Recurrent drought hits the Horn of Africa: Evidence-based climate policy is needed to stave off the disaster
The Horn of Africa has been plagued by severe drought for six consecutive seasons, along with conflicts, floods, and other extreme weather events, posing considerable threats to the region. Projections indicate that droughts in this area will become more widespread, intense, and prolonged, potentially exacerbating the fragile socioeconomic structures of communities. A century ago, Ethiopia would experience droughts every 10 or 15 years, but now they occur every 5 years, with increased severity, frequency, and duration, pushing the region’s ecosystem to its limits.
Read More
Accelerating the Green Transition: China’s 1+N Policy Framework, Two Sessions, and Beyond
Predoctoral fellow Hengrui Liu discusses Climate Policy Lab’s newest policy brief which covers China's recent advancements in climate policy development, climate mitigation and adaptation progress, an updated climate change adaptation strategy, a more ambitious NDC, and new targets in the 14th Five-Year Plan.
Read More
Shining new light on global public investments in energy RD&D
As Mission Innovation (MI) prepares for its Annual Gathering later this month, the Climate Policy Lab has launched a new, expansive global dataset on RD&D expenditures. The data appear as an interactive visualization of annual public investments in energy research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) across 39 countries since 2000. This visualization is the culmination of a major effort to provide a global picture of energy RD&D investments based on the review of local documents. We aim to improve the accessibility of these important RD&D data so that everyone can better understand how much countries spend in this critical area of technological innovation.
Read More
Saudi Arabia, China Both Explore Green Hydrogen Potential
Last month’s summit between top Chinese and Saudi leadership reinforced that crude oil is the main component of their trade relationship going forward even as China looks to decrease its reliance on fossil fuels by the next decade as it increasingly turns towards green hydrogen as an alternative energy replacement fuel.
Read More
State-owned oil enterprises in BRICS countries and their green innovation efforts
In the final hours of global climate talks at Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, 80 developed and developing nations backed a call for the final agreement to include language affirming the wind down of fossil fuel use. The suggested text was opposed by major oil and gas producers, notably Saudi Arabia, which argued that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a viable emissions reduction solution that can eliminate emissions from continued oil and gas production and consumption. Saudi Arabia took the occasion of the twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties (COP27) to unveil its plans to host the world’s largest CCS hub, led by its state-owned oil and gas firm Saudi Aramco, in what it termed “the circular carbon economy.”
Read More
Carbon pricing in emerging countries: A reflection from Climate Policy Summer Academy
Carbon pricing is considered a key policy instrument to steer developing economies towards a lower carbon transition, but implementation can be politically arduous, slowing adoption in many locations, delegates to Climate Policy Lab’s Climate Policy Summer Academy suggest.
Read More
Carbon pricing and Just Transition tops agenda at CPL Inaugural Summer Climate Academy
Designing market mechanisms to deploy financial tools like carbon taxes, energy subsidies, or cap and trade mechanisms is among the top challenges facing developing countries as they seek to promote carbon mitigation, delegates to The Climate Policy Lab Climate Policy Summer Academy concluded during meetings of the Academy’s inaugural session this past June.
Read More
Internal Combustion Engine Cars: Will national sales bans become reality?
Internal combustion engine (ICE) car bans are in the news, raising questions about their effectiveness as a policy tool. For automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), ICE bans are a strong policy signal that car companies must take action. While policies that promote alternative fuels like biofuels, electricity, and hydrogen can create a competitive market for low carbon fuels, ICE bans are technology-forcing, which theoretically can provide a more decisive market signal.
Read More
African Perspectives Set to Influence COP 27 Agenda
The recent IPCC report warns that severe climate impacts are in store if the world fails to halve greenhouse gas emissions this decade. Currently, climate change is impacting every corner of the world. Africa remains very vulnerable and exposed to these impacts despite accounting for less than 4% of global greenhouse emissions.
With Egypt set to host the next Conference of the Parties (COP 27), there are high hopes that climate issues close to the heart of African nations and other countries unduly impacted can be advanced.
Read More
New SEC proposed rules mean corporations should heed latest IPCC insights on longevity of carbon sinks
Last month, IPCC AR6 Working Group II released its latest report, which covers Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. The report reveals in stark terms that climatic impacts are interacting and multiplying across sectors and regions, creating risks that compound each other (IPCC AR6 Summary 18). One key takeaway from the report that needs more attention is that many natural systems have already been pushed to their adaptive breaking points, including many warm water coral reefs, coastal wetlands, rainforests, arctic, and mountain ecosystems (IPCC AR6 Summary 28). These harsh realities raise concerns about the longevity of existing natural carbon sinks and has important policy implications.
Read More
Africa’s Massive Renewable Energy and Green Minerals: A Recipe for Green Energy Revolution
Africa contributes less than 4 percent of global emissions but has already experienced the impacts of climate change, including droughts, floods, heatwaves, and sea-level rise. Nevertheless, Africa remains at the center of the fight against future climate change. With the youngest population in the world and rapid urbanization and population growth rates, the African population is estimated to reach 2.5 billion by 2050.
Read More
Hydrogen: A Geopolitical Game-changer for Future European Energy Security?
Rising tensions between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Russia over Russian troop buildups on the Ukraine border have raised the specter of an energy crisis in Europe. This new geopolitical context is likely to influence Europe’s calculus going forward, with a high likelihood that a lasting distaste for heavy reliance on Russian gas will give even further impetus to plans to rapidly diversify to cleaner energy sources such as offshore wind and hydrogen. That begs the question: Have Russia’s recent actions hurt its own chances to be a major participant in Europe’s energy transition?
Read More
What Drives Pakistan's Coal-fired Power Plant Construction Boom?
In September 2021, at the United Nations General Assembly, China’s President Xi announced that China would no longer support overseas coal-fired power plants. One of the primary beneficiaries of Chinese public finance in coal has been Pakistan’s energy sector. According to the IEA, between 2015 and 2018, Pakistan’s coal-based generation capacity increased from 148 GWh to 15,930 GWh. Such a ramp up in energy generation capacity was sorely needed. Pakistan faced crippling blackouts, which undermined the investment climate and suppressed industrial output, not to mention energy access concerns
Read More
Natural Farming, A Climate Solution in India?
A new Tufts CREATE Solutions report reviews evidence for Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), one of the largest efforts to implement agroecology at scale. The Government of Andhra Pradesh, India plans to expand ZBNF to millions of farmers in the state over the next several years. The review finds ZBNF generally increases farmers’ income, but critical gaps remain concerning climate change outcomes.
Read More
A Peek Into Recent Conversations About Funding for Energy Innovation
Climate Policy Lab postdoctoral scholar Zdenka Myslikova discusses the conversations at COP26 surrounding funding climate solutions and clean energy technology.
Read More
The Best Agreement out of Glasgow
CPL Fellow Seth Owusu-Mante discusses South Africa’s Juspat Energy Transition Partnership, and how it can create a win-win outcome for the South African economy and global efforts to mitigate the dire consequences of the climate crisis.
Read More
What the New Methane Rules Could Mean for US Early Adopters
As scientific data on methane leakage from US oil and gas production and transport systems has improved, the urgency of methane mitigation policy has increased. Higher estimates for methane released in oil and gas US operations continue to be verified via ground-based facility scale measurement combined with satellite and other aerial methods, suggesting that volumes of well over 2 to 3 percent of gross US natural gas production need to be detected and remedied.
Read More
Backgrounder: Understanding China’s 1+N Announcements
Hengrui Liu discusses China’s newly released “Working Guidance For Carbon Dioxide Peaking and Carbon Neutrality in Full and Faithful Implementation of the New Development Philosophy” ( The “1” Policy).
Read More
U.S. Loan Guarantee Program Needs a Revamp: Here's Why.
Amy Myers Jaffe discusses CPL’s newest policy brief about how a U.S. loan guarantee program can spur experimentation and innovation by helping firms avoid the “valley of death” in the innovation process.
Read More
The Case for Public-Private Partnerships to Spur Clean Energy Innovation
Fletcher School postdoctoral scholar Zdenka Myslikova maps out the case for private-public partnerships to accelerate the energy innovation process in the United States, citing examples from the United Kingdom and Chile.
Read More
