By Samantha Igo Decisive climate action to cut carbon emissions within the next few years will be essential for decreasing the odds of breaching the 1.5C threshold of global warming. However, as governments prepare for complex energy transitions, actions to halt oil and gas production – like cancelling pipelines or drilling permits – could be […]
By Rishikesh Ram Bhandary From June 6-16, climate negotiators will meet in Bonn, Germany for two weeks for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change intersessional meeting. Negotiators will focus on laying the groundwork to increase climate ambition and hammering out details to further buttress the Paris Agreement on climate change. The meeting, however, […]
By Rachel Thrasher The latest report from the UN International Panel on Climate Change has made clear that this decade is make-or-break for climate action and mitigating the worst-case scenarios of a warming earth. Crucial to keeping warming below the 1.5C threshold by 2100, countries must focus on phasing out both demand and supply for […]
If global warming is to be kept below 1.5C, states need to rapidly phase out fossil fuels. But government efforts to limit fossil fuels, such as cancelling pipelines and denying drilling permits, will impact asset holders and demands for compensation will ensue. When assets are protected by international investment treaties, legal claims can be brought […]
The Paris Agreement’s nationally driven structure places the spotlight on financing strategies at the national level. The role of national funding vehicles in mobilizing climate finance, however, has not received extensive attention. In a new journal article published in Climate Policy, Rishikesh Ram Bhandary remedies this gap by introducing a novel dataset of national climate […]
By Rebecca Ray On Thursday, January 13, the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development Centre hosted a webinar discussion on the potential for using debt-for-climate swaps as an innovative solution to the twin crises of climate change and debt distress. The discussion consisted of […]
By Rishikesh Ram Bhandary and Katie Gallogly-Swan Amid a flurry of high-level plurilateral commitments and late-night negotiations, the Glasgow Climate Pact of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) was agreed on Saturday, November 13 with the drop of the gavel. Additional pledges and commitments put global warming on track to reach between a […]
By Katie Gallogly-Swan The debt crisis is far from over in the Global South. While international capital has partially returned to developing and emerging economies, in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) debt service is impeding crisis response as third waves of COVID-19 devastate recovery efforts and exacerbate scarring to economies already squeezed by severe […]
By Henrik Selin and Rebecca Dunn If international shipping were a country, it would be the world’s seventh largest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually. Despite this, CO2 emissions from international shipping are not currently covered by international treaties or domestic policies. This means that these CO2 emissions are largely left outside collective efforts […]
International ships carry roughly 90 percent of global trade by volume and produce more CO2 emissions annually than Saudi Arabia, at two percent of of global emissions. Despite this, neither international treaties nor domestic policies control CO2 emissions from international maritime shipping. The industry also does not lend itself to easy governance, as it is […]