Can carbon markets make a breakthrough at COP29?
Voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) have a strong potential, notably to help bridge the climate finance gap, especially for Africa.
Decarbonizing European Cities: How to Speed Up and Build Synergies?
Cities are on the front line for enabling governments to meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement. Although cities occupy only 2% of the earth’s surface, they are home to between 50 and 60% of the world’s population (70% by 2050 according to the United Nations), account for two-thirds of the world’s energy consumption and emit 80% of CO2. As an example, the CO2 emissions of the city of Berlin are equal to those of Croatia, Jordan or the Dominican Republic. New York’s total annual CO2 emissions are roughly equivalent to those of Bangladesh. Yet their central role not only for adaptation, but also mitigation, has been recognized lately.
COP28: A Tale of Money, Fossil Fuels, and Divisions
“Humanity has opened the gates of hell”, said the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres during the Climate Ambition Summit, in New York, in September 2023, three months before COP28. The sense of urgency that he conveyed seems shared across the international community.
New Paradigm for Electrification in Sub-Saharan Africa: How Are Decentralized Hybrid Systems Changing the Game?
After several decades of reforms, the situation in centralized power sectors has hardly changed. The sub-Saharan power sector remains underdeveloped, and power sectors are experiencing significant financial difficulties that have been further exacerbated first by the effects of the pandemic and then the war in Ukraine.
European Green Deal, Three Years Later
The European Green Deal (EGD) is the single most defining policy initiative of the Von der Leyen Commission. Since its publication in December 2019, it has become the European Union’s (EU) new raison d’être.
Moving towards a metallic age: building industry resilience through a strategic storage mechanism for Rare Earth Metals
The decarbonisation of our economies, along with the challenges of strengthening the resilience of industrial value chains, reindustrialisation, notably through low-carbon and digital technologies, and the end of a period of cheap oil and gas, are accelerating the advent of an era of increased dependence on metals in a context of new and growing competition for access to resources.
Accelerating the energy transition in France: drawing inspiration from best practice in our European neighbours
The success of energy transition is first and foremost a question of good governance, which must be based on expertise and collective deliberation.
Geoengineering to the climate's rescue? Issues, actors and perspectives of an anthropocene symbol
Geoengineering is a catchword for a wide range of techniques, and it is becoming an international issue that will grow in importance as the costs of certain technologies fall or as greenhouse gas emissions continue to decline, making these techniques more attractive.
The Geopolitics of Seawater Desalination
A rapidly-expanding market
COP27: Will Egypt Bring New Life to Climate Conferences?
The COP26, held at the end of 2021 in Glasgow, was emphatically heralded as “the last best hope for the world to get its act together”.
Can carbon markets make a breakthrough at COP29?
Voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) have a strong potential, notably to help bridge the climate finance gap, especially for Africa.
Decarbonizing European Cities: How to Speed Up and Build Synergies?
Cities are on the front line for enabling governments to meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement. Although cities occupy only 2% of the earth’s surface, they are home to between 50 and 60% of the world’s population (70% by 2050 according to the United Nations), account for two-thirds of the world’s energy consumption and emit 80% of CO2. As an example, the CO2 emissions of the city of Berlin are equal to those of Croatia, Jordan or the Dominican Republic. New York’s total annual CO2 emissions are roughly equivalent to those of Bangladesh. Yet their central role not only for adaptation, but also mitigation, has been recognized lately.
COP28: A Tale of Money, Fossil Fuels, and Divisions
“Humanity has opened the gates of hell”, said the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres during the Climate Ambition Summit, in New York, in September 2023, three months before COP28. The sense of urgency that he conveyed seems shared across the international community.
The Missing Guest: Energy Efficiency in the Multilateral Energy Arena
Since the 1970s, energy efficiency has gained visibility as a low hanging fruit – its potential impact on critical issues such as climate change, energy security, or competitiveness is now widely acknowledged, even more so in times of higher energy prices.
Innovation: a New Mode of Climate Action
A range of announcements of energy and climate coalitions have been made during COP21. Beyond their important diplomatic objectives, these new forms of coalitions bring scientists and industry leaders towards new long term visions of energy consumption modes.
Climate Action beyond COP21 - Conference Brief
On November 4th 2015, the Ifri Center for Energy held an international conference on the future of Climate Action beyond the COP21. The conference brought together key experts to outline reasonable expectations for the Paris Climate Summit, in terms of binding commitments from the parties and, more broadly, in terms of the profound transformation that an agreement could trigger.
Road to Paris: What Would Be a Successful Outcome for COP21?
Eight months before the opening of the Paris climate conference (COP21), it can be reasonably argued that a global climate agreement is now within reach.
What can we expect from Russia at COP26?
We ask experts whether the Kremlin’s latest moves on climate, including its 2060 net-zero target, heralds genuine change or more greenwash.
Russia has been seen as a climate pariah by the international community for some years. It was one of the last counties to ratify the 2015 Paris Agreement – not until September 2019, at the UN’s Climate Action Summit.
Opinion : "No common view on the role of nuclear energy at COP climate talks, but individual countries can decide"
A year after the landmark COP21 climate discussions, the ambitious Paris Agreement entered into force just before COP22 began in Marrakech, Marrocco. With this latest round of talks new over, Carole Mathieu of Ifri debriefs Nuclear Report on what happened in Marrakech, the importance of the decarbonization agenda, and on the silent place nuclear energy occupies at the UNIFCCC negociations.
To Read the Full Interview click here
What new climate measures are G7 countries taking after Paris deal?
A month after COP21 summit, club of major economies weighs policy tweaks to meet tough global warming goal.
Nations prepare for Paris Climate Summit
World leaders to gather in Paris for a new round of talks on climate change. CNN's Jim Bittermann reports.
How to reflect non-parties contributions? The Taiwanese experience with climate action
Minister Kuo-Yen Wei, the third speaker to our conference on Climate Action beyond COP21, shared his insights on how Taiwan, which is not an official party to the UNFCCC, is determined to contribute to the global fight against climate change by taking action domestically. Mr. Wei is the current Minister of the Environmental Protection Administration of Executive Yuan, ROC (Taiwan).
What chances do we have to stay below the 2°C limit?
Jean Jouzel, the second speaker to our conference on Climate Action beyond COP21, shared his insights on the aggregate effect on national climate pledges and adressed the issue of consistency with the globally agreed long-term goal of keeping the average temperature rise below 2°C. Mr Jouzel is a climatologist, research director at CEA and former vice-president of the scientific working group of the IPCC (2002-2015).
Key challenges for COP21
Yvo de Boer, the first speaker to our conference Climate Action beyond COP21, shared his insights on what should be the core elements of the Paris agreement. Mr de Boer is the Director General of the Global Green Growth Institute and he was the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change between 2006 and 2010.
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