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Population mobility and immobility are depicted prominently in the climate change adaptation literature either as maladaptation, or failure to adapt, or as a key strategy for adaptation in place or elsewhere. On the other hand, the relevance of population mobility in the context of climate change mitigation has not been highlighted to the same extent as, for example, population growth and fertility. And yet, as the outcomes of people moving around – sometimes in unexpected ways because of local combinations of policies, contexts and shocks – population mobility patterns, trends and levels could both facilitate and constrain climate change mitigation efforts. In this brief note, I suggest that climate change mitigation strategies and actions need to take into account their potential interactions with population mobility because it is a key component of population growth, population distribution and urbanisation trends, as well as a potential contributor to behavioural change.

Developing Asia is the driver of today's emissions intensive global economy. As the principle source of future emissions, the region is critical to the task of global climate change mitigation. Reflecting this global reality and a range of related domestic issues, the governments of the People's Republic of China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Viet Nam have embarked upon an ambitious policy agenda. This report reviews the present and future policy settings for climate change mitigation and green growth in Asia's major emerging economies. Although recent targets and commitments will involve a fundamental change in emissions trajectories, the urgency and extent of necessary global action requires ambition to be raised even further in developing Asia. An additional transformation will be required for the trajectory of emissions and energy demand, as well as the future composition of the power generation mix. Achieving these transformations will not be easy. There are a substantial number of policy instruments available, yet significant obstacles stand in the way of their effective deployment. Governments face a number of policy challenges, including: energy sector reform, economic reform, strengthening institutional capacity, and securing international support. The principal conclusion of this analysis is that the task facing Asia's policymakers is not simply one of setting targets and pursuing narrowly focused policies to reach them. Rather, a broad-scale approach involving all sections of the economy and government will be required to achieve the shift to a sustainable, low-emissions development trajectory.

Climate change mitigation pilot projects (REDD+ - Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) affect and interact with the local population in Central Kalimantan and many other parts of Indonesia. Rather than being politically and economically neutral activities, climate change mitigation projects tend to objectify the value of carbon, land and labour, contributing to a process of commodification of nature and social relations. In this specific case study, a set of values - equality and autonomy - central to the Ngaju people, the indigenous population in Central Kalimantan, become contested in the course of the climate change mitigation project. These central values are produced in everyday activities that include mobility and the productive base - subsistence and market-based production - among the Ngaju people. On the other hand, the climate change mitigation project-related environmental practices and actions produce values that point to individual (material) benefit and stratification of the society. The aim of the paper is to draw attention to and create understanding of value production and related tensions in the efforts to 'fix' environmental degradation problems through the climate change mitigation pilot project in Central Kalimantan. ; Peer reviewed

Through a dynamic model of energy system change the paper examines the role of innovation in bringing about a low carbon energy system. The processes of innovation and technological substitution are cumulative, dynamic, and highly non-linear processes such that how the energy system evolves in the long term is extraordinarily sensitive to the strength and duration of the initial policies. It is possible, under some policy assumptions, that energy systems would continue to depend on fossil fuels for so long as fossil fuels remain abundant and the least cost resource; and under other assumptions, after allowing for the unavoidable lags associated with investment and the building up of a new capital stock, that fossil fuels would become almost wholly displaced by the non-carbon alternatives. The implication is that the external benefits of innovation, which include the creation of options and the reduction of costs arising directly from innovation itself, and the reduction of environmental damage, are far greater, perhaps by orders of magnitude, than the traditional cost–benefit models used for the analysis of climate change mitigation. The analysis suggests why a focus on discovery and innovation offers a promising way forward for national and international policies on climate change.

Der anthropogene Klimawandel verlangt die Reduktion von Treibhausgasen. Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit den Kosten und Strategien zur Vermeidung des Klimawandels. Dabei werden vor Allem Investitionsstrategien der Vermeidung untersucht. Die Arbeit is unterteilt in fünf Teile, die jeweils Unterfragen der allgemeinen Forschungsfrage untersuchen. Nach einer Einleitung in das Problem des Klimawandels und MakroÖkonomischen Mechanismen der Vermeidung werden diese Unterfragen in einzelnen Kapiteln beantwortet. Die Analyse basiert auf Integrated Assessment Modellen. Zuerst werden die Auswirkungen von technologischem Spillover in einem Mehrregionenmodell mit technologischem Wandel in Form von interregionalem Spillover analysiert. Modellergebnisse zeigen, daß je größer der Quotient zwischen Arbeits- und Energieeffizienz steigernden Spilloverintensität ist, desto geringer sind die Vermeidungskosten. Außerdem werden die Vorteile von Vorreitern und Anreize für eine Klimapolitik untersucht. Ein mehrregionales Hybridmodell mit einem detailierten Energiesystem wird benutzt, um die Investitionen in Energietechnologieen im Detail zu analysieren. In Klimapolitikszenarien wird der gesammte Energiekonsum verringert, während erneuerbare Energie und CCS Technologieen sofort ausgebaut werden. Verschiedene Regionen verfolgen grundsätzlich untershciedliche Vermeidungsstrategieen. Während ambitionierte Klimaschutzschranken zu moderaten globalen Kosten erreicht werden können, variieren die regionalen Kosten deutlich. Des Weiteren werden Integrated Assessment Modelle genutzt, um herauszufinden, was es bedeutet, wenn die Welt sich in den nächsten Jahren nicht auf eine klimafreundliche Politik einigen kann. Die Auswirkungen von frühzeitigen Investitionen in erneuerbare Energieen in erstbesten und zweitbesten Welten wird analysiert. Die Vermeidungskosten steigen signifikant, wenn die Implementierung von Klimapolitik verzögert wird. Hingegen verringert ein frühzeitiger Einsatz von erneuerbaren Energieen die globalen Kosten. In einem Hybridmodell mit fünf Regionen werden die Auswirkungen von Dynamik und Richtung des technologischen Wandels unter Klimapolitik untersucht. Es zeigt sich, daß die Vermeidungskosten und -strategieen sensitiv auf diese Variablen reagieren. Weitere Experimente deuten an, daß die Auswirkungen vom Spektrum der zur Verfügung stehenden Technologieen abhängt. Um die Rolle des endogenen technologischen Wandels für die Vermeidung des Klimawandels zu studieren, wird dieses Modell um eine neue Formulierung von Effizienssteigerungen erweitert. Es zeigt sich, daß Investitionen in die Effizienz von einigen Energiesektoren eine entscheidende Rolle für niedrige Vermeidungskosten spielen. In Klimapolitikszenarien können die durch technologische Einschränkungen erhöhten Vermeidungskosten durch F&E Investitionen in die Energieeffiezienz reduziert werden. Wie auch immer, zeigen die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit die wichtige Rolle von Investitionsstrategien für die Vermeidungskosten von Klimawandel. DieWelt profitiert von frühzeitigen Investitionen in eine große Bandbreite von Technologieen und in Energieeffizienz. Dabei erbringen vor allem die unmittelbare Förderung und die hohe Diversität der Investitionen niedrige Vermeidungskosten. ; The substantial threat of anthropogenic climate change implies the reducing of greenhouse gas emissions. This thesis deals with the costs and strategies of climate change mitigation. In particular, investment strategies for climate change mitigation are investigated. The thesis is separated into five parts each focusing on subquestions of the overall research question. After an introduction into the problem of climate change and the important macro-economic mechanisms for mitigation, these subquestions are answered in separate chapters. For the analysis Integrated Assessment models are used. First, the impacts of technological spillovers under climate policies are analyzed by means of a multi-regional model with technological change in form of interregional spillovers. Model results indicate that the higher the ratio between the spillover intensities for energy and labour efficiency, the lower are mitigation costs. As well, first-mover advantages and commitment incentives for climate policy scenarios are investigated. A multi-regional hybrid model with a more complex energy system is used for studying investments into energy technologies in detail. In climate policy scenarios the entire energy consumption is reduced, while renewable energy and CCS technologies are expanded immediately. Different regions follow quite different mitigation strategies. While ambitious climate targets can be reached with moderate global costs, the regional costs show a high variance. In addition, Integrated Assessment models are used to investigate what happens if the world will not agree on a climate friendly policy within the next years. The impacts of early investments into renewable energy technologies in first-best and second-best worlds are analyzed. Mitigation costs increase significantly, if the climate policy implementation is delayed. In contrast, early deployment of renewable energy technologies reduces the global costs. Within a five-region hybrid model the impacts of dynamics and direction of technological change under climate change mitigation are studied. It turns out that mitigation costs and strategies are quite sensitive to these variables. Further experiments indicate that the impacts depend on the set of available technologies. For studying the role of endogenous technological change for climate change mitigation, this model is extended by a new formulation of efficiency improvements. It turns out that investments into the efficiency of some energy sectors play a crucial role for low mitigation costs. In climate policy scenarios, the increased mitigation costs of technological restrictions can be overcome by R&D investments into energy efficiencies. However, the results of this thesis demonstrate the important role of investment strategies for climate change mitigation costs. The world gains from early investments into both a broad portfolio of technologies and energy efficiencies. Thereby the immediate support and high diversity of investments mainly provide low mitigation costs.

AbstractBackgroundResearch on the social bases of environmental concern has established robust findings across various sociodemographic characteristics. This includes interaction effects between education and political identity, as well as particularly low concern among supporters of President Trump.ObjectivesUsing 2016 survey data, we extend such research to examine U.S. public support for four climate‐change mitigation strategies: investment in renewable energy, lifestyle changes, a revenue‐neutral carbon tax, and cap‐and‐trade.MethodsWe perform ordered logit regression of belief in anthropogenic climate change and support for these strategies on several key independent variables.ResultsSupport follows some of the patterns expected for environmental concern generally but with new details. Trump support is a dominant predictor, and education × party interactions show significant variations in levels of support.ConclusionThis provides important insights for public policy decision making related to climate change by considering which characteristics are most predictive of support for specific strategies.

This paper uses the Cultural Topography (CTOPs) methodology, an intelligence community standard which is used to avoid ethnocentric analysis and the dangerous practice of mirror imaging--projecting US culture on to another country rather than viewing the costs and benefits they face through their own cultural lens. CTOPs assess a country's culture by examining four components of culture: identity, values, norms, and perceptual lens of an actor in conjunction with a specific issue of concern. This paper examines the internal culture of China, with the Chinese government as the key actor, to discover how to build effective policy to regulate air pollution in China, to protect against the detrimental effects of climate change, which China is hastening through its massive carbon emissions production. After analyzing China's internal culture using CTOPs, it was found that an effective climate change policy would be a tax incentive based system, and a switch to nuclear power, with the use of natural gas to supplement this shift. This will lead to a significant reduction in carbon emission production, which will increase the health and safety of the Chinese people, and ultimately the world.