New study on the impacts of wildfire emissions on fine particle air pollution in the western US until the end of the 21st century, under different climate change scenarios.
This work highlights the fact that when committing to a particular level of future warming, we are also committing to a particular level of fine particle air pollution. This has to be taken into account when considering mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Policy
The Global Stocktake assesses the world’s collective progress towards achieving the purpose of the Paris Agreement and its long-term goals.
From COP26 in Glasgow, the adoption of comprehensive accounting rules for the international transfer of carbon market units is the most important achievement however it is not in international climate negotiations. ‘Clean Development Mechanism’ or ‘CDM’ allows emission reduction projects to earn certified emission credits, but there are questions if the Article 6 rules are good enough to provide the necessary framework.
There are uncertainties how emission cuts will affect chances of staying with in 1.5°C warming dependent upon how the climate system responds. By looking at the science and models behind COP26 headlines and statements, we better understand our chances of staying within 1.5°C and mitigate risk. ZERO IN reported by the CONSTRAIN project highlights issues
In the Paris Climate Agreement, the five-yearly Global Stocktake (GST) plays an essential role. GST is used to monitor the implementation and progress of the Paris Agreement. Applying the concept of governance functions of international institutions, the policy brief derives the key recommendations to contribute to understanding.
Evaluation of climate change mitigation policy is critical for how well policies and measures work. Offering insights in the functioning of policies can enhance the transparency of policy implementation, which is essential to gain citizens’ support for those policies. The CARISMA project team carried out a meta-analysis of climate policy evaluations in EU Member States and found that the energy sector is dominant in policy evaluations. Supports future EU legislative proposals and accompanying impact assessments.
Risks are associated with policies to combat climate change and can be divided into two broad categories: Implementation risks and Consequential risks. TRANSrisk research has shown that the number and nature of risks that can be assessed using economic models is limited. Assessment work generated outcomes at the level of case studies and at meta-level. Shows how assessment of risks and their underlying dimensions changes depending on an expert’s professional background with different stakeholder groups.
Climate change governance requires the involvement from many actors and institutions on various levels, the European Union needs this to mitigate climate change. There are challenges to the EU’s climate governance and leadership regarding policies, interests, and lack of appetite for further integration. The EU can address these challenges internally, by increasing its climate mitigation ambitions, and externally, by reclaiming the mantle of international climate leadership.
The Paris Agreement forms the basis for new international cooperation on climate change mitigation. However, the achievements in Paris do not mean that the UN climate regime is the only regime for climate action and other international legal regimes, climate coalitions and actions by non-Party stakeholders can play a complementary role to the Paris Agreement. Provides an overview of climate action undertaken outside of the UNFCCC context and this trend will likely continue beyond Paris.
New frameworks and tools are provided by TRANSrisk to manage climate change policy and are designed within the context of national case studies. Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) approach is used to explain the rate and nature of technological change in the case studies. The TRANSrisk project has two additional sectors alongside the four conventional circular economy sectors. A cross-sectoral approach is used to explore synergies and conflicts and risks and uncertainties of various innovative low