Context factors enabling effective climate policies: A taxonomy of entry points

The effectiveness of climate policies depends on context factors specific to the implementing region. Understanding which context factors are key for the success of a sectoral climate policy is vital to determine promising policy interventions in similar regions.

We conduct a machine learning-assisted systematic literature review, to answer the research question which combinations of policy interventions and regional context factors have been effective for the deployment of climate change mitigation technologies or for the transitioning away from fossil fuels. These combinations are distinct opportunities for change, and thus entry points for a climate neutral transition. Our review exclusively covers studies that conduct an ex-post evaluation of sectoral climate policies (energy, transport, buildings, industry) and are published after the decision on the Paris Agreement.

Our aim is to establish a taxonomy of sector-specific entry points for a transition towards climate neutrality. We categorize context factors as enabling factors or barriers based on the feasibility framework by Brutschin et al., (2021). The purpose of this taxonomy is to provide policymakers with best-practice policy examples that are relevant to their circumstances. Additionally, we seek to classify country groups based on specific technologies and similar contexts, providing insights into the feasibility of best-practice policy roll-out.

Preliminary findings indicate that country groups regarding the deployment of solar technology depend, i.a., on the degree of current solar deployment. So far, we can identify three country groups: (i) rural electrifiers (ii) solar introducers (iii) established solar users. Subject to the availability of geophysical resources, rural electrifiers can profit from public-private partnerships, while feed-in-tariffs and tax exemptions are promising instruments for solar introducers in fully electrified regions. In contrast, established solar users benefit from reverse auctioning, contracts-for-difference and infrastructure investments. We expect to develop a more granular definition of established users within the further process of this research.