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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...

Press release from the Climate Action Tracker Read the full analysis from the Climate Action Tracker The rapid entry into force of the Paris Agreement has created the legal basis for countries to increase their level of action and ambition to meet the 1.5°C warming limit over the next two years in the lead-up to 2018. The Climate Action Tracker (CAT) has evaluated the starting point for this process and found there has been little progress on national climate policies in the eleven months since the Paris Agreement was adopted. Government pledges and climate action commitments made under the...

Ein Jahr nach der Annahme des Paris Agreements diskutieren die Regierungen diese Woche in Marrakesch die technischen Details der Umsetzung. (Foto: Mosa'ab Elshamy/AP)[/caption] Die Wahl von Donald Trump als neuer Präsident der USA stellt für die internationale Klimapolitik ein großes Risiko dar, mit direkten Auswirkungen sowohl auf nationaler Ebene für die USA als auch für den gesamten internationalen Klimaverhandlungsprozess im Zuge des Paris Abkommens. Trotz Vorbehalten des amerikanischen Kongresses setzte die Regierung unter Präsident Barack Obama mehrere Klimaschutzmaßnahmen durch. Im...

A year on from the adoption of the Paris Agreement, Governments are in Marrakech this week to discuss further details on the technicalities for the implementation of the Paris Agreement. The election of Donald Trump as President of the USA poses a high risk to international climate policy with implications on the national level for the USA and for the broader international climate process around the Paris Agreement. The Obama Administration pushed climate action despite congressional reservations. Under the Climate Action Plan, the US introduced mitigation actions in a step wise manner. One...

05 October, NewClimate Institute Adoption of the Paris Agreement at COP 21 in Paris, December 2015 (Photo: Arnaud Bouissou - MEDDE / CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0). The new international climate change deal, the Paris Agreement, will enter into force just 11 months after its adoption. The record breaking timing of the ratification process demonstrates the extent to which national governments are serious about their commitment to the new Agreement. This is a historic step forward. Global climate change is now firmly established on the international agenda. The Agreement ushers in a shift to a complete phase...

05 Oktober, NewClimate Institute Verabschiedung der Paris Klimaschutzabkommen in Paris, December 2015 (Photo: Arnaud Bouissou - MEDDE / CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0). Read in English Das Klimaschutzabkommen von Paris tritt nur 11 Monaten nach der Verabschiedung in Kraft. Die Ratifizierung in Rekordzeit zeigt, dass es die nationalen Regierungen wirklich ernst meinen. Dies ist ein historischer Schritt. Internationaler, globaler Klimaschutz ist nun nicht mehr wegzudenken. Das Abkommen läutet den kompletten Ausstieg aus den fossilen Brennstoffen ein. Aber mit dem Inkrafttreten des Abkommens fängt die Arbeit...

Download report Download press release Zero emission vehicles need to take over car market to reach 1.5°C limit: analysis Zero-emission vehicles need to reach a dominant market share by around 2035 for the world to meet the Paris Agreement’s lower warming limit of 1.5°C—and even that could be too late to avoid the need for significant negative emissions, according to new analysis by the Climate Action Tracker (CAT). This transformation of the passenger transport sector would also have to be accompanied by a decarbonisation of the power sector to ensure the electric vehicles (EV) are truly...

Press release The window of opportunity for limiting climate warming up to 2°C is closing rapidly. However, a reinforcing upward spiral of national government policy, non-state actions and transformative coalitions will be essential even after the Paris agreement, if dangerous climate change is to be avoided. This optimistic, but critical vision is posed by Prof. Niklas Höhne in his inaugural address at Wageningen university on September 1th. Climate change is one of the most prominent environmental problems facing mankind, which requires urgent action, the Wageningen professor in Mitigation...

Press release from Climate Transparency The G20 needs to make more effort to move to a green, low-carbon economy, especially in the areas of coal power expansion and climate policy, but is beginning to head in the right direction. This is the key result of a comprehensive assessment of G20 climate action, released in Beijing today ahead of the G20 summit in China this weekend. The report, “Brown to Green: Assessing the G20 transition to a low-carbon economy” has been produced by Climate Transparency, and written by a range of international experts (1) and was launched at a press conference in...

Nationale Klimaschutzzusagen (NDCs) müssen deutlich erhöht werden, um die globalen Klimaschutzziele des Pariser Abkommens einzuhalten. Das geht aus einem neuen Artikel im Fachmagazin Nature hervor. Die nationalen Zusagen, die im Dezember in Paris gemacht wurden, führen zu einer globalen Temperaturerhöhung von 2,6 bis 3,1°C bis Ende des Jahrhunderts, laut einem neuem Artikel in Nature . Das Pariser Abkommen sieht im Vergleich dazu “weit unter” 2°C vor und verlangt Anstrengungen, um 1,5°C Temperaturanstieg nicht zu überschreiten. Für die Nature-Publikation hat ein internationales Team eine...

The Paris climate agreement aims at holding global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius and to “pursue efforts” to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius. To accomplish this, countries have submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) outlining their post-2020 climate action. Here we assess the effect of current INDCs on reducing aggregate greenhouse gas emissions, its implications for achieving the temperature objective of the Paris climate agreement, and potential options for overachievement. The INDCs collectively lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to where current...

Individual national contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will need to be strengthened in order to limit future climate change to “well below” 2°C and “pursuing efforts” to limit it to 1.5°C, according to a new assessment. Pledges made for the Paris Agreement on climate change last winter would lead to global temperature rise of 2.6 to 3.1°C by the end of the century, according to a new analysis published in the journal Nature . The publication in Nature is a meta-analysis prepared by an international team covering ten independent studies, including for...

Assessing the concept's cultural legitimacy among stakeholders in the solar energy sector While energy-sector emissions remain the biggest source of climate change, many least-developed countries still invest in fossil-fuel development paths. These countries generally have high levels of fossil-fuel technology lock-in and low capacities to change, making the shift to sustainable energy difficult. Tanzania, a telling example, is projected to triple fossil-fuel power production in the next decade. This article assesses the potential to use internationally supported Nationally Appropriate...

Pariser Klimaabkommen verpflichtet Deutschland zu weit schnellerem Ausbau der Erneuerbaren Download der Studie Analyse: Deutschland muss Energieversorgung bis spätestens 2035 komplett auf Erneuerbare umstellen Als Folge des internationalen Klimaabkommens von Paris muss Deutschland seine Energieversorgung weit schneller komplett auf Erneuerbare Energien umstellen als bislang geplant. Derzeit jedoch ist Wirtschaftsminister Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) dabei, den Ausbau von Wind- und Sonnenenergie mit einem Ausbaudeckel sogar zu bremsen. Um das in Paris auch von Deutschland beschlossene Ziel zu erreichen...