Living in a Material World: A Win-Win for Improving Energy Efficiency?

Understanding the role of materials in the supply chain can give us a truer picture of global emissions, as well as increased efficiency and reduced costs. The EU’s ‘Hidden’ Carbon Footprint An 80-95% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions produced within the EU by 2050 from 1990 may sound impressive, but it is not the whole […]

Non-State Actors are Here to Stay, but Delivery Mechanisms Need Improvement

The surge in transnational governance schemes led by non-state actors can be traced back to the incipient globalisation that followed the liberalisation of trade markets in the mid-1970s. These schemes provide public goods, thus complementing – and sometimes replacing – traditional, state actor-led governance schemes. A diverse set of reasons move non-state actors to engage […]

Five Ways to Address Fossil Fuel Subsidies through the WTO and International Trade Agreements

Can the international trade system be a catalyst for reforming fossil fuel subsidies (FFS) to help relieve the burden on the public purse, reduce local and global air pollution, improve energy security and tackle climate change? This was the theme of a recent workshop set at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva and organised […]

Liability for Loss and Damage from Climate Change

The question whether countries can be held liable for climate change damages has become an important issue in the UN climate negotiations. The discussion currently revolves around fairness in the light of historical responsibility and possibilities how to finance effective loss and damage. In a new paper published this week in Climate Policy, we argue […]

Read All About It!? Media, Accountability and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change

As the curtains closed on the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Marrakech in November 2016, we can soon analyse how much media attention it raised. One could imagine that the unprecedented speed of ratification of the Paris Agreement leading to its entry into […]

Lessons from European Climate Monitoring Crucial for Paris Agreement Success

As the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22) in Marrakech draws to a close, it is becoming increasingly clear that credible monitoring and transparency procedures are urgently needed. Otherwise national pledges to address climate change in the spirit of the 2015 Paris Agreement will not build sufficient global trust. The 2015 […]

What Next for Building an EU Energy Union?

A new Special Issue of the Climate Policy Journal focuses on the governance of European climate change efforts. Drawing on the insights, Michael Grubb and Kacper Szulecki argue that a huge opportunity could be grasped in the form of a New Energy Union. The outcome of the UK’s referendum illustrates the need for it to […]

Kyoto Protocol Countries Achieved Full Compliance with Targets

All 36 countries that committed to emission caps under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change complied with their commitments, according to a scientific study by Igor Shishlov and others published today in the Climate Policy Journal, which uses the final data for national greenhouse gas emissions and exchanges in carbon credits (which only became available […]

Climate Finance: Time to Know Who Gives What

As the first climate change negotiations after December’s landmark Paris Agreement open in Bonn this week, controversies around levels of funding for poorer countries to fight climate change may re-emerge. The absence of internationally-agreed accounting rules for climate finance makes it harder to establish whether promises are being met and which countries are doing their part. Most debates […]

How Transitional Justice Can Help Climate Negotiations

Transitional justice – a theory and practice enabling purposeful transitions from periods of deep injustices into more peaceful regimes – was probably not on anyone’s mind during the last days of COP21, the UN conference that led to the Paris Agreement in December 2015. However, Paragraph 52 in the Decision text – which specifically excludes liability by developed countries […]