Rapid phase-out of coal power is essential for achieving climate targets. Here, we synthesize historical evidence on coal decline and phase-out to develop realistic scenarios and inform future policies. We identify 43 countries that have pledged to stop using coal by a specified date. We show that such pledges were initially made by wealthy countries […]

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) plays a key role in many climate mitigation scenarios and strategies, yet the feasibility of its rapid upscaling has been vigorously debated. Recently, there has been growing interest in CCS and if current plans are realised, global CCS capacity would grow eight-fold from by 2030. However, the bulk of today’s […]

As a policy objective, mitigating climate change needs to be reconciled with ensuring energy security. While decarbonisation is often beneficial to energy security, the opposite is not true: certain energy security strategies may result in increasing rather than decreasing emissions. In this paper we explore the empirical evidence on the effect of this alignment on […]

There is no consensus on the policy effort required to accelerate the growth of wind and solar power for the climate goals. Some point out that the declining costs assure future expansion even without strong policies. Others document increasing opposition and non-cost barriers and argue that policy interventions should intensify, not abate, over time. Here, […]

Green industrial policies aim to create local value from renewable energy technologies. Local content requirements (LCR) aim to foster domestic industries by prescribing a minimum share of locally manufactured inputs for investments in renewable energy. However, the policy effectiveness of LCR differs. Whilst they fostered local industries with rising exports in some countries these goals […]

Although there is much disagreement about the appropriateness, usefulness, and cost-effectiveness of specific policy instruments, there is a consensus across disciplines that a policy mix, not only single instruments, is needed to fully decarbonize the energy system. However, there is no agreement on assessing the effectiveness and dynamic interaction within a policy mix. As a […]

Given the reasonable assumption that people will still be driving two and four-wheeled vehicles in 30 years, then the transition away from internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs), and almost certainly to electric vehicles (EVs), is an essential one for complete decarbonization of the transportation sector. In one country – Norway – this transition is taking […]

Residual emissions need to be balanced by permanent emission removal to reach the goal of net zero, which has been defined as a balance of sources and sinks by the IPCC. To reach this goal, private sector action and a rigorous definition of residual emissions is crucial. To identify how residual emissions are currently used […]

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 […]