432 #ClimatePolicies #Study
As with all scientific studies of a complicated problem [and moreover with news articles on scientific studies of a complicated problem] the study can't cover every aspect.
It is academically bound by a strict framework and therefore missing the points I was looking for. For instance, the study focusses solely on emissions where 'climate problems' are a complex of very different factors. What about consumerism ? Colonialism ? all important and contributing factors for the #ClimateEmergency.
The article ends with a well deserved compliment to one country and one president.
"What climate policies work best? A new study has answers."
by Kate Yoder for Grist [Aug 23 2024]
https://grist.org/economics/climate-policy-emissions-study/
Quotes:
"Out of 1,500 policies in 41 countries, a small fraction had a big impact."
"António Guterres warned ../\.. “Our world needs climate action on all fronts — everything, everywhere, all at once.”
"...countries have managed to slash emissions by putting a price on carbon, but the biggest cuts came from adopting a combination of policies."
"Using machine learning, they analyzed 1,500 policies across 41 countries between 1998 and 2022, and found just 63 instances in which countries substantially slashed emissions."
"“I feel like there’s so much gloom and doom around climate policies, that nothing really happens, but actually, we’ve made a fair amount of progress,” Pretis said."
'Governments are falling short of their climate targets set in the 2015 Paris Agreement by about 23 billion metric tons of CO2. The problem isn’t just caused by a lack of ambition, the study says, but a lack of knowledge in terms of what policies work in practice."
"carbon price for power producers. Around the same time, the U.K. had implemented a host of other steps, including stricter air pollution standards, incentives for building solar and wind farms, and a plan to phase out coal plants. Similarly, China cut its industrial emissions by 20 percent from 2013 to 2019 through a pilot emissions-trading program, but also by reducing fossil fuel subsidies and strengthening financing for energy-efficiency investments."
"Because of the bounds of the study, it also missed some of the most significant climate policies, Wagner said, pointing to the carbon taxes Sweden’s government passed in the early 1990s and the Inflation Reduction Act, signed by President Joe Biden in 2022."
“I wouldn’t be surprised if this exercise gets repeated five, 10 years from now, the Inflation Reduction Act would show up” as causing a big drop in emissions, Wagner said."
#TakeCareForLife #TakeCareForEarth #StopBurnigThings