At the recent UN Climate Action Summit in New York, world leaders were reminded of the urgent task they face in decarbonising their economies—and the dire consequences of failing to do so.  The especially urgent task of phasing out coal was a central theme of the conference. It was highlighted by the UN Secretary General […]

In the preamble to the Paris Agreement the parties emphasize “the intrinsic relationship that climate change actions, responses and impacts have with equitable access to sustainable development and eradication of poverty”. Coupling emission targets to development priorities is now part of mainstream climate policy debates as well as of international negotiations. But African NDCs (Nationally […]

This blog post is partly based on the policy paper published in the journal Climate Policy: ‘Job Losses and the Political Acceptability of Climate Policies: why the job killing argument is so persistent and how to overturn it.’ Concerns for a ‘just transition’ towards a low-carbon economy are now part of mainstream political debates as […]

It may seem that after the Yellow Vests in France and the popular vote defeat of the carbon tax in the state of Washington, 2018 caused carbon pricing policies serious trouble. Yet, in our paper we find that with 66 carbon pricing policies (taxes and emissions trading systems) adopted by polities in all regions and […]

The need for action on climate change is now hotter than ever before – the Greta Thunberg movement is demanding more from leaders, policy makers and stakeholders even as climate change action is recognized as one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There are a few countries, including Bhutan, which have pledged for carbon […]

The Paris Agreement’s success depends on Parties’ implementation of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) towards the Agreement’s goals. No less than 136 of these climate action plans are conditional on receiving one or more types of support (climate finance, technology transfer, capacity building), which puts achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals at greater risk. On the […]

Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in December 2015, global CO2 emissions continue to rise.  The Paris goal of limiting global temperature rise below 2oC above pre-industrial, let alone 1.5oC, looks very far from likely.  A delay of mitigation actions is prompting some scientists to consider more seriously the speculative idea of temperature ‘overshoot […]

With the recent news that the UK and Ireland have committed to carbon neutrality by 2050, and the EU considering the same, many are very aware that this could mean an even bigger role for active removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. There is, of course, plenty of controversy around this, which isn’t our […]

There is a huge elephant in the world of climate policy that no one wants to name. The burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of the current climate crisis. And yet the Paris Agreement, the landmark accord which is meant to keep the world from passing warming of 1.5 degrees, does not even […]

The readership and impact of the Climate Policy Journal continued to grow in 2019, with the impact factor increasing to 4.797