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The international community is negotiating a new global climate agreement to be applicable from 2020 onwards. Parties aim at signing the agreement in December 2015, at the Conference of Parties (COP) in Paris. Until then, countries are already preparing proposals for their individual contributions, their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). The INDCs will, besides other elements, include mitigation contributions as central elements. Negotiations under the ADP have advanced and more concrete discussions are taking place, with the objective to finalise the new climate agreement...

This report studies the development of criteria for assessing the compatibility of financial investments with the international goal to limit global temperature increase to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. The findings are intended as a starting point and a key input for a longer term process to develop consensus-based 2°C investing criteria. The focus here is placed on investments in projects and physical assets, in particular of development and climate finance organisations. In order to limit global temperature increase to 2°C, global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will have to be...

A highly efficient use of energy is thus fundamental to limit GHG emissions. Yet, energy efficiency receives much less attention than the decarbonization of the energy supply. This study indicates that scenarios with higher energy efficiency mostly show lower abatement costs. This was the result of evaluating the large number of existing scenarios that comply with the internationally agreed 2°C target until 2050. The societal costs of decarbonization in these scenarios vary strongly and a detailed assessment of the potential cost reductions due to EE is lacking. In order to close this gap...

This report offers deliberations on what a “fair share” for emissions in 2025 and 2030 could be. It shows, for a selection of ten countries, how their respective INDCs perform if related to different fair share approaches and effort sharing models. These assessments also take into account national mitigation potential and costs and the wider context of socio-­‐economic devel-­‐opment of the countries. Finally, current policies and politics of each country are included in the assessments. Authors: Andrzej Ancygier, Jasmin Cantzler, Hanna Fekete, Markus Hagemann, Niklas Höhne, Daniel Kandy...

This presentation report was prepared by NewClimate Institute on behalf of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the United Nations Development Project (UNDP), under the project Experiences and lessons learned in the preparation of INDCs. The report documents the challenges that countries have faced in their INDC preparation process, and lessons learned for overcoming them. Usage rights: Unlimited re-use of this presentation report for all purposes is allowed only in its current format, without changes made to content or design. Usage of information in this...

The German government, through the German Federal Environment Agency, commissioned a consortium consisting of NewClimate Institute, Germanwatch, and the 2° Investing Initiative to explore criteria to measure the alignment of investment and financing with the 2°C limit. The project focuses in particular on development finance institutions. This report was prepared in the context of the G7 summit meeting. It maps existing 2°C relevant criteria used by financial institutions and discusses what 2°C criteria might look like for key investment areas.

This report elaborated by PBL, NewClimate Institute, IIASA and Ecofys provides an overview of projected greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of seven major emitting countries (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, and the United States) out to 2030, taking into account the emissions trajectories based on current and selected enhanced policies. Earlier studies have explored the extent to which major economies are on track to achieve their 2020 pledges under the Cancun Agreements. This report extends these analyses for seven selected countries in several ways. First, the effect of planned...

This CDI Practice Paper addresses the role of tools in supporting interventions to achieve the ‘triple wins’ of adaptation, mitigation and development. Over recent years there has been a proliferation of guidance tools to support adaptation or mitigation, increasingly in a development context, but little work on the role tools play in helping to bridge the gap between these three areas in practice. Based on a review of tools in view of ‘climate compatible development’, the paper suggests key considerations for how tools could help achieve ‘triple wins’. They include: the importance of...

The results are presented from a survey of national legislation and strategies to mitigate climate change covering almost all United Nations member states between 2007 and 2012. This data set is distinguished from the existing literature in its breadth of coverage, its focus on national policies (rather than international pledges), and on the use of objective metrics rather than normative criteria. The focus of the data is limited to national climate legislation and strategies and does not cover subnational or sectoral measures. Climate legislation and strategies are important because they can...