The importance of cities in climate policy stems from the simple reality that they house the majority of the world’s population, two-thirds of world energy use and over 70% of global energy use emissions. At the international level, global carbon markets have become an important new source of...

Tackling the problem of global climate change requires a high level of international cooperation. Many countries have pledged targets or actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the Appendices to the Copenhagen Accord. This analysis examines the costs and effectiveness of these pledges,...

Many countries have pledged targets or actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; these have been listed in the Appendices to the Copenhagen Accord and, at the time of writing, are being transferred to the UNFCCC Cancún Agreements. This analysis examines the costs and effectiveness of these...

The term low-emission development strategies (LEDS) first emerged under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2008 and its possible role in a future climate framework continues to be debated. Though no formally agreed definition exists, LEDS are generally used to...

Developed countries have committed under the international negotiations to jointly mobilising USD 100 billion per year by 2020 for climate change mitigation and adaptation in developing countries. Yet consistent and comprehensive data to track this commitment are currently lacking. Such data...

[eng] In their national allocation plans, France and the other Member States disclosed the allocation of allowances to the energy and industrial sectors, and explicated their methodologies, which are based on needs. The aim of this paper is to question the equity of this distribution : we...

[fre] Dans leur Plan national d’allocation des quotas, la France et les autres pays européens ont présenté la répartition précise des quotas d’émission de CO₂ réservés aux secteurs industriel et de l’énergie, en détaillant la méthodologie retenue, fondée sur une logique des...

Determining comparability of effort between mitigation actions and targets proposed by different countries is an ongoing issue for international climate negotiations. A number of indicators have been proposed to reflect comparability of effort and differences in national circumstances; key...

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions baselines are reference emissions levels. This paper focuses on projected forward-looking baselines that can be used both to inform national climate policy and to set goals that are defined relative to a business-as-usual (BaU) scenario. As some developing...