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...

This report assesses options for the effective implementation of sustainable development impact assessment, in the context of climate change mitigation mechanisms such as those of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Existing carbon crediting programmes were analysed to draw insights on the best...

Artikel 6 des Pariser Abkommens legt drei Ansätze fest, nach denen die Vertragsparteien bei der Erreichung ihrer national festgelegten Beiträge (NDCs) zusammenarbeiten. Einer dieser Ansätze ist ein neuer Mechanismus gemäß Artikel 6.4, der zur Minderung der Treibhausgasemissionen und zur...

Climate protection scenarios are a key part of long-term climate policy planning, which has been given a further boost by the Paris Agreement. The modelling performed in such scenarios informs the development of 2050 national climate strategies—which themselves serve as roadmaps for the...

The European Commission’s (EC) proposed Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is meant to mirror the carbon price of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for several imported goods. While the CBAM can rely on certain aspects of the EU ETS regarding its costs and compliance obligations,...

Multilateral cooperation initiatives (or “climate clubs”) can generate some of the additional action that is needed to achieve the goals agreed in the Paris Agreement. An analysis of the state of collaboration in the four policy areas energy transition, synthetic fuels, food systems and...

A long-term vision for climate protection is essential for triggering the actions and policies needed to bring about economy-wide decarbonisation. The scientific basis for long-term climate planning comes in the form of so-called climate protection scenarios. These studies model emission...

The report analyzes, by looking back at existing compliance systems in the EU, Alberta, Australia, Colombia and Japan, the conditions under which offsets can add value to the compliance system without undermining its environmental integrity. The compliance system’s climate ambition as well as...

The report examines the role offset approaches can play in the post-2020 climate regime. For this purpose, the report first develops a conceptual approach and a normative vision of what should be viewed as successful offset use. It then proposes tools to operationalize this vision. Lastly it...