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As part of our ongoing investigations into the decarbonisation of various sectors, our latest study looks at the emissions from the steel and cement industries (previous publications focused on transport, buildings, power). It’s a difficult nut to crack, as large chunks of the emissions are not related to conventional fossil fuel combustion. With decarbonisation, we normally think of energy-related measures such as higher energy efficiency, electrification of demand, zero-carbon fuels and a zero-carbon electricity supply in order to move towards net-zero CO 2 emissions. While such measures...

The Climate Action Tracker (CAT) has updated its government climate action rating system to better reflect the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C long term warming limit. The new categories help to highlight the adequacy and fairness of government climate commitments for the Paris Agreement. (Full briefing) The CAT has updated its effort-sharing assessment to incorporate the latest science and emission trends, which has changed the ratings for some countries. The CAT now has expanded to six rating categories instead of the previous four, to properly describe the full range of action, or lack of action...

The future of natural gas is limited, even as a bridging fuel. Continued investments into the sector create the risk of breaching the Paris Agreement’s long-term temperature goal and will result in stranded assets, the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) said today. As part of its decarbonisation series, the CAT today released an examination of gas in the power sector. The report, titled “ Foot off the gas: increased reliance on natural gas in the power sector risks an emissions lock-in ”, warns that natural gas will have to be phased out along with coal, if the world is to limit warming to 1.5˚C, as...

Press Release Global leadership on climate is changing, with positive developments on coal use in China and India likely to reduce projected global carbon emissions growth by roughly two to three billion tonnes by 2030, the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) said today. The recent, sweeping policy rollbacks by President Trump are unlikely to have a major impact on global emissions by 2030, according to the CAT analysis on China, India, and the US, released at the Bonn climate talks. “The highly adverse rollbacks of US climate policies by the Trump Administration, if fully implemented and not...

US President Trump’s Executive Order on “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth” sets the US on a path to miss its Paris Agreement commitment for 2025 by a large margin, the Climate Action Tracker said today, adding that it would warrant moving the US from a “medium” to an “insufficient” CAT rating. If the Executive Order were carried out in full, US emissions in 2025 and 2030 are expected to be roughly similar to today, instead of the 13% decrease from 2014 levels needed to meet its target (Nationally Determined Contribution) submitted to the Paris Agreement. In 2016 the CAT rated...

Which country is making more progress in decarbonising their road transport sector with low-carbon fuels? Which country has a higher share of renewable energy? How does this look for countries without a large share of hydropower? How much are China and India’s economies emitting in relation to their economic output? Is it more or less than in the USA? Who emits more to produce one tonne of steel— China or the EU ? And how does the volume of steel production compare between these countries over time? Who emits more greenhouse gases to grow food—India or Germany? Which countries show more...

Recent developments, particularly in India and China, give hope that the rise of global coal use has permanently stopped, and growth in global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions can reverse much earlier than thought only two years ago. China’s coal consumption has declined from 2013 onwards, and is predicted to have fallen again significantly also in 2016. India has stated that coal-fired power plants currently under construction may not be needed. With the two largest coal consumers slowing growth, global use could now permanently be on a downward trend, bringing the temperature goal of...

One of the most fundamental questions of a future international agreement on climate change will be on which countries will contribute how much to the global effort to combat climate change. With the first round of discussions under the Ad-hoc Durban Platform in 2015 in Geneva in early February, Parties have heralded the next critical phase of the negotiations leading towards a new global climate agreement which is to cover numerous elements such as mitigation, adaptation, finance, loss & damage and others. Guided by the principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective...

Briefing, 11 February 2015 Niklas Höhne (NewClimate Institute), Michel den Elzen (PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency), Annemiek Admiraal (PBL) This briefing provides an overview on the feasibility and implications of phasing out net global greenhouse gas emissions. It was prepared in the framework of the ACT 2015 project. Download the briefing as PDF What is meant with “net phase out of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions”? Net phase out of GHG emissions means that anthropogenic emissions [1] of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere decrease to a level equal to or smaller than...

In preparation of the new international climate agreement to be adopted in Paris in 2015, all countries are asked to put offers on the table on how and how much they are willing to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions after 2020, so called “intended nationally determined contributions” (INDCs). In order to achieve an ambitious and equitable agreement, INDCs of countries with similar circumstances will have to be judged by others to be equally ambitious. Illustrating that this is the case will be fundamental to the success of the new climate agreement, because countries will want to be sure...