Carsten Warnecke has deep long-standing expertise in international carbon markets and co-founded NewClimate Institute. With over fifteen years of on-the-ground experience he has led many research and consultancy projects for a variety of public and private sector clients. His recent research activities focus on the climate impact of ICAO’s CORSIA scheme, the implementation of Article 6 in line with the ambition of the Paris Agreement and the urgency of IPCC 1.5°C report as well as the piloting of Article 6 and ITMO transfers and offset credit supply potentials from CDM, VCS, Gold Standard and...

Frauke Roeser has two decades of experience in climate policy, sustainability and international development. Her work focuses on advancing the climate policy and sustainable development agenda as well as climate finance in developing countries. This spans the development of conceptual policy frameworks and strategies, designing sector specific policy responses and measures, building capacities along with institutional and governance structures on the ground. She has extensive experience directing and supporting projects in many parts of the world, collaborating with government and non...

Prof. Dr. Niklas Höhne is an internationally renowned expert in climate policy with over 20 years of experience, participating in the international climate negotiations since 1995. He co-founded NewClimate Institute, where he oversees analysis on national and international climate policy and assumes various management roles.

The current project-based carbon market mechanisms such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and the Joint Implementation (JI) do not have a direct impact on global greenhouse gas emission levels, because they only replace or offset emissions. Nor do they contribute to host country׳s national greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. Contributions to net emission reductions in host countries is likely to become mandatory in new mechanisms under development such as in the framework for various approaches, a new market-based mechanism and even in a reformed JI. This research analysed the...

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...

Many of the major greenhouse gas emitting countries have planned and/or implemented domestic mitigation policies, such as carbon taxes, feed-in tariffs, or standards. This study analyses whether the most effective national climate and energy policies are sufficient to stay on track for meeting the emission reduction proposals (pledges) that countries made for 2020. The analysis shows that domestic policies of India, China and Russia are projected to lead to lower emission levels than the pledged levels. Australia's and the EU's nationally legally binding policy framework is likely to deliver...

This article explains the nature of the new pilot greenhouse gas emission trading schemes (ETS) in China, as well as the significance of their introduction. By moving towards the allocation of emission rights through market mechanisms, the government is signalling that it is addressing climate change seriously and that it wishes to be compared to Europe and the most progressive regions of North America that have also adopted emissions trading. However, the authors also argue that a transition to a more important role for markets in the area of energy and the environment is still in its very...

Monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) requirements in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) are perceived to be of high quality, but also complex and stringent. Only one-third of the registered projects successfully managed initial verification and already received carbon credits.

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...

The paper proposes a clear process for regularly updating and strengthening national commitments. The climate regime needs to move out of continuous negotiation and into a framework of continuous implementation. The paper proposes no explicit differentiation of countries. Rather countries would propose nationally determined commitments, guided by the multilaterally agreed phase out goal and the international review. This would maximize participation. The Agreement should also include provisions for recognizing the actions of parties unable to ratify and for deterring egregious cases of free...