Across Africa, rising populations and increased socioeconomic activity in coastal areas are resulting in increasing marine pollution. Rather than expand their Blue Economies, countries need to combat pollution in coastal and marine waters to mitigate the threats posed to biodiversity, ecosystem...

Climate change is a global challenge requiring unprecedented levels of collective action. In this context, this paper asks: do appeals to historical responsibility facilitate or hinder collective action? This paper uses a simple lab experiment simulating climate mitigation bargaining between...

This paper examines how donor countries can be motivated by self-interest to fund emission reductions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). While not solving the broader climate cooperation problem, we propose pragmatic measures that do not require global consensus on future climate risks...

On 14 July 2021, the European Commission adopted a series of legislative proposals implementing its plan to achieve climate neutrality in the EU by 2050. These included an intermediate target of at least a 55% net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The proposal involved changes to...

Purpose - The study focused on the influence of internal environmental communication on organizational environmental governance and the adoption of green inbound logistics practices and the mediating role of organizational environmental governance on the relationship between internal...

In the discussions being held at EU level about the 2040 mitigation target, the role of international credits has recently taken centre stage. The new momentum in those discussions is due in part to the German government having announced its support for a mitigation target of a net 90 per cent...

Two phenomena are increasingly reshaping the world economy. One is the growing and well-documented importance of climate transition policies that differ across countries. The other is the stark rise of geoeconomic fragmentation (GEF) concerns. While differences in climate transition policies are...

Countries' current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement leave a substantial gap to the emissions reductions needed to limit global warming to 2°C. Böhringer et al. (2025) showed the large emissions reduction potential of global emissions trading even if...

The world is falling behind on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a situation exacerbated by recent geopolitical disruptions and challenges to international cooperation. This policy brief, based on a virtual roundtable in the context of the Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC) with...

The focus of climate economics has traditionally been on CO2 as a negative externality. For decades, this has led policymakers to strongly focus on carbon pricing as the preferred climate policy instrument. But addressing the climate crisis differs fundamentally from a pollution problem. It...

Since the 2016 Paris Agreement, countries and companies have been increasingly pressured to adopt appropriate response measures to climate change. However, it is not clear what factors drive firms to undertake climate change actions. Using a correlated random effects panel probit model, this...

This paper engages with the literature that has looked at the historical response to climate change among industries positioned to have had a far-reaching impact on changing the course of the climate crisis. While much of the historical research in this domain has focused on the role of big oil...

International climate negotiations have so far failed to produce ambitious climate cooperation. We combine laboratory experiments with simulations to investigate the performance of two negotiation design features to address this failure: The Paris Agreement's ratchet-up mechanism, which requires...

The regulatory landscape related to carbon credits is dynamically evolving. Even though the global market for carbon credits remains relatively limited compared to the ones created by emission trading systems, it can still play an important and complementary role in fostering positive climate...

The brief emphasises the need to translate climate commitments into effective policies, focusing on carbon pricing mechanisms like emissions trading, carbon taxes, and crediting mechanisms led by public authorities. - Carbon pricing cooperation is essential for increasing climate ambition,...

The 29th Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku revealed a shift in the balance of power in international climate politics following the US elections. While China played a constructive role in the negotiations on international climate finance, vulnerable countries were forced to make painful...

Carbon policies are often limited to specific regions. To avoid stricter carbon emission requirements, companies relocate production to regions without carbon policies that offer a higher degree of flexibility. This effect is known as carbon leakage. To prevent carbon leakage, carbon tariffs are...

The joint implementation of structural reforms and investments has gained traction in policy initiatives and recommendations, including those aimed at supporting productivity growth and the competitiveness of the European economy. This brief collects arguments, grounded in economic theory and...

The European Union (EU) is implementing a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) at its borders, which will require exporters of basic materials to surrender emission permits when exporting to the EU market. Since it makes foreign producers compete under a carbon price, the EU CBAM may...

Growing North-South tensions are impeding global climate cooperation and hampering Germany’s search for reliable partners. Brazil is a key actor with the potential to alleviate tensions: it sees itself as a bridge-builder and will host the Climate Change Conference in 2025 (COP30). Under their...