successfully implemented to facilitate a transformation to a green development on different levels: the level of single companies, the household level and the macro-economic level (countries).
By bringing together the large number of existing best practice examples, an argument is made that a concerted effort could realise the transition towards the urgently required systemic change. In addition concepts that go beyond “Green Growth”, resulting in a more “colourful” development are discussed.
The greening of economic growth series ESCAP, its partners and Asia-Pacific countries have advocated "green growth" as a strategy to achieve sustainable development in the resource-constrained, high-poverty context of the Asian and the Pacific region. The conventional "grow now, clean up later" approaches to economic growth are increasingly placing the futures of regional economies and societies at risk. The forward-thinking policymaker is tasked to promote development based on eco-efficient economic growth and at the same time, record more inclusive gains in human welfare and socio-economic progress. In order to assist policymakers in responding to such challenges, ESCAP’s activity on green growth has been developed to focus on five paths: sustainable infrastructure development; investment in natural capital; green tax and budget reform; sustainable consumption and production; and the greening of business and markets. The ESCAP “Greening of economic growth” series provides policymakers with quick access to clear, easy-to-read guidance to specific "green growth" policy tools and actions.
This paper summarizes the additional uncertainty that is created by climate change, and reviews the tools that are available to project climate change (including downscaling techniques) and to assess and quantify the corresponding uncertainty.
Assuming that climate change and other deep uncertainties cannot be eliminated over the short term (and probably even over the longer term), it then summarizes existing decision-making methodologies that are able to deal with climate-related uncertainty, namely cost-benefit analysis under uncertainty, cost-benefit analysis with real options, robust decision making, and climate informed decision analysis. It also provides examples of applications of these methodologies, highlighting their pros and cons and their domain of applicability. The paper concludes that it is impossible to define the “best” solution or to prescribe any particular methodology in general.
Instead, a menu of methodologies is required, together with some indications on which strategies are most appropriate in which contexts.