The top three carbon emitters, the European Union (EU), China, and the United States (US), account for up to 50% of the global total, and actions of them are deterministic for the ambitious target of the Paris Agreement. Towards carbon neutrality, while the EU has been consistently leading and...

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...

The report develops an assessment framework that policy makers can use to determine whether offsets can add value while ensuring the environmental integrity of a compliance system. It uses an assessment framework for these factors to: (1) identify sectors that warrant offsets as cost-containment...

In November 2018, the European Commission published its Strategic Long-Term Vision entitled “A Clean Planet for all” calling for the target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This proposal was subsequently agreed upon by EU heads of state and government, it features centrally in...

We match firm-corporate governance characteristics with firm-level carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions over the period 2009-2019 to study the relationship between gender diversity in the workplace and firm carbon emissions. We find that a 1 percentage point increase in the percentage of female...

Bei der 26. UN-Klimakonferenz in Glasgow geht es um die Umsetzung der Ziele aus dem Pariser Klimaschutzabkommen. Im Mittelpunkt steht dabei die schrittweise Zielerhöhung der einzelnen Länder, die sich anschließend in konkreten Klimaschutzbeiträgen widerspiegeln sollen. Der vorliegende ZEW...

Fundamental behavioural change, including in the way many if not most economic activities are conducted, is necessary if dangerous anthropogenic climate change is to be avoided by holding global mean temperature increase to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels in accordance with the Paris...

We analyze the quantitative labor market and aggregate effects of a carbon tax in a framework with pollution externalities and equilibrium unemployment. Our model incorporates endogenous labor force participation and two margins of adjustment influenced by carbon taxes: firm creation and green...

Domestic laws are the ideal legal instrument to regulate the mining sector’s contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Even so, as a stop-gap-measure, governments may consider updating model mining development agreements (MMDAs) or negotiating climate­-related contractual...

The adoption of the Paris Agreement in December 2015 calls for concerted efforts by the international community to restrain the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C. Trade policy has the potential to contribute substantially to curbing climate change. However, the global...

Do climate-oriented regulatory policies affect the flow of credit towards polluting corporations? We match loan-level data to firm-level greenhouse gas emissions to assess the impact of the Paris Agreement. We find that, following this agreement, European banks reallocated credit away from...

How financial investors may react to policy events related to sustainability and climate change mitigation in particular, is a key question with implications for sustainable finance and financial stability. We address this question by carrying out a multi-period difference-in-difference approach...

Bei der 26. UN-Klimakonferenz in Glasgow geht es um die Umsetzung der Ziele aus dem Pariser Klimaschutzabkommen. Im Mittelpunkt steht dabei die schrittweise Zielerhöhung der einzelnen Länder, die sich anschließend in konkreten Klimaschutzbeiträgen widerspiegeln sollen. Der vorliegende ZEW...

The adoption of the Paris Agreement with the long-term temperature limit has important repercussions for the distribution of effort between its signatories. The application of the equity and least-cost approaches to the distribution effort leadsto different outcomes. The disparity of the results...

The transformation from Kyoto to Paris has been analysed by international relations scholars, international law, and transnational governance theory. The international relations literature looks at the climate regime from a perspective of power distribution, state interests, institutions, and...

Weitzman (2014) proposed that focusing international climate negotiations on a uniform carbon price is more effective than Paris style negotiations in achieving ambitious climate action. We put this hypothesis to an experimental test by simulating international negotiations on climate change in...

International cooperation on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, disarmament, or free trade needs to be negotiated. The success of such negotiations depends on how they are designed. In the context of international climate change policy, it has been proposed [e.g., Weitzman J of the...

A broad range of mitigation options have been identified and assessed in the literature that enable countries to close the existing gap between 2030 emission projections resulting from the aggregate efforts of countries to achieve their Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement...

2015 was a watershed year for addressing global challenges. Under the umbrella of the United Nations, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction were adopted. Six years after their adoption,...

On November 4, 2019, the United States confirmed its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The Agreement, which is often cited as the only effective institutional solution to climate change, has been judged an overall success. As such, the United States’ withdrawal was a...

The shipping sector will need to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions significantly over the coming decades in order to align them with the Paris Climate goals. How could this be achieved? What will it cost to bring down the sector's emissions? Will these costs shift maritime trade flows? This...

Climate change is considered the biggest environmental challenge facing the world. The expected concomitant economic impacts of climate change are substantial, where the African continent is expected to be particularly vulnerable. Research is needed to support the development of sound climate...

The purpose of this paper is to apply existing knowledge to counter climate change. The contribution to knowledge is to ground institutional analysis, individual behaviour, political science, economics, management and the management of global sustainability in the practices and science of...