August 2020

Who should be responsible for removing CO2 from the atmosphere?

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) – also known as “negative emissions” – is needed to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. This means that solutions – whether natural or technological – and governance mechanisms will need to be ready for scale-up in the next couple of decades. But who should bear the responsibility for developing and deploying CDR?

July 2020

Understanding the complex relationship between land and climate

Land-based solutions can help mitigate and adapt to climate change, but some could make it more difficult to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Scientists from our LAMACLIMA project explain what this means and how the project can improve our knowledge and implementation of land-based solutions.

German activists protesting the opening of the new coal power plant in Datteln ©Ende Gelände Hamburg

June 2020

Germany's coal exit law, or the politics of inertia

Bill Hare

While it is positive that Germany is moving to legislate a coal exit, the draft law threatens to undermine its place in history as a climate policy leader, as it would allow highly polluting lignite to burn until 2038, well beyond the Paris Agreement compliant 2030 deadline for OECD countries.

Zagtouli solar power plant, Burkina Faso ©Erwan Rogard for AFD 2017, courtesy ID4D

June 2020

How West Africa can expand power supply and meet climate goals

Dr Robert Brecha

Expanding renewable energy and cross-border cooperation could allow developing countries in West Africa to leapfrog or at least minimise the commitment to a climate-damaging future of fossil-fuel energy generation while powering sustainable development. Our new research shows that combining smartly selected, sustainably managed hydropower projects with an expansion of solar and wind energy is a no-regrets way forward for this region.

(Also available in French)

Burrup Peninsula LNG port ©The Greens MPs

May 2020

A single mega-project exposes the Morrison government’s gas plan as staggering folly

Bill Hare

Every few years, the idea that gas will help Australia transition to a zero-emissions economy seems to re-emerge, as if no one had thought of it before. Federal energy minister Angus Taylor is the latest politician to jump on the gas bandwagon.

March 2020

Responding to a global crisis - the coronavirus pandemic and the climate emergency

Dr Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, Dr Kim Coetzee

Governments around the world are doubling down on containing the COVID-19 pandemic, showing what a response to a global crisis – also the climate crisis - can and should look like: government action informed by science, individual behavioural change enabling the transformation, and leaving no one behind while focusing on protecting the most vulnerable.

(This article is also available in German)

Decarbonisation targets and 1.5℃ pathways

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Decarbonisation targets and 1.5℃ pathways

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