IIASA colleagues will join world leaders and diplomats at the 28th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. IIASA researchers are organizing and/or participating in several side events where they will present the latest research on how to reach ambitious targets on climate.
COP28 UAE is expected to convene over 70,000 participants, including heads of state, government officials, international industry leaders, private sector representatives, academics, experts, youth, and non-state actors. As mandated by the Paris Climate Agreement, the event will deliver the first ever Global Stocktake – a comprehensive evaluation of progress against climate goals. COP28 will facilitate a process for all parties to agree upon a clear roadmap to accelerate progress through a pragmatic global energy transition and a “leave no one behind” approach to inclusive climate action.
The partners of the ENGAGE project held an Asian Stakeholder Workshop on Thursday, September 16, 2021 and Friday, September 17, 2021 wherein the partners presented new research results while collecting fruitful inputs from the 83 stakeholders, hailing from different parts of East, South, and Southeast Asia, on the feasibility and equity of national decarbonization targets.
The Stakeholder Workshop materials can be found here on the ENGAGE website. The page includes the presentations given by the expert partners as well as recordings from the workshop, links to feasibility models, and supplementary reading.
For the accompanying, interactive visualization tool on the growth models and speed of deployment of wind and solar in countries around the world, click here.
“Equity principles-how do we share the challenges of decarbonization in a fair way?” Zoi Vrontisi (E3M, Greece)
The stakeholder workshop on progress and cutting-edge issues with respect to China’s climate change and co-benefit policy, hosted by the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation (NCSC), was held in Beijing on June 29. The meeting was a face-to-face event with additional broad online participation and was chaired by Chai Qimin, Director of the Strategy and Planning Department of NCSC, and Tian Danyu, Deputy Director.
Opening remarks were made by Xu Huaqing, Director of NCSC; Vicky Pollard, European Commission; Liu Yang, Director of Strategy Division, Department of Climate Change, Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE); and, on behalf of the ENGAGE project, Bas van Ruijven.
Xu Huaqing noted that the updated Nationally Determined Contribution plan developed by NCSC was adopted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and The State Council. In this plan, China carbon dioxide emissions should peak before 2030, carbon neutrality should be achieved before 2060 and by 2030 carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP will be reduced by more than 65% compared with 2005. The proportion of non-fossil energy in primary energy consumption will reach about 25%, the forest stock will increase by 6 billion cubic meters over 2005, and the total installed capacity of wind power and solar power will reach more than 1.2 billion kilowatts.
After an opening session, the first part of the workshop started with a series of presentations that focused on carbon emission reduction and pollution reduction in China under different policy scenarios. This was followed by short contributions from participants that addressed the following questions: What are the latest developments in China’s policies and actions to address climate change? What are the main synergies between reducing pollution and carbon emission? What are the key policies or key issues that deserve attention in follow-up research?
The second part of the workshop then focused on emission reduction pathways in the industry, energy, construction, and transportation sectors. After five short presentations, participants discussed the medium and long-term emission reduction policies for key industries in China, the impact of the synergistic policies implemented in China to reduce carbon and pollution and the prospects for new power systems and hydrogen energy development.
The workshop participants included policy makers, representatives from business, industry and environmental NGOs, and academia. It provided an excellent opportunity to exchange information on ongoing research on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
