Climate policies that achieved major emission reductions: Global evidence from two decades
Published in Science, 2024
Abstract: Meeting the Paris Agreement’s climate targets necessitates better knowledge about which climate policies work in reducing emissions at the necessary scale. We provide a global, systematic ex post evaluation to identify policy combinations that have led to large emission reductions out of 1500 climate policies implemented between 1998 and 2022 across 41 countries from six continents. Our approach integrates a comprehensive climate policy database with a machine learning–based extension of the common difference-in-differences approach. We identified 63 successful policy interventions with total emission reductions between 0.6 billion and 1.8 billion metric tonnes CO2. Our insights on effective but rarely studied policy combinations highlight the important role of price-based instruments in well-designed policy mixes and the policy efforts necessary for closing the emissions gap.
Additional Resources:
University of Oxford Press Release
INET Oxford Press Release
Climate Policy Explorer Tool
Selected Press Coverage
- Nature: AI analysed 1,500 policies to cut emissions. These ones worked
- New York Times: Many Climate Policies Struggle to Cut Emissions, Study Finds
- Financial Times: Climate policy success needs mix of three factors, study finds
- Wall Street Journal: Most Climate Policies Don’t Work. Here’s What Science Says Does Reduce Emissions
- Le Monde: Le secret de politiques climatiques efficaces : l’évaluation et le décloisonnement
Podcasts & Press Engagements
- Climat : seulement une infime partie des politiques ont un réel impact - Avec Sciences, France Culture
- Ny studie: Bara en bråkdel av länders klimatåtgärder är effektiva - Vetenskapsradion Nyheter, Sveriges Radio
- Une étude sur l’efficacité de 1500 politiques climatiques, dont la taxe carbone - Le réveil / Nouvelle-Écosse, Radio Canada
- L’efficacité des politiques climatiques à la loupe, dont la taxe carbone - Le réveil / Île-du-Prince-Édouard, Radio Canada
Recommended citation: Stechemesser A., Koch N., Mark E., Dilger E., Klösel P., Menicacci L., Nachtigall D., Pretis F., Ritter N., Schwarz M., Vossen H., Wenzel A. (2024). "Climate policies that achieved major emission reductions: Global evidence from two decades." Science. 385(884-892).
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