Approaches that root national climate strategies in local actions will be essential for all countries as they develop new nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement. The potential impact of climate action from non-national actors in delivering higher global ambition is significant. Sub-national action in the United States provides a test for how such actions can accelerate emissions reductions. We aggregated U.S. state, city, and business commitments within an integrated assessment model to assess how a national climate strategy can be built upon non-state actions. We find that existing commitments alone could reduce emissions 25% below 2005 levels by 2030, and that enhancing actions by these actors could reduce emissions up to 37%. We show how these actions can provide a stepped-up basis for additional federal action to reduce emissions by 49%—consistent with 1.5 °C. Our analysis demonstrates sub-national actions can lead to substantial reductions and support increased national action.
Rural US communities can reap significant benefits from investments in the new climate economy, including measures to advance clean energy systems, remediate abandoned fossil fuel production sites, restore trees to the landscape and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. Collectively, these measures can create new economic opportunities in rural places while addressing climate change. This working paper presents a detailed analysis of the rural economic impact from federal policies that invest in the new climate economy, including information about the geographic and sectoral distribution of those investments. This analysis finds that with a total annual federal investment of $55 billion, nearly $15 billion would flow to rural counties, supporting nearly 260,000 rural jobs over at least five years. This working paper also offers recommendation on policy vehicles to ensure that federal investment reaches rural areas and communities most in need.
Climate change is a global challenge requiring ambitious action by all the world's countries. The Paris Agreement is meant to bind together international efforts to reduce temperature increase to well-below 2°C in comparison to pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit temperature increase to 1.5°C. Insufficient ambition to achieve this goal is however pervasive across the signatories of the Paris Agreement-the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), put forward in 2015, set the world on a path that is, unlikely to limit global temperature increase to well-below 2°C (Climate Action Tracker, 2020;Fawcett et al., 2015;Rogelj et al., 2016), let alone 1.5°C. New NDCs will be put forward soon, presenting an opportunity to ratchet ambition and actions upwards.In the second half of 2020, several major emitters set the tone with enhanced mitigation targets: the E.U. stated that it will reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2030 by 55% compared to 1990 instead of its initial reduction target of 40%; China pledged to become carbon-neutral before 2060, a timing that could be compatible with 1.5°C consistent global emission pathways (Robiou du Pont et al., 2016). Japan, South-Korea, the United Kingdom, and Canada also put forward net-zero goals for 2050 (Climate Action Tracker, 2020).During the Trump Administration, the U.S. remained on the sidelines as other countries took leadership. More broadly, the stance of the U.S. federal government on climate change has been inconsistent over the last three decades and characterized by partisan polarization on environmental policy (Dunlap et al., 2016). Yet the U.S. plays a critical role in international climate ambition. The U.S. is the world's largest economy and second-largest GHG emitter, accounting for 12% of global GHG emissions in 2017 (Climate Action Tracker, 2020). Equally importantly, U.S. leadership has had an important influence on climate negotiations
This paper discusses methodological assumptions to estimate the collective impact of mitigation commitments and targets of non-state and subnational entities. It serves as a supplement to the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) Non-State and Subnational Action Guide. The paper will facilitate users in employing methods that are suitable for their specific objectives when determining the collective impact of mitigation actions taken by cities, businesses and states. It will also promote greater transparency in reporting impact assessment results.
This paper discusses opportunities for clean hydrogen to decarbonize freight transport in the United States. Clean hydrogen is presented as a complementary solution to electrification and other clean fuels for the road, air, water, and rail freight segments. Each of these segments presents challenges for clean hydrogen, and the issues of each are discussed in detail, with an eye towards representing the complicated landscape of clean hydrogen, electrification, and other clean fuels that could play a role.
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