Research led by the Tyndall Centre at the University of East Anglia (UEA) reveals that the efforts to cut emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and tackle climate change in developed economies are beginning to pay off. Globally, CO2 was on the rise — about 2.2 per cent annually between 2005 and 2015 — except for a small group of countries. The team focused on analyzing the reasons behind the changes in CO2 emissions in these countries where emissions declined significantly.
There were 18 countries in all. Together, they represent 28 per cent of global emissions. The study found that policies supporting renewable energy, as well as energy efficiency, are the main factors helping to reduce emissions. In other words, the fall in CO2 emissions was mainly due to renewable energy replacing fossil fuels and decreasing energy use. The findings were published in Nature Climate Change.
Lead researcher Prof Corinne Le Quéré, of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at UEA said:
“We went in these 18 countries and looked at what policies they had in place… and we found that, in the countries where there’s more policy in place, the decreases in emissions were larger. That suggests that the policies do work… Really, this study shows it’s not a mystery. We have the technology: you put the effort in place, you develop the policies, you fund them, and then you get emission decreases… One of the messages that comes out of our analysis is that policy matters, and the efforts of policies. You need to have a lot of big policies in place and policies at the national level; policies that are well-funded, that are regulated.”
The researchers found that policies encouraging energy efficiency were linked to cuts in emissions across all countries. They also found that policies that encouraged renewable energy were linked to cuts in emissions. Overall, countries where CO2 emissions decreased the most were those with the largest number of energy and climate policies in place. However, these efforts still need to be expanded and enhanced further to limit climate change to well below 2°C of warming – to fall in line with the Paris Agreement.
The purpose of the research was to “untangle” the reasons underlying these recent positive changes in emissions – a necessary endeavour to guide the efforts in tackling climate change. It is important to know what exactly it is that is being done well, in order to continue doing it and even improve upon it. In a way, this study is like a filter to pick out what works.
Prof. Le Quéré, explained:
“Our findings suggest that polices to tackle climate change are helping to decrease emissions in many countries. This is good news, but this is just the start. There is a long way to go to cut global emissions down to near zero, which is what is needed to stop climate change. Deploying renewable energy worldwide is a good step but by itself it is not enough, fossil fuels also have to be phased out.”
Dr Charlie Wilson, also from UEA, added:
“New scientific research on climate change tends to ring the alarm bells ever more loudly. Our findings add a thin sliver of hope. It is possible for countries to peak and then decline their emissions year in year out. Eighteen countries so far have shown us how concerted policy ambition and action on energy efficiency, renewables, and climate targets can work. Now we must make sure these early precedents become the rule not the exception. This is a huge global challenge.”
At a time when scientists are science communicators. They are trying to find more effective ways of communicating the impending threat of climate change, this study hopefully illustrates some positive news on the matter. These eighteen countries have demonstrated how concerted policies and action on energy efficiency, renewables, and climate targets really can work. Now, more countries just need to follow suit.
