Political acceptability of climate policies: do we need a ‘just transition’ or simply less unequal societies?

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 […]

Carbon pricing moves in clusters – when is the right time to catch it?

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 […]

Sustaining Bhutan’s carbon neutral pledge: underlying challenges

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 […]

Uncertainty about conditional NDCs heightens risks to the Paris Agreement

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 […]

Temperature ‘overshoot and peak shaving’ strategy as risky as sub-prime mortgages

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 […]

Beyond carbon pricing: policies for carbon dioxide removal

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 […]

The elephant in the room: fossil fuel non-proliferation

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 […]

TOP 5 DOWNLOADED PAPERS PUBLISHED IN 2019

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

How do countries’ Paris pledges draw on local government, private sector and civil society climate action?

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. […]

Vanuatu: the challenging path to achieve redress for loss and damage

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 […]