ALBERT

Description: As part of the Earth4All project, collaborators have submitted this paper to delve further into the steps to be taken to widely transform our conventional agricultural system to provide food security and improve ecological resilience in a rapidly changing global climate. This article analyses the potential positive effects on soil ecology and crop yield of a global-scale transition to regenerative agriculture, while also considering social spreading dynamics that determine the adoption of such practices by farmers. The authors argue that the transition to a global regenerative agricultural system cannot be achieved without considering the deeper societal processes driving the effective dissemination and adoption of the change. Furthermore, the surrounding factors and conditions such as farmers’ political and institutional embeddedness, public opinion, the economic situation and the climate conditions they face within their region or community, as potential barriers hindering the transition, have to be taken into account. Therefore, it is not only the farmers’ responsibility to drive the change but also the politicians, institutions, companies and individual actors’ one which, all together, will support such transition processes.

Description: Countries around the world have set increasingly ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change. To deliver on these targets, policymakers have (i) implemented new policy instruments, (ii) increased the stringency of existing policy instruments, and (iii) created ‘climate institutions’. A substantial body of literature is devoted to the first two phenomena. Yet we know little about climate institutions, including the different types of institutions countries create and how they affect the development and stringency of climate policy (Dubash 2021; Dubash et al. 2021). This report therefore seeks to answer three research questions. First, what are climate institutions and how can we characterise them across countries? Second, what effects do climate institutions have on climate policymaking? Third, based on these findings, what lessons can we draw about the landscape of German climate institutions and what options exist for institutional reform? To address these questions, we propose a definition of climate institutions and develop a conceptual framework for analysing and comparing their effects on climate policymaking in four countries: Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Australia. We then draw on this framework and our comparative analysis to identify potentially promising reforms for German climate governance, especially in light of the proposed changes to the German climate law (the Bundes-Klimaschutzgesetz, or KSG).

Description: Global warming can still be limited to 1.5°C by 2100 with low overshoot while ensuring that the poor are not hit hardest by climate policies and climate impacts. This is achieved by immediately introducing broad carbon pricing together with re-distributive policies using carbon pricing revenues and further measures to reduce energy consumption, accelerate technological transitions, and transform the land sector. The results from multiple integrated assessment models show that a combination of producer and consumer-oriented measures can work together to rapidly reduce emissions. They also show that re-distributive policies buffer the impact on poor households while allowing them to reap the benefit of avoided climate impacts in the longer term. This demonstrates that a global net zero transition done right not only safeguards the climate but also protects against worsening global inequality. The comprehensive results on 1.5°C pathways in line with the Paris Agreement are synthesised in this report of the European research project NAVIGATE. The new report published at COP28 provides a blueprint for achieving a rapid, fair and efficient transformation to net zero emissions.

Description: Workshop: goal and set-up This document presents the main takeaways and insights from a workshop organised by the Ariadne Project in Brussels on 6 December 2023. Following up on the workshop we conducted last year on the evolution of EU-ETS prices through 2030 and beyond, in this year’s event we wanted to take a closer look at the functioning of the Market Stability Reserve (MSR) - also with a view on its upcoming review in 2026. The focus of the modelbased discussion was the years until 2030, but we also considered effects post 2030 in the discussion if they impacted MSR behaviour in this decade. The workshop convened experts from six organisations that operate carbon market models – academic institutions as well as carbon market analysts

Description: Ethiopia is highly vulnerable to climate change, the impacts of which can be felt across different sectors. In particular forests are threatened by rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns and extreme weather events. Human activities like deforestation and land-use change further exacerbate climate impacts, increasing the risk of wildfires and reducing the potential of forests for carbon sequestration. However, forests and trees are of major importance for ecosystems and local communities, providing plant and animal habitat, protection against soil erosion, provision of sufficient water resources, wood for fuel and construction, and various non-timber products. In addition, climate change is increasingly impacting water resources through prolonged and more frequent droughts, leading to water scarcity, crop failures and food insecurity for millions of people in Ethiopia. At the same time, erratic and heavy precipitation events lead to increased instances of flooding and soil erosion, further compromising water availability and quality. In a similar way, soils are impacted by climate change, with temperature increases and shifting precipitation patterns leading to soil degradation and reduced soil fertility, making it harder for smallholder farmers to pursue agriculture as a livelihood. Forests and trees are particularly threatened by climate change. At the same time, they are key in both climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. Against this background, this policy brief discusses the potential of forests and trees in addressing climate change, specifically looking at natural forest regeneration as a mitigation strategy and at agroforestry as an adaptation strategy, highlighting the unique potential of forests and trees to achieve a dual benefit for climate action. Although these strategies are considered in greater detail, it should be noted that there is no single best mitigation or adaptation strategy, but rather different mutually complementing strategies. Mitigation describes efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as measures to enhance greenhouse gas sinks. Forest and tree-based mitigation options can be classified as efforts to maintain the remaining forest cover (reduce deforestation and degradation), and measures to increase forest cover (natural regeneration and reforestation) (Nabuurs et al., 2007). We briefly describe each strategy but focus on natural regeneration later on.

Description: Residential buildings directly contribute 11% to local greenhouse gas emissions and up to 40% of total emissions when accounting for energy use for electricity generation. In order to achieve the climate targets in line with the Federal Climate Protection Act, increased ambition level of climate policy instruments is required in this sector. In this research, we are interested in the governance of this sector and the role of evaluation: the government-mandated processes used to evaluate policy in terms of the actors, organisations and ministries involved in executing and coordinating these processes; and the metrics and methods as well as the scope and granularity of evaluations.

Description: There has long been a debate about climate-damaging subsidies in the German transport sector, and the financial restrictions resulting from the Federal Constitutional Court’s budget judgement at the end of 2023 have intensified the debate. This dossier is the first to convert the level of subsidies in the transport sector into negative CO2 prices to present a scientific categorisation of their significance for climate policy. The concept of implicit negative CO2 prices shows the extent to which subsidies implicitly reward citizens for emitting a tonne of CO2, rather than paying for the emissions.

Description: Renewable hydrogen is necessary for the decarbonization of sectors that are difficult to electrify, such as industry and aviation, and as a storage medium for surplus electricity from renewable sources.

Description: The European Union’s outreach to third countries during the introduction of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism was rigid and uncoordinated, new Ariadne analysis has found. Researchers investigated how the EU organized its diplomacy to counter trade concerns during the development of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. According to the Ariadne researchers, the fact that the EU’s diplomatic outreach was rather reactive may have helped to provide less of a target for opposition from trading partners and to increase acceptance of the mechanism as an expression of the EU’s claim to leadership in ambitious climate policy.