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Policy briefs

Date
September 2024
Authors
Hilton Trollip
Nicolas Berghmans
Gauri Khandekar
Description

Green iron imports rooted in comparative advantages of different geographies are technically achievable and economically sound. Lower EU prices of green iron, green hydrogen and green electricity as economic inputs result in:

  • Enhanced Competitiveness of the EU steel sector, downstream industries, and overall European economy.
  • Stimulated economic development and jobs.
  • Accelerated and lower cost decarbonization and energy transition in EU and globally.
  • Increased energy security: GH2 embodied in HBI is easier import and store than pure GH2 and carriers such as ammonia.
  • Potential negative impacts of reduced investments/jobs in the primary iron stage in the steel production chain is outweighed by benefits in the rest of the steel industry and economy.

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Date
September 2024
Authors
Faidra FIlippidou
Description

A key reason behind the buildings sector’s persistently high emissions is its diversity and complexity. Identifying viable socio-technical strategies for buildings transformation is vital to achieve the sector’s decarbonisation. To do so, we performed modelling of the evolution of the sector for the European Union (EU27) with PRIMES BuiMo1, where detailed analyses of potentials and boundary conditions for the implementation of various technological options such as electrification of heating, energy efficiency improvements including deep building retrofits, the changing role of gas, and integration of renewable energy technologies are examined and included.

Results drawn from our study show that EU energy policy measures should be further developed focusing on energy demand reduction, establishing strategies promoting energy efficiency renovations via, for example, financing and awareness campaigns, and on both electrification and high energy efficiency of the buildings technical equipment, along with the extension of carbon pricing in the buildings sector. In other words, despite the rapid development of clean and sustainable solutions of technical building equipment – for all end uses – the principle of energy efficiency first is of great importance to achieve demand reduction.


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Date
September 2024
Authors
Isheeka Dasgupta
Yann Briand
Description

Private motorized road mobility (cars, 2-3 wheelers) accounts for about 45% of transport emissions. The share of larger passenger vehicles – specifically sport utility vehicles (SUVs, including pickup trucks) in the global car fleet increased from 8.5% in 2010 to 31.4% in 2022 and were the biggest driver of passenger transport emissions of the last decade. The current strategy globally consists essentially in accelerating the electrification of road vehicles. While electrification is necessary for the climate goal, it is not a silver bullet and larger (electric) cars bring larger externalities related to congestion, car injuries, use of public spaces, energy and use of physical resources. Therefore, after having shifted all possible private motorized mobility towards public transportation, going lighter and smaller is one of our best bets to satisfy mobility needs. In some developed countries, like Germany or the USA, more than 50% of current car travel demand could be satisfied by light electric vehicles (LEVs). This should become a policy priority to promote LEVs and discourage SUVs for the unavoidable private mobility. According to our analysis, the development and penetration of LEVs in our mobility systems and societies depend on many barriers and enablers, which should be addressed by targeted policy interventions and need a deep understanding of national ecosystems.


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Date
September 2024
Authors
Annika Tönjes
Süheyb Bilici
Description

With a strong focus on supporting hydrogen-based primary steel production, scrap-based secondary steelmaking has received little attention as a decarbonization strategy for the EU steel industry. Increasing scrap use in steel production reduces fossil fuel use, CO2 emissions, overall energy use and resource extraction. Steel scrap is a domestically available resource. Increasing its use reduces import dependencies and takes pressure off the renewable energy production system. Increased use of electric arc furnaces allows for a flexible use of green iron and scrap, while new technologies can help improve scrap quality. Together, these developments enable the use of scrap for high-quality steel products. An adequate “green steel” definition and Ecodesign rules emphasizing circularity as well as low and stable electricity prices can help incentivize increased scrap use in EU steel production.


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Date
July 2024
Authors
Chun Xia-Bauer
Faidra Filippidou
Description

Globally, the building sector was responsible for 34% of energy demand and 37% of energy and process-related CO2 emissions in 2022. Building decarbonisation strategies and policies vary among world regions due to their distinct socio-economic development framework, climate conditions, building stock status, and energy consumption including their fuel mixPolicymakers in the EU, China, and India have acknowledged the necessity of implementing comprehensive policy packages to decarbonize their residential building stock. Key existing policies and options to further enhance them include the following: 1) While the EU and China align targets with climate goals, India lacks a clear sectoral roadmap and should therefore adopt one. 2) Both China and India can explore the potential of implementing energy efficiency obligations (EEOs) and carbon pricing to advance residential building decarbonization. 3) Certain EU member states (MSs) should reduce electricity taxes to accelerate heating electrification. 4) Minimum Energy Performance Requirements (MEPRs) are implemented across all regions, although China should expand mandates for building codes in rural areas and existing buildings, and India should expedite the adoption of MEPRs at the local level. 5) EU MSs have enforced Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs); India and China need to scale up their residential building information disclosure practices. 6) Integrated business models such as the One-Stop-Shop (OSS) promoted by the EU could accelerate energy renovation efforts. 7) Training and certification are included in national policies in all three regions, with India needing more involvement from recognized entities.


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Date
November 2023
Authors
Catherine Hall
Description

Setting the road transport sector on a path towards decarbonisation is vital to achieving the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement. The transition to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) is a key element of the sector’s transformation. While progress towards the uptake and widespread adoption of ZEVs has increased in recent years, this progress falls short of what is needed to set the road transport sector on a pathway that is aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement. At COP26 in 2021, several countries came together and pledged to accelerate this transition through enhanced international collaboration, as part of the Breakthrough on Road Transport. However, there are several options available to strengthen the Breakthrough on Road Transport and help drive the sector’s transformation towards decarbonisation forward: (1) increasing country signatories, specifically through the creation of collective pledges on developed countries to enhance means of implementation for developing countries, (2) adopting explicit phase-out targets for new sales of fossil fuel vehicles, (3) incorporating these targets in countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and long- term climate strategies to enhance transparency and accountability, (4) promoting the sharing of best practices specifically aimed at electric retrofitting and developing standardised conversion kits for different vehicle models, (5) harmonising standards to help build a sustainable and just ZEV battery supply chain, and (6) developing harmonised emission standards for used vehicles between exporting and importing countries.


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Date
October 2023
Authors
Lukas Hermwille
Alexander Diek
Description

In order to achieve the Paris Agreement’s objectives, a fundamental transformation of the global plastics industry is required. This document describes four complementary strategies that will be necessary to achieve climate neutrality in the sector and the existing global governance landscape for plastic. Additionally, it examines the creation of an international plastics climate club that could foster climate neutrality in the sector and its relationship with the ongoing negotiations for the plastic pollution treaty.

Note: A more detailed version of this analysis can be found in the 'Contours of an International Plastics Climate Club' policy brief, provided below.


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Date
September 2023
Authors
Lukas Hermwille
Alexander Diek
Description

In order to achieve the Paris Agreement’s objectives, a fundamental transformation of the global plastics industry is required. This document provides an extensive analysis of four complementary strategies that will be necessary to achieve climate neutrality in the sector and the existing global governance landscape for plastic. Additionally, it examines the creation of an international plastics climate club that could foster climate neutrality in the sector and its relationship with the ongoing negotiations for the plastic pollution treaty.


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Date
June 2023
Authors
Yann Briand
Sandra Rothbard
Description

In the past 50 years, the length and fragmentation of supply chains have exploded due to new manufacturing, transport and logistics, and communication technologies, as well as international economic regulations related to trade liberalisation. Today, international production is highly organised within global value chains, where the different stages of the production process are located across different countries. As of 2021, an estimated 70% of international trade involved global value chains. The global financial crisis of 2007 – 2008 and the multiple recent events of 2020 – 2022 such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the blockage of the Suez Canal caused supply shortages, raising awareness of the fragility of global supply and logistics chains and their international dependencies. These disruptions resulted in the Global Supply Chain Pressure Index recording an all-time high value of 4.3 above the historical average of 1997 to 2022. Ιn the future, an ongoing changing context could lead to more regional value chains that are closer to customers, corresponding to a shortening of global supply chains. A review of the long-term strategies of the five leading economies – China, India, Japan, the United States and the EU – published between 2020 and 2022 found that none of them mention phrases related to shortening supply chain distances, reducing freight movements or reducing long-distance freight, shifting supply chains closer and developing local production-consumption ecosystems. This reveals an important gap between science and policy. The possibility of a reduction of movements and distances, should be considered as a core component of any realistic freight decarbonisation strategies reaching zero emissions by 2050. This demand-side component of the strategy should be articulated with necessary technological changes in a coherent systemic change.


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Date
April 2023
Authors
Wolfgang Obergassel
Chun Xia-Bauer
Alexander Diek
Description

Key messages

  • The buildings sector is one of the major greenhouse gases (GHG) emitters, but progress in decarbonising the sector has not been fast enough. In addition to combating climate change, accelerating mitigation efforts has the potential to contribute to achieving no less than 16 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
  • The significant potential of international cooperation to promote mitigation in the sector has so far been underutilised. Collectively, Parties to the Paris Agreement can promote additional mitigation efforts by: (a) developing a sector-specific international decarbonisation target and roadmap, including indications of when the buildings sector should achieve zero or net-zero emissions and interim emission reduction milestones, potentially with regional differentiation, (b) requesting inclusion of sectoral emission targets and concrete policies in Parties’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and long-term climate strategies, (C) establishing additional reporting requirements on the implementation and achievement of NDCs in individual sectors under the Paris Agreement’s Enhanced Transparency Framework.
  • Beyond the UNFCCC, interested Parties and non-Party stakeholders could: (a) adopt and coordinate commitments to decarbonising their own building stock and to procuring only highly efficient equipment and appliances, (b) increase support for policy development, planning, implementation, evaluation and enforcement capacity of national and local governments in developing countries, and (c) scale up financial support and risk-sharing for investments as well as capacity building for local financial institutions in developing countries.
  • The newly established “buildings breakthrough” should be strengthened by specifying its objective, mobilising pledges for specific actions by its members, including means of implementation for developing countries, and appropriate staffing of its secretariat.

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Date
April 2023
Authors
María J. Sanz
Itxaso Ruiz
Description

Key messages

  • The Agriculture, Forest and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector is one of the major gross emitters of greenhouse gases (GHG), mostly driven by deforestation and agricultural emissions, while Forest and Other Land Use (FOLU) remains a net sink. Mitigation measures in the sector can contribute positively to climate change adaptation and several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
  • International cooperation has significant potential to promote mitigation in the sector, in particular in developing countries. However, up to now mitigation results have been limited and not sustained over time despite the investments made in capacity building and readiness activities.
  • Enhancing coordination among initiatives, and broadening the participation (i.e. government-civil society, public-private) and balancing decision-making (i.e. developing and developed countries) power among relevant groups, could help to incorporate these actors’ interests into global governance and make the initiatives more effective and the results resilient.
  • To successfully foster the sector’s potential in an increasingly interconnected world, land-use governance needs to be strengthened through consistent land policies and regulation, enhanced land administration functions, and better land information and monitoring systems at all scales.
  • The adoption of consistent sector standards for measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) across existing institutions and initiatives, aligned with the rules and modalities adopted by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), could greatly enhance the transparency and comparability of efforts across countries.
  • No solution will work if there is only reliance on one finance stream based on result-based payments (i.e. though carbon markets) where the underlying risk aversion of donors and buyers and the short-term nature of targets and goals remains an issue. Upfront investments and other economic and non-economic incentives will need to be considered in the space of international cooperation and finance.

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Date
April 2023
Authors
Catherine Hall
Harro van Asselt
Description

Key messages

  • Transforming the land transport sector towards decarbonisation is crucial to achieving the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement. While international cooperation has considerable potential to advance this transformation, this potential has remained underexploited.
  • To drive the sector’s transformation, Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Paris Agreement can agree to: (1) develop a transport-specific decarbonisation roadmap accompanied by a global net-zero target; (2) integrate sectoral emissions budgets into their Nationally Determined Contributions that include transport targets (NDCs); and (3) create additional reporting requirements under the Paris Agreement that specifically focus on the implementation and achievement of NDCs in individual sectors, including for transport.
  • To complement efforts pursued under the UNFCCC, groups of states can also develop a joint agreement to phase-out the sales of new fossil-fuelled vehicles by a specific date.
  • Another option for enhancing international cooperation outside the UNFCCC can take the form of a climate club focused on electric vehicles. In addition to setting a phase-out target for the sales of new fossil-fuelled vehicles, such a club could also commit to harmonising market-share targets for zero-emission vehicles and zero-emission vehicle charging infrastructure.

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Date
April 2023
Authors
Simon Otto
Sebastian Oberthür
Description

Key messages

  • International cooperation holds great potential to advance the global decarbonisation of energy-intensive industries (EIIs). However, despite existing far-reaching international cooperation this potential remains underexploited. Major gaps remain regarding (1) harmonised standards for near-zero emissions basic materials, (2) related lead markets, (3) sufficient means for technology development and transfer, (4) rules addressing international competition and carbon leakage, and (5) orchestration of existing activities.
  • Existing institutions hold significant potential to address the gaps of lead markets and means as well as, to a lesser extent, harmonised standards and orchestration. However, they lack the needed institutional capacity and legitimacy to address competition and carbon leakage or ensure a near-universal harmonisation of standards.
  • The proposed G7 Climate Club holds further potential to advance international cooperation on harmonised standards, lead markets and orchestration. However, its narrow membership and limited legitimacy constrain its effectiveness, while clear incentives for other countries to join are lacking. These shortcomings can be addressed by especially reaching out to emerging and developing countries with an established interest in international cooperation on industrial decarbonisation, explicitly addressing equity issues, making clear financing commitments and providing access to lead markets.
  • Neither existing institutions nor the Climate Club have the required institutional capacity or legitimacy to address competition and carbon leakage. Whereas bi- or plurilateral cooperation holds some potential, the current geopolitical context might render broader international cooperation on carbon leakage politically unfeasible. To put EIIs on track for near-zero emissions by mid-century, enhancing and deepening cooperation on the other gaps should therefore be prioritised.

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Date
February 2023
Authors
Wolfgang Obergassel
Harro van Asselt
Catherine Hall
Lukas Hermwille
Sebastian Oberthür
Simon Otto
María José Sanz
Chun Xia-Bauer
Description

Key Messages 

  • Sectoral systems differ substantially in their political economies, technologies, financing structures, industrial composition, and international connectedness. Taking these differences into account allows for enhancing international cooperation for climate action.
  • The Conference of the Parties serving as a Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement could promote a sectoral perspective in a number of ways, such as requesting Parties to include sectoral emission targets and concrete policies in their Nationally Determined Contributions and long-term climate strategies and revise reporting requirements to put more focus on individual sectors.
  • Parties could also conduct a range of joint activities to promote sectoral cooperation internationally, for example in the framework of the new work programme for urgently scaling up mitigation ambition and implementation, such as developing sector-specific international decarbonisation roadmaps, promoting exchange on potential technological, economic and policy options, or reviewing and/or endorsing relevant international cooperation efforts.
  • The submission suggests several sector-specific cooperation options for selected individual sectors, focusing on agriculture, forestry, and land use; buildings; fossil fuel supply; industry; and land transport.

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Date
September 2022
Authors
Catherine Hall
Nicolas Kreibich
Harro van Asselt
Description

Aviation is one of the most challenging sectors to decarbonise. Although the Paris Agreement in principle covers emissions from all sectors, including those of aviation, most Parties to the Paris Agreement have not included emissions from international flights in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). However, these emissions are explicitly addressed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

In 2016, ICAO adopted a market-based mechanism – the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) – to address the sector’s growth in emissions. In the meantime, Parties to the Paris Agreement in 2021 agreed on a detailed rulebook for market mechanisms under Article 6 of the Agreement, which creates linkages with CORSIA.

We identify four types of interactions between CORSIA and Article 6 rules: (1) allowing Parties with single-year targets to use the averaging accounting approach creates a loophole that may undermine the environmental integrity of both CORSIA and Article 6; (2) the quality criteria for CORSIA offsets may be strengthened by following Article 6 rules; (3) the level of CORSIA’s ambition will affect the supply side of carbon credits, including those provided under Article 6; and (4) like CORSIA, the operation of Article 6 may rely on private certification standards’ registries.

To ensure that CORSIA provides a meaningful contribution to climate change mitigation in the sector, we suggest that ICAO Member States should: (1) adopt a long-term climate target for the sector in line with the Paris Agreement, (2) revise its quality criteria for offset programmes, (3) address non-CO2 effects, and (4) carry out an assessment of the impacts on the functioning of the Article 6 mechanisms each time a decision is made.

Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change could also take specific action, including refining guidance on averaging, establishing a buffer pool to offset an increase in emissions, and considering a requirement for Parties to transition towards multi-year emission targets.


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Date
October 2021
Authors
Christiane Beuermann
Wolfgang Obergassel
Harro van Asselt
Maximilian Häntzschel
Moritz Petersmann
Description

The five-yearly Global Stocktake (GST) plays an essential role in the overall ambition mechanism of the Paris Agreement on climate change by ‘assess[ing] the collective progress towards achieving the purpose of this Agreement and its long-term goals’. With the first GST due to start at COP26 in Glasgow, there is an urgent need to identify how the GST could be organised so as to maximise the effectiveness of the process. This policy brief aims to contribute to this understanding.


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