The window for tackling climate change is narrowing. Current national climate policies fall short of what’s needed to address climate change, putting the world on track for 3 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100, far beyond the Paris Agreement’s goal to keep temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius, and pursue a 1.5 degrees Celsius limit. […]

Eighty-three islands with a combined population of 288, 000 are facing an existential threat. But in the face of increasing loss and damage spurred by cyclones, storm surges, landslides, flooding and droughts, the people of Vanuatu are resilient. They hope that those responsible for climate change will be held to account for the permanent state […]

The production of basic materials like steel, cement and aluminium accounts for around 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions result both from energy use and directly from the industrial processes that are applied in production. The potential for energy efficiency in these sectors is limited and such efficiency improvements would not reduce process […]

It is a truth widely acknowledged that domestic climate plans under the UN climate process are almost impossible to compare. That is because national governments have a key role in formulating these “nationally-determined contributions” or NDCs, and the documents thus vary considerably in scope, depth and level of detail. There is of course a deeper […]

The carbon offset market has been around for more than 15 years and projects have been created for forests, mines, grasslands, refrigerators, and landfills.  However, projects for crop-based agriculture have remained elusive; even after the development of six standards.  This is unfortunate on multiple levels.  There are more than 300 million acres of cropland across […]

Production of basic materials (cement, iron and steel, paper and board, aluminum, as well as chemicals and petrochemicals) account for around 16% of European greenhouse gas emissions. For some time, this number was regarded to be sufficiently low to be out of the primary focus of policy makers – which was largely dedicated to improving […]

Cities have become a major actor in climate change mitigation, at least if you follow the announcements of progressive majors and city summits. Particularly in the US after Trump’s announced withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, many cities pledged that they will stick to the Agreement regardless of what their national government does. Such commitments sound […]

Solar geoengineering – or technological interventions to reflect a small portion of incoming sunlight to partially offset the effects of climate change – is a controversial, challenging, and risky proposition.  While its science and engineering aspects present numerous technical difficulties, its governance dimensions—making decisions about whether and how to use this technology—will be even more […]

The good news is that we can reduce poverty and emissions at the same time in highly emissions intensive developing economies. We can only do it, however, if we take everyone along, the rich and the poor. Everyone needs to get their piece of the cake to have an incentive to change pathways. Carbon pricing […]