Apolitical's 100 Climate Policy Breakthroughs

Distributed solar photovoltaics

Colorado’s community solar gardens reduced the energy bills of low-income households by up to 50% while increasing the state’s solar capacity.

Community solar gardens are exactly what they sound like — solar energy installations that are co-owned by a group of people. Often, they are a good alternative for those who cannot afford to install solar panels directly into their homes, and in 2015, the Colorado Energy Office partnered with GRID Alternatives to bring solar energy to low-income communities. Matched with local utilities, the initiative built eight community solar gardens at no cost to the families, who then experienced energy bill savings ranging from 15%-50%. Now, Colorado has the most community solar projects in the country, with 70 installations generating more than 50MW. The policy was the first of its kind in the US, and lessons learned from its success were instrumental in the creation of the Low Income Solar Policy Guide, a nationwide toolkit for governments.

____Seoul’s Virtual Power Plant has directed over $178,000 in energy savings towards retrofitting over 2,000 low income homes, installing about 1,600 photovoltaic panels and creating over 180 jobs. ____

The city of Seoul’s virtual power plant involves 17 municipal buildings and 16 universities, working together in order to conserve energy and lower costs. A virtual power plant creates a network between energy consumers, producers and storage facilities, connecting them all to a digital platform. The platform then uses their energy data to better forecast peaks and dips in demand, making small adjustments that add up to reduced energy demand at peak hours. Collectively, the system increases grid stability while lowering the energy bill for participants. The coalition forms the Energy Welfare Public-Private Partnership Programme and together saves $178,000 per year. As part of this partnership, the city asks participants to use the savings to combat energy burden in low-income communities. The money is donated to Seoul’s Energy Welfare Civic Fund, which has financed the energy-saving retrofitting of over 2,000 low-income homes. The fund also retrains unemployed citizens in retrofit installation, creating jobs for the local community. The virtual power plant system is catching on — in 2019, Seoul's government announced that it would expand the plants to 100MW by 2025 and sell saved capacity to the Power Exchange Market.

__The energy savings from Buenos Aires’ data-smart LED light system prevent around 44,000 tons of Co2 emissions per year. __

The city of Buenos Aires uses an interconnected smart grid of LED-streetlights to conserve energy and enhance public services like waste management, traffic signals, and early warning systems. In 2013, the city began a four-year partnership with Philips Lighting to retrofit over 91,000 street lights. The lights were also connected to a data platform named CityTouch, which communicated information to city planners allowing them to make informed and efficient decisions on city lighting. The remote control and dimming technology of the lights ensure they are used only when they are needed — leading to a 50% drop in energy costs for the city. The information is also useful to city startups: apps like AllGreenUP and WeSmartPark use it to offer digital solutions to traffic problems. In June 2019, Buenos Aires became the first Latin American city lit by 100% LEDs, and now enjoys 30% lower maintenance costs as well as public safety benefits thanks to the well-lit streets. The Buenos Aires example shows how to use digital infrastructure to simultaneously mitigate climate change and improve city processes.

__At the end of 2017, over 6,000 MW of capacity was installed at over 725,000 sites throughout California. In the San Diego region alone, 225,000 tons of Co2 is avoided per year. __

The California Solar Initiative (CSI) was certainly a breakthrough in one aspect — scale. The 10 year, $2 billion programme was aimed at scaling up solar energy all across the state. California residents could claim cashback after installing solar panels into their homes, as well as earnings from sending surplus energy back to the grid through the utility. The CSI’s innovative incentive structure also prioritised high-quality products: the amount of the payment was calculated based on performance, assessing factors such as angle, tilt, and location, meaning that well-installed systems with high solar generation were rewarded. The scale of the policy also meant it was an optimal example of the ‘Learning by Doing’ theory of policy — the idea that if one company makes a tech breakthrough after creating thousands of PVs, that breakthrough will benefit the entire community by making the technology cheaper and economically viable. The policy was designed to phase down its subsidies in line with market price drops, with the goal of scaling solar power to the point where it can compete economically without subsidies. In 2016, policy-makers concluded that equipment prices had dropped enough that direct incentives were no longer needed, but today continue to encourage the adoption of solar with policies such as net-metering schemes.

984 hospitals in Chhattisgarh now run on uninterrupted solar energy, for a cumulative 3MW of installed capacity. The solar systems reduced energy costs by 80% compared to the grid or back-up diesel.

In primary health centres in Chhattisgarh, India, energy blackouts were creating a major public health problem. To solve it, India’s Health Ministry partnered with the state-run Chhattisgarh State Renewable Development Agency (CREDA) to use solar power to improve public health outcomes. CREDA manages the tendering and installation of solar panels for the health centres, provides technical training to staff members to ensure long-term sustainability, and maintains the panels. The programme also installs energy-efficient appliances such as LEDs and freezers, which contributed to energy savings. CREDA runs on funding from the Ministry of Health and at no cost to the health centres, which have seen vast improvements in health outcomes — a study showed 50% more patients were admitted to hospitals after the solar installations. The government of Chhattisgarh is also tackling climate change through a 2018 afforestation drive aiming to plant 80 million trees across its districts.

Austin’s SmartGrid initiative has connected over 500,000 smart metres and covered over a million inhabitants.

Back in 2009, the city of Austin teamed up with local utility providers to create the world’s first city-wide flexible Smart grid. Smart grids — electric grids that use connected metres, reactive hardware and communication software to conserve energy — give the city more flexibility and are critical to transitioning to low-carbon energy. Austin’s grid is constantly being improved, driven by The Pecan Street Project: a collaboration between state agencies, citizens, experts and utilities. Officially formed in 2009 with the aim of decentralising energy production and introducing clean local energy sources such as solar panels and wind turbines, the project began its first large scale pilot in 2010. In February 2019, Austin’s grid structure became the first vehicle-to-grid charging trial in Texas. As part of Austin Energy’s AustinSHINES solar project, the V2G technology demonstrates how solar energy can be stored in electric vehicles and increase the resilience of a renewables-based grid.

__The 2017 purchasing agreement will avoid 96,800 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year. __

Melbourne’s Renewable Energy Project (MREP) is a government-led consortium of institutions that leverages group purchasing power to procure and finance renewable energy. In 2017, the City of Melbourne led the 14 consortium members to purchase an annual 88GWh of energy from a future wind farm. The unique purchasing model created long-term price certainty for both the members and wind farm developers, and construction on Pacific Hydro’s Crowlands wind farm began only months after the tender was completed. As part of MREP, the participating local governments will be supplied with renewable energy for the next decade. The programme also contributes to the government’s ongoing goal of stimulating the local green economy, creating 140 jobs in wind farm construction as well as new opportunities for local businesses around the state. After the project’s success, MREP released a second tender in November 2019 that combines the purchasing power of seven organisations to buy 113 GW of renewable energy. The group also produced a guide to large-scale contracts for other governments to use, hoping that other Australian cities will follow MREP in financing renewable energy development.

__Bangladesh’s small-scale solar installations have provided carbon-free electricity to over 4 million households. __

Bangladesh has used off-grid renewable energy installations to provide clean electricity to 20 million people. The Solar Homes Initiative is a national policy that installs solar panels, particularly in rural areas where grid connectivity is difficult. Funding from the World Bank's RERED programme helped support the scheme, which was implemented through the government agency Infrastructure Development Company (IDCOL). The programme works by taking advantage of the country’s microfinance structure, offering grants to local partner organisations who are then responsible for selecting customers, offering loans, installing the system and offering maintenance. Connecting homes to electricity has vital economic and community benefits — businesses can stay open for longer, children can complete homework after dark, and a market for appliances like TVs can be developed. It also reduced the amount of kerosene fuel used for heat, lighting, and cooking, saving 1.14 million tons of kerosene as of 2018. The investment in the programme has been huge, totalling around $696 million.

__70% of Burlington’s grid energy comes from hydropower, solar, and wind. __

In 2014, Burlington, Vermont, became the first city in the US to run off 100% renewable energy. Now, the city hopes to use the same strategy to meet its next goal — net-zero energy by 2030. Burlington’s transition had no silver bullet. Instead, municipal policy-makers created a holistic policy plan that targeted emissions on all fronts. The city has more than a 50% stake in its utility provider, making it easier to plan long-term investment decisions. First, they diversified energy sources with a mix of solar PVs, wind, and small scale hydropower plants. Voters approved a city decision to purchase the Winooski dam, a local hydropower plant that would significantly boost local capacity. Burlington also invested in technology that allowed its plants to earn the highest value renewable energy credits (RECs). This allows it to sell to neighbouring states who need to meet clean standards. Profits for this exchange are sent right back to Burlington’s energy customers, meaning that they receive renewable energy at no higher cost than before. Burlington Electric also operates the McNeil Generating biomass plant, which generates 30% of the city’s energy. The wood is sourced locally and 95% of it comes from logging residue and industry waste, satisfying Vermont’s environmental regulations against foresting for energy. Alongside these changes, the city rolled out energy efficiency policies, gardening and food campaigns, and developed EV charging infrastructure. But to get to net-zero in 10 years, Burlington will have to do more. The city’s Net Zero Strategy carefully identifies the most effective routes to cutting emissions, with a focus on equity.

__According to Senelec, the new wind farm will prevent 300,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year, providing enough electricity for 2 million people. __

In February 2020, Senegal celebrated the opening of the biggest wind farm in West Africa. Senegal’s national electricity company connected the farm’s 159MW of capacity to the national power grid, representing a 15% increase in Senegal’s generation capacity. The farm, Parc Eolien Taiba N’Diaye (PETN), was an investment in line with Plan Senegal Emergent, the government’s economic development strategy that aims to expand electricity access while reducing emissions. Senegal has also signed up to the Green Secondary Cities Development Program and started sustainability initiatives in 25 cities. The projects cover urban mobility, land use, water and solid waste, and energy efficiency. With the opening of PETN, Senegal will now get 30% of its energy from renewable sources.

Cambodia’s first solar auction produced record-low bids of $38.77 per MWh.

To keep up with an increasing demand for affordable power in the country, Cambodia’s government is turning to solar power. Part of the national development plan includes strong investment targets; the government promises to increase investment in solar energy by 12% by the end of 2020, and by 20% by 2023. In 2019, the first competitive auction for a 60MW solar project set a record-low price for electricity in South East Asia. Aided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Cambodia’s tender process attracted 26 bidders. As Cambodia currently only has 10MW of operational solar capacity, this auction represents a substantial leap in providing clean generation. The project is a collaboration between the ADB and Cambodia’s state-owned electric utility, with climate finance from the ADB helping to fund a new transmission line to carry electricity elsewhere in the country. ADB officials assert that Cambodia’s example of using competitive tenders to drive down prices will encourage neighbouring countries to invest in solar projects and procure renewable energy in the same way.

__As of April 2020, Puerto Rico’s solar capacity offsets 15,189 tons of CO2 a year across 402 projects. __

In May 2018, the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau, the energy regulator for the archipelago's main island, issued the world’s first microgrid regulations. Island nations are more likely to feel adverse effects from unpredictable weather patterns caused by a warming climate, and renewable energy microgrids have emerged as the primary solution to the island’s frequent electricity shortages. In 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico and caused over 1.5 million customers to lose power. Microgrids avoid blackouts by functioning either independently or by detaching from the grid if needed. They are easier to connect to renewable energy, with solar microgrid systems forming the main part of the solution in Puerto Rico. The regulations class three types of microgrids; personal, community, and third party utility. After the hurricane, community initiatives were mostly responsible for driving the installation of hundreds of microgrids on the island. But the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) is embracing microgrids in its next Integrated Resource plan, aiming to install 1.4GW of solar and 920 MW of battery storage by 2022. The Environmental Defense Fund is also collaborating with communities to scale up solar microgrids and develop policy. Other island nations are also turning to microgrids for climate mitigation and resilience, such as the Bahamas’ recently launched solarisation program across four islands.

__Calgary’s LED light project is estimated to reduce 238,496 tonnes of CO2e over its lifetime. __

Part of solving the climate problem involves drastically reducing the amount of energy we use, which means large-scale energy efficiency projects are valuable for mitigation. In 2017, the Canadian city of Calgary completed a four-year-long project to replace its street lights with LED lights. The project replaced 80,000 streetlights and finished a year ahead of schedule. Calgary’s investment totalled $32 million, but is expected to be earned back over time with energy savings of $5 million per year. Other cities in Canada are following suit. Vancouver is transitioning its streetlights and is expecting to reduce carbon emissions by about 200 metric tons a year. This climate action can be done on local, state and national government levels — the local council of the UK town Solihull has replaced nearly half of its lighting stock with LEDs and is saving both carbon and money in the process. Once the project is finished, the council will save 650 tons of carbon a year. In Yemen, a first-of-its-kind solar-powered LED streetlight project is lighting up the city in a sustainable and cost-effective way.

__Portugal’s energy agency APREN estimates that in 2018, Portugal’s renewable energy production ensured 1.8 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. __

Portugal is rapidly integrating renewable energy into its grid, creating a favourable policy environment for fast industry expansion. A combination of subsidies and feed-in-tariffs have encouraged a surge in capacity, and in 2018 the country produced more energy from renewables than it actually needed. The main mechanism has been government auctions, leveraging the government’s investment power. This led to a record-breaking auction in July 2019, where the government sold 24 licenses at only $16.45 per megawatt-hour. As renewable energy prices fall, Portugal is expanding its capacity — the July auction will increase PV capacity to 1.6GW by 2021 and over 9GW by 2020. Portugal's National Plan for Energy and Climate 2021-2030 focuses on improving grid infrastructure and transmission lines, allowing the country to send energy elsewhere in Europe when it overproduces. Pressure on increasing capacity also comes from the country’s ambitious target of reaching 100% renewable energy provision by 2050.

__Seattle’s waste-to-energy trucks generate 70% lower emissions than traditional diesel, and 65% lower than compressed natural gas. The city is estimated to save around $5 million annually. __

When Seattle’s 10-year waste disposal fleet contract was up for renewal, the city took the opportunity to factor climate change into its public procurement decisions. Seattle’s waste management department has given the contract to a fleet of 200 vehicles that use a mix of landfill waste-to-energy technology and electric vehicles to reduce emissions from its utilities fleet. Some 91 of these trucks use energy from garbage — underground vacuum systems collect gas from landfills that is then treated to become biofuel. The vehicle also contains 10 electric vehicles, a number that is required to grow as electric truck technology improves. Seattle is one of the first cities in the US to mandate that contracted waste haulers transition to renewable fuels. The improvements make the fleet the cleanest fleet in the city’s history, showing how municipalities can use moments of decision to lock in clean systems and low-carbon infrastructure.

Currently, only about 44% of the city’s trips are sustainable. The city hopes the app and addition of cycling lanes will increase this to more than 50%.

Lahti citizens can now use personal carbon trading to pay for their morning coffee. As part of the CitiCapp project, Lahti’s sustainable mobility team created an app which gives participating citizens a weekly personalised carbon budget. The app then uses real-time tracking to measure and visualise their carbon usage. Any leftover credits can be used to buy small perks like cake, transport tickets, or a bike fix. Other features of the project include designing smart bicycle infrastructure and an open data mobility platform to make it easier for citizens to stay within their budget. The platform acts simultaneously as an awareness campaign and a way to investigate the effects of urban carbon rationing. CitiCap was funded by the EU’s Urban Innovative Actions fund.

*The City of Los Angeles has ordered 155 electric buses, the largest purchase in North America. *

Decarbonising transport is more complicated than just transitioning to electric vehicles — people also need to drive less, and that means using more public transit. To that end, the Innovative Clean Transit policy was adopted in 2018 to gradually transition public transport agencies to 100% zero-emission bus fleets. The policy is an example of a graduated regulation. Starting in 2023, 25% of new bus purchases that year must be zero-emission vehicles. The requirement jumpst to 50% by 2026, and 100% by 2029. While smaller agencies are allowed flexibility in these interim goals, they must also be at 100% by 2029. Agencies have to submit a plan and roadmap showing how they are going to achieve the regulations. The regulations have led Californian agencies to begin purchasing electric fleets, with Long Beach adding 14 more electric buses in February.

__Amsterdam’s climate street project resulted in energy savings of 10% and emission reductions of 172,922Kgs CO2. In Chennai, India, over 75km of streets have been redesigned. __

In Amsterdam’s ‘Climate Streets’, smart bins, smart lights and collaborations with streetfront stores led to a decrease in energy use of 10% in just one year. The idea is inspired by the "complete streets" concept — the idea that streets should be designed holistically with pedestrians, cyclists, and the environment in mind. The projects use increased safety measures and green spaces to make it easier and more pleasant to walk and cycle through the city, disincentivising private vehicle trips. Empirical studies back up the idea — narrower lanes are shown to be safer while not reducing overall traffic flow, and slower acceleration patterns result in reduced CO2 emissions. The model is being picked up around the globe. India’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has launched a "Complete Streets Framework Toolkit", and has enacted complete street policies in several cities. The city of Chennai has already designed and implemented 75km of Complete Streets. In the United States, the National Complete Streets coalition works with local governments to enact policies that will reduce emissions from the transport sector, and Vancouver’s complete streets use increased bike lanes and green space.

__Norway’s first electric ferry reduced CO2 emissions by 95%. __

In 2014, the Norwegian Directorate of Public Roads held an auction to find the most efficient ferry, heavily prioritising emissions reductions in its selection criteria. The result was competition between ferry companies, and the winning contract reduced energy demand by 20%, and CO2 emissions by 89%. In 2018, the operators of the ferry announced CO2 emissions savings of 95% and cost savings of 80%, triggering rounds of new orders from Norway’s ferry companies. This powerful signal to the shipping industry boosted development of battery storage technology. Norway’s biggest ferry company, Fjord 1, recently bought 5 new all-electric ferries, and ‘Ellen’, today’s biggest electric ship, recently made its maiden voyage in Denmark. Oslo is now working on decarbonising its port completely, with a 17-point plan to cut emissions from shipping. It’s an ambitious task, and to do so it will electrify three more public ferries, enforce a low-carbon contracting process, and install ship chargers right on the shorefront. The Norwegian parliament is designating the country’s UNESCO fjords as an emission-free-zone as early as 2026, which will force tourist companies to buy electric ships or lose their routes. It’s a small start, but developments in clean shipping have huge potential to reduce emissions — cargo shipping depends on dirty fuel and is responsible for 3% of global emissions.

In the trial phase of the gaming app, users reduced their carbon footprint by 40%.

An app, currently in use in six urban neighborhoods across Europe, turns preventing emissions into a game where users can reap real-life rewards. MUV — Mobility Urban Values — is a project funded by Horizon 2020, based on a pilot funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, and delivered by Palermo-based innovation lab PUSH. The app includes a game where users gain points based on the sustainability of their actions, encouraging behaviours such as public transport or recycling. The points can then be redeemed at participating local businesses, who get to advertise on the app. The city also benefits, using the data to make smarter and more climate-centred urban planning decisions. The testing phase of the app saw huge success; the first 2000 users saw their carbon footprint reduced by 40%. In each European neighborhood, the municipality teamed up with a private partner to roll out the game. Now, the six cities compete against each other in ‘Sustainable Mobility Tournaments’ testing different game dynamics and vying to be the most-climate friendly movers.

__In 2018, China was operating 421,000 of the 425,000 electric buses that existed worldwide. According to the Shenzhen Bus Group, its 100% electric bus fleet reduces annual CO2 emissions by 440,000 tonnes. __

China’s top-down approach to electrifying its public transit system began in 2009 as a way to manage growing urbanisation while combating poor air quality. In less than a decade, it became the world-leader in e-buses — in 2018, China was adding the equivalent of London’s entire bus fleet every five weeks. The drive comes from the central government, which released a suite of policies aimed at encouraging e-bus use including fleet mandates and manufacturing incentives. Most significant are subsidies that made the buses affordable; after running the buses for a set amount of time, cities can receive nearly half of the bus’s cost. City leadership was also vital in the transition, and the central government instigated competition between 13 pilot cities rolling out new energy buses. Of these, Shenzhen was the breakout star and became the first city in the world to have a completely electrified bus system. One of Shenzhen's key accelerators was an investment in charging infrastructure. To keep over 16,000 buses running, the city built around 40,000 charging stations. While the country’s rapid embrace of electric buses comes from a political and financial mobilisation that other cities might struggle to replicate, the benefits are undeniable: public health outcomes have improved from decreased air pollution, and bus emissions decreased by 48%.

__Hangzhou’s bike system has enabled 115 million cycling trips per year. __

While shared bike schemes are popping up all over the world, none match the city of Hangzhou, China, for scale. Hangzhou Public Transport Group’s fleet owns over 65,000 bicycles, and has also come up with an innovative financial model that keeps the solution sustainable. The government sells advertising rights on over 3000 bicycle sites and kiosks, using the profits to cover staff salaries and maintain the service. This also keeps the service free for the first 30 minutes, which means that 95% of trips are taken at no cost to the user. This makes the bikes extremely attractive to Hangzhou’s commuters, about 315,000 of whom use the service to travel to work each day. Although the system has suffered some teething problems, experiments with innovations like geofencing has kept its usership growing. from it's Since 2008, the programme has seen about 715 million trips, keeping the population active and cutting carbon emissions from private vehicles.

__India’s government estimates that 5,095 electric buses will reduce emissions by 782,560 tons annually. __

India’s national government is scaling up clean transport with the Faster Adoption of and Manufacturing of Electric (FAME) Vehicles scheme, a policy which provides subsidies to states electrifying their fleets. States can apply to FAME for upfront cash and subsidies in purchasing EVs and creating electric charging infrastructure. This has already had a profound impact on cities such as Kolkata, which is planning on purchasing 5,000 electric buses and electrifying its ferry system by 2030. Kolkata is already operating 80 electric buses, with another 100 planned to be introduced in 2020. The FAME scheme covered 60% of this original procurement, the combined emission reductions of which will add up to 14,086 tons of CO2. To encourage the use of the buses, Kolkata has also designed a common mobility-card, allowing the population to easily move between different modes of transport. Across the entire country, the FAME scheme has aided in the purchasing of 5,095 electric buses across 64 different cities and states. The department received proposals for over 15,000 buses, showing that interest in electrifying transport across the country is growing.

In 2020, Norway set a global record for electric vehicle sales, with electric cars making up 54.3% of all new cars sold.

To increase the proportion of electric vehicles on Norway’s roads, the government created a package of incentives that make electric cars cheaper than ones that run on fossil fuels. Citizens who buy low-emission vehicles are rewarded with a bevy of long-term perks, such as exemptions from the 25% VAT, no road tax or toll fees, free parking in cities, and use of bus lanes in busy traffic. The country funds these subsidies with a polluter-pays model, where higher taxes are imposed on fossil-fuel powered drivers and financial perks to electric drivers. Now, Norway has the highest rate of electric car ownership in the world. Capital city Oslo is taking the drive for EVs even further, by investing in an ubiquitous vehicle charging structure throughout the city. The theory is that public behaviour won’t change until citizens see that the infrastructure — particularly for those who live in apartment blocks and can’t charge at home — is available to support their new vehicles. Of Oslo’s current 2,025 public charge points, 1,325 are owned by the city. These have been placed strategically-visible locations to shift perceptions. Oslo also has subsidies for private residences to build easily-accessible chargers within their buildings.

*From 2013-2019, the BRT system is estimated to have reduced an annual 578,918 tons of CO2e emissions. Bogota’s improved cycling system increased daily bike trips from 635,00 in 2015 to 800,000 in 2018. *

Colombia’s capital city is known for its successful TransMilenio Bus Rapid Transit system. Implementing the TransMilenio service involved adding 207km of bus lanes, purchasing more efficient and high-capacity buses, and creating elevated bus stations. The city municipality also condensed ownership of the bus systems, creating a far more streamlined organisation. TransMilenio cut down on not just emissions but also traffic accidents: the number of fatalities along bus routes fell by 92%. Now, Bogotá is taking its commitment to cleaner public transport further by investing in bicycle infrastructure, further reducing emissions created by private vehicles. Between 2017-2019 the city added 80km of cycle lanes. It also bans cars each Sunday in a policy named ‘Ciclovia’, a city-loved tradition that encourages motor-free transport as well as outdoor food festivals, public markets and exercise. The new Quinto Centenario Cycle Highway will cut across the city and connect citizens from all incomes to areas with jobs, schools, and recreational activities. Once constructed, it is estimated the extra lanes will add 42,000 trips on the cycle highway, reducing emissions by a cumulative 270,000 tonnes of GHG emissions.

__In 2017 alone, 41,724 new electric vehicles were sold in France. Numbers are expected to multiply five times over by 2021. __

France is incentivising electric vehicle adoption by rewarding low-emission buyers and punishing those still buying fossil fuel vehicles. The "Bonus-Malus" scheme has been running since 2008, but recent adaptations have improved its performance. The policy works by offering rebates on cars that emit low levels of CO2. The standards are designed to decrease over time, slowly applying pressure on manufacturers to make more efficient cars or diversify their fleets. At the same time, an annual penalty is applied to owners of carbon-intensive vehicles, making it more and more expensive to buy or sell the environmentally-unfriendly technology. Rebates both incentivise electric vehicles and a more efficient fuel economy — along with the EU’s fuel emission policy, France’s policy helped reduce CO2 emissions per kilometer by 25% through 2015. In 2017, regulators changed regulations to prevent manufacturers from gaming the system, replacing the preexisting "step" system with a continuous line, keeping the incentive to improve constant. The rebate and fine system gives the French government different levers to pull to incentivise cleaner vehicles, including the ability to give higher subsidies to low-income families. The French EV boom is aided by the installation of over 12,000 charging stations. The government plans to build 7 million by 2025, preparing for the banning of diesel-fueled cars in 2040.

__Stockholm’s LEZ charge reduced GHG emissions by 10-15% in the city centre, and 2-3% in the metropolitan area. __

One of the main strategies to reduce emissions from urban mobility is to disincentive the use of private cars, especially ones fuelled by diesel. Low-emission-zones (LEZs) — a policy that bans polluting vehicles from entering certain areas, or charges them when they do — are becoming more and more popular in cities, and Stockholm’s experience with creating an LEZ offers constructive lessons. The government used citizen engagement to raise support for what can sometimes be a politically unattractive measure, and made sure to consult experts. The city trialled the charges for a while, allowing residents to adjust and then decide on the measure with a vote (they approved). The city also found that focussing on the environmental aspects of the policy gained far more acceptance than other benefits, such as alleviating congestion. Stockholm also decided to use the profits from the charge to invest in transport systems — allowing residents more choices to avoid the car tax and take trips on public transport instead. Emission zones are also flexible, allowing city governments to increase charges over time. Other cities have seen similarly strong results. London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) has reportedly reduced road-based carbon emissions by nearly 100,000 tonnes.

266,000 tonnes of CO2e are estimated to have been reduced by 2020.

In just six years, the Brazilian city of Fortaleza pulled off an urban transport revolution that saw traffic-related accidents decreased by 42% and carbon emissions drop significantly. In 2013, the city assessed its emissions profile and decided to prioritise transport, reducing emissions by moving transport away from private cars and into mass transit or carbon-free modes. City planners learned from successful interventions in other cities such as Bogota by hosting a technical exchange. The result was to prioritise four areas; cycling, public transit, road circulation, and pedestrians. Using smart finance partnerships with the local private sector, the city added over 111km of bus lanes, retrofitted their existing bus lanes, and introduced a shared fleet of cars. 800 shared bicycles can now roam on a cycling path network of 257.5km, with more planned. The interventions have encouraged a huge jump in public transport, and has benefited the beach city’s local tourism industry. To make cycling and walking even more attractive, the city planted over 80,000 trees which double as carbon sinks.

__62% of Copenhagen’s inhabitants commute by bicycle. __

While Copenhagen’s dominance as a cycling city isn’t exactly new, the city continues to earn its top spot with innovative designs that encourage residents to cycle to work. One of these is the ‘Green Wave’ concept. On the city's busiest commuter street, the traffic lights are coordinated so that cyclists ‘flow’ into the city without having to stop. Coordinating the traffic lights in favour of cyclists instead of drivers speaks to a general design shift, incentivising carbon-free commuting. Copenhagen’s design quirks make it one of the most pleasant places in the world to cycle, showing the population that private car usership is on the decline. Other cities copying Copenhagen’s innovations can follow a pretty simple principle: make cycling the fastest way to get around.

__Milan collects 138,000 tons of food waste a year, reducing annual CO2 emissions by 41,400 tons. __

Milan’s Food Policy targets key levers in the city’s food system to reduce emissions from the food sector. In 2015, policy-makers analysed the local food structure with a public consultation, ultimately establishing five priorities: access to water and healthy food, regenerative food production, awareness, avoiding food waste, and research and development. The city then developed cross-sector teams to deliver these goals, approaching them from different angles in a comprehensive policy. Examples of successful measures include lowering waste taxes for businesses that donated food waste to food banks, redistributing leftover food from city facilities, and creating an online tool that helps citizens measure their waste. Milan paired its school canteens directly with food banks, which lead to the recovery and redistribution of 140 tons of fruit and bread. The city also sends food collection trucks to collect surplus food from homes and businesses, salvaging organic material. Milanese food scraps have now created 7.4million m3 of biofuel, 3.4 MWh of electric and thermal energy, and 20,7000 tons of compost.

__San Francisco collects over 700 tonnes of organic material every day, to be turned into compost. The Marin Carbon Project estimates that if San Francisco treated 1,200 acres with compost annually, it could result in 400,000 tons of CO2 captured over a ten year period. __

San Francisco boasts the largest urban food scraps program in the US, collecting over two million tonnes of food waste, yard trimmings, and other organic material over its operation. The city diverts all of its food waste from landfills and incineration, instead turning to composting to avoid carbon emissions. While food in landfills or waste dumps releases methane as it decomposes, the process of composting food aerobically does not. Additionally, applying compost to grassland actually improves its ability to sequester carbon, meaning food scraps actually become an important tool for carbon capture. The city’s recovery policy is mandatory, and policy-makers argue that if every city in California implemented similar policies, there would be enough to sink millions of tons of extra carbon each year.

*91,000 tonnes of food waste has been diverted from landfills since 2015. *

The city of Sao Paulo is embracing nature-based solutions. As one of the World Resource Institute’s Cities4Forests, the city is working towards strengthening urban forestry and enhancing the biodiversity in its 107 municipal parks. After the droughts of 2019, the city is particularly focused on restoring native forest to reduce soil erosion and stormwater drainage. The city is also connecting the city’s growing urban population with agriculture and emissions from food. In 2017, the city launched the "Connect the Dots" initiative, a sustainable land development collaboration between the Municipal Secretariat of Urban Development and other city offices. Part of the policy works on sustainable agriculture in the city, offering technical assistance to farmers and showing demonstration units. This has been successful, and the delivering team is working with the State Department of Agriculture to scale the system to other cities in the region. Sao Paulo has also constructed community composting facilities, an innovative way to reduce food waste. The composting yards can handle around 50 tonnes of waste daily, and the compost is then sent to city urban areas or given away for free. Composting actually increases soil’s ability to sequester carbon. The policy encourages local gardening and food production, further closing the supply chain between consumer and farmer.

*As of 2015, SRI had reached over 1.8 million people covering at least 400,000 hectares of land. Studies show that efficient systems can reduce emissions by 20% to 60%. *

Rice production is responsible for between 9 and 19% of global methane emissions. But alternative agricultural practices can mitigate some of this effect while still producing the same — or even stronger — yields. Termed the System of Rice Intensification, SRI is a method of rice production that minimises water use and reduces methane emissions. The main changes involve planting seedlings further apart to reduce density, alternative wetting and drying (as opposed to flooding patties), and rotating crops. Beginning in the 2000s, Vietnam’s Plant Protection Department began running trials of this system and discovered that using the SRI increased yield with a reduction of 62% in water use. In 2007, Vietnam’s central government recognised SRI as a certified method of production, setting a precedent and increasing trust in the system. By 2011, the Ministry of Agriculture reported more than a million farmers across 22 provinces were adopting the system. The government has now recognised SRI as part of its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from wet rice production by 20% by 2020. The SRI-Vietnam network operates by educating members of communities and local governments, who then return to their provinces and spread its use. The system continues to spread across Vietnam and has particularly impacted women farmers. In 2019, news came back from the Binh Dinh province that over 3,200 people (79% of whom were women) were now implementing SRI. Aided by the Netherlands Development Organisation, the project hopes it has reduced emissions by 22%. As an agricultural strategy, SRI can be implemented anywhere and has huge potential for scale. Other governments embracing SRI include Cambodia, Mali, and Tanzania, and NGOs like Oxfam are increasingly supporting its adoption.

The policy has redistributed over 1,000 tons of food, which has saved around 2540 tons of CO2. Shortening the food supply chain is estimated to cut emissions by 35.8%, saving 72.9 tons of CO2 per year.

Ghent is tackling food sector emissions with a food policy council made up of stakeholders from all sectors: city officials, agriculture, businesses and academics. The local government created a participative governance model, to find and scale initiatives that would encourage a circular economy and reduce waste. The city created a distribution program named ‘Foodsavers’, which has redistributed surplus food to over 57,000 people in need. In schools, children learn how to create community gardens in order to grow food locally and reduce imports. A platform was also designed to connect food sellers with local growers, shortening the supply chain supporting local produce, and saving over 400 tons of emissions per year.

__The Rural Sustentavel project has reached 18,000 farmers and avoided the deforestation of 8,550 hectares. __

Brazil’s forests have suffered in recent years. Before the fires of 2019, deforestation rates were surging due to relaxing land use laws and agribusinesses like soy and beef. But before these turbulent times, Brazil had achieved a stunning turnaround, slashing deforestation rates by over 83% between 2005-2012. This was in part due to the country’s national agriculture plan, which incentivised the restoration of land and climate-smart farming and reached around 132,744 farming families. The Brazilian government had also launched an innovative agricultural policy to combat emissions from agriculture. The Low-Carbon Agriculture Plan (ABC) was a credit scheme designed to incentivise the adoption of climate-smart practices, such as no-till farming, restoring degraded farmland, and treating pig waste. The policy had the ambitious target of reducing GHG emissions by nearly 160 million tonnes annually by 2020, but budget cuts and an unstable policy environment caused problems. Now, a programme called "Rural Sustentavel" is trying to get Brazil back on track, with help from the International Development Bank and the UK government. The project supports the ABC plan, and focuses on two regions in Brazil and has three main strategies. It has recently completed its first phase. It uses "Demonstration Units", plots of land that show the positive yield effects of climate farming. The program organises field days at these plots, training farmers in how to replicate the effects. There are currently some 351 of these demonstration units. In line with the ABC policy, it also offers financial incentives for farmers to adopt low-carbon agricultural practices. Perhaps its most impactful measure, though, is the training of local representatives in communities. The project assigns certain members as ‘Technical Assistant Agents’, which allows community members to learn from each other and exponentially expands the reach of the project. Having long-term trained community members also greatly impacts the long-term success of the project — in a survey of 3,400 farmers, 99.4% said they would continue or increase their sustainable practices.

__NAMA Costa Rica reports a GHG emission reduction of over 59,480 tonnes due to the project. The goal is 350,000 tons. __

Costa Rica is proud of its coffee. It’s a key part of the country’s economy, both in terms of exports and because it drives tourism. But Costa Rica is also aiming to be carbon-neutral by 2021, and coffee production accounts for 9% of national emissions. To figure out how to decarbonise this sector, Costa Rican Ministries of Agriculture and of Environment and Energy are partnering with the NAMA-facility, a project fund initially created by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment and the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in 2012. Coffee farmers are already feeling the effects of climate change on their outputs, from the inability to predict seasonal temperatures to spreads of new fungi. The Low-Carbon Coffee project offers technical workshops to farmers, covering tips to increase yield while using less water and land. More than 7,000 coffee farmers have been trained in "Good Agricultural Practices", and are expected to continue implementing the mitigation improvements. 40 mills have also reported reductions in operating costs. The project also stimulates green business in the private sector, offering loans and grants for coffee mills to buy climate-friendly fertilisers and milling technology. Increasing demand for these products sends strong signals to sector suppliers. The project partners also developed a traceability system to track the success of the initiative and show consumers which mills have lowered their carbon footprints. The project has largely calibrated the coffee sector towards one goal, instigating friendly competition amongst mills to drive down emissions and appeal to coffee drinkers. There is a certain aspect of making the road by walking it, but the ministries hope to use the experience as a blueprint to decarbonise other sectors, as after four years, 22% of the coffee production system uses low-carbon methods. Over 20 years, Costa Rica estimates that the project could reduce 1.85 million tonnes if scaled effectively.

*The Los Angeles Unified School District reduced its purchasing of industrially produced meat, reducing its carbon footprint by 22% annually. *

The City of Los Angeles initially developed the Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP) in order to leverage the institutional purchasing power of schools, universities and other public facilities to benefit the environment. The model was developed in 2012, and had input from over 100 stakeholders. The model identifies five key priorities that must inform the procurement decision; environmental sustainability, local economies, nutritional value, animal welfare and a fair workforce. The program provides a grading tool for each spending institution to direct their considerable budgets (the second-largest school in Los Angeles spends more than $150 million a year on food) towards low-impact food producers. The GFPP also encouraged a shift towards higher proportions of plant-based meals, which led the Los Angeles school district to refrain from serving meat on Mondays. Additionally, it is estimated that changes in procurement led to saving 14 gallons of water per meal, adding up to 1 billion gallons a year. The programme is highly replicable and has now been adopted by 14 US cities and 27 public institutions. The collective food budget of those institutions is $895 million.

__The project is aiming to reduce 1.73 million metric tons of C02e over five years of implementation. This would reduce rice sector emissions by 26%. __

The Thai Rice Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) project is designed to encourage low-emission rice farming. Rice agriculture is responsible for 60% of Thailand’s emissions, largely a result of the methane produced by flooded rice paddies. However, there are farming practice alternatives that can both increase rice production and reduce emissions. Switching from conventional flooded paddies to a system of alternate wetting and drying (AWD) can drastically reduce emissions while improving yields. To increase the adoption of these techniques, the NAMA facility organisation has teamed up with Germany’s foreign aid ministry, UNEP’s Sustainable Rice Platform, and Thailand’s Ministry of Agriculture. So far, the project has held training and information sessions for government officers, private companies and farmers. To build trust in the practices, seven demonstration plots were planted to prove the economic and environmental benefits of switching to low-carbon rice farming. The project is also aiming to develop innovative financial incentive schemes to increase the rate of adoption. It will be carried through 2023.

__The initiative has transformed 5000 dutch homes into net-zero energy houses and is now being deployed internationally. __

An innovative system of home retrofitting developed in the Netherlands is now being piloted in Nottingham, UK. Over 5000 Dutch homes have been retrofitted with both energy saving and energy generating technology such as solar roofs, solar water heaters and a highly insulated facade. ‘Energiesprong’ houses become energy-neutral, which means they generate as much energy as they use, making a huge dent in an emissions-heavy buildings sector. The parts can be constructed off site and fit onto the pre-existing house like Lego bricks, which makes the retrofit process quick and pain-free for residents. It’s breakthrough financing mechanism, which has won multiple awards, is actually relatively simple. Social housing corporations use long-term government loans as upfront cash to pay for the retrofit. Once the retrofit is complete, homeowners see a drastic increase in energy savings but continue to pay their energy bill as normal, with the surplus paying off the retrofit until the debt is paid. The scale of the Netherlands project has already led to a learning-by-doing effect, nearly halving the cost of Energiesprong retrofits over seven years. Now, Nottingham Homes is using the Energiesprong model on 150 social homes. As of January 2020, 10 homes had been retrofitted and work had begun on 17 more, helping the city towards its goal of carbon neutrality by 2038. Residents have reported higher levels of comfort as well as lower energy bills. The Energiesprong model’s strengths — quick, economical construction — mean that it is possible to scale much faster than previous retrofitting schemes, and, according to the UK think tank Green Alliance, could decarbonise 40% of the UK’s housing stock at a low cost.

A public servant from the city of Toronto shared that as of 2020, the green roof bylaw has resulted in more than 800 green roofs, covering over 700,000m2 of green roof area.

Green and cool roofs are an important part of fighting the rising temperatures in cities: in an empirical study of Xiamen Island, China, it was found that urban green roofs reduced average land surface temperature by 0.91 degrees centigrade. Toronto is mandating the expansion of this solution with Canada’s first bylaw requiring green roofs. Toronto’s Green Roof Bylaw requires new buildings over 2000m2 to install a green roof covering between 20-60% of the roof area. Developers have the option to pay cash in lieu of any green roof area they avoid, although only a small percentage choose this option. All the funds collected from the Bylaw directly contribute to Toronto’s voluntary Green Roof Incentive Program, which offers citizens a rebate of $100 per m2 of green roof, and $2-5 for cool roofs. As of 2018, the Toronto program saved around 1000 MwH per year in energy by reducing the need for air conditioning. Green roofs also conserve water, which has saved the city around $100,000 of costs dealing with stormwater drainage. The policy contributes towards the city’s goal of reducing emissions by 65% by 2030.

__A study conducted by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health estimated that if the project was completed, it would reduce yearly NO2 emissions by 24%. __

Barcelona’s urban planners have a vision of a ‘post-car’ world. As of 2018, 85% of the city’s area was dedicated to private vehicles. To combat this, the city has created mini car-free neighbourhoods called ‘Superblocks’. The blocks are specifically designed as multi-use public spaces that will increase foot traffic and public green spaces, with interventions like levelled pavements. In these areas (usually around 400x400 metres) all cars except residents’ and deliveries are banned. The areas are converted from busy intersections into pleasant community areas where residents can spend time together, eat dinner outside or exercise. There are currently six Superblocks in Barcelona which are largely welcomed by the residents who live there. The first was implemented in 2016, and more came in 2018 when the concept was formally adopted into the city’s urban strategy. The Superblocks are proving to have both environmental and social benefits; in the Sant Antoni neighbourhood, car traffic fell by 82%, pedestrian trips rose by 28%, and streetside businesses saw greater success. These benefits are set to grow exponentially if the Barcelona city planners achieve their dream of scaling up the Superblocks model to over 500 neighbourhoods. Doing so would mean transforming the structure of Barcelona, but would also see the city significantly reduce emissions, mitigate the urban heat island effect, and improve public health. Even while the Superblocks are being planned, the city wages its war on cars; in February, it imposed a 30km/h speed limit on 68% of the city’s roads.

Vancouver has seen an 11% decrease in GHG emissions from all buildings since 2007, and seen emissions of new buildings drop 43%.

Vancouver has implemented what it calls the greenest building code in North America. Its Zero Emissions Building Plan (ZEB) sets carbon pollution and heat loss limits for new buildings, clearly laying out how these targets will decrease over time to help developers and manufacturers plan for a low-carbon transition. The city consulted experts and sat down with industry to create a roadmap that has increasing limits on GHG emissions over time, driving innovation while showing policy consistency. Vancouver also leads by example by ensuring city facilities align with the Passive House standard of energy efficiency. In 2015, only one home was Passive House certified. In 2019, over 2,800 homes were either built or permitted with a zero-emissions approach. The ZEB also focuses on stimulating a favourable economic environment for low-carbon technologies, collaborating with local industry, local colleges, and institutions to home-grow an appetite for innovation. Lastly, the ZEB requires developers to report embodied carbon, the emissions that are released from the manufacture of building materials such as steel and concrete, with a target to reduce this by 40% by 2030. New requirements for renewable heating and hot water systems will take effect in 2022, after which the department expects average emissions from new buildings will have decreased by over 55%.

__Adding efficient cookstoves in public schools avoids over 1671 tons of CO2 per year. The project’s long-term goal is to install 1,500 stoves in schools, avoiding 31,286 tons of annual CO2 emissions. __

Uganda’s capital city, Kampala, is coming up with innovative ways to fund efficient cooking practices. The city’s Climate Action plan focuses on combining a clean transition with generating jobs and creating revenue, partnering with local businesses to scale up various clean technology initiatives. Government funds have been offered to organisations that train women and young people in creating biomass briquettes - small pellets made from organic waste that fuel efficient cookstoves. Other initiatives have improved facilities in public schools, installing 64 improved eco-stoves and10 biodigesters. The city has installed 220 efficient cookstoves in the city’s marketplaces, in prominent areas to demonstrate their use. The cookstoves are twice as efficient, decreasing wood and charcoal use by 50%. This reduces deforestation, emissions from fuel burning, and improves public health. Government interest also stimulates local businesses to create efficient cookstoves, and the city’s partnerships build confidence between the private sector and government. Open-fire cooking is a double threat to the climate and public health; emissions from cookstoves are thought to cause over 300,000 premature deaths per year, and represent 2-5% of global emissions each year. Scaling up efficient cookstoves could bring this number down while also reducing emissions.

__The lighter road surfaces have the potential to decrease surface temperatures by as much as 14 degrees°C. __

The city of Sydney is combatting the urban island heat effect by focussing on cooling its streets. Covering ground with built surfaces such as pavements, roads and buildings, traps heat and contributes to warming cities to dangerous levels. Urban hubs are therefore looking to other solutions to reduce the urban heat island effect — cool roofs, green roofs, and nature-based solutions such as urban greening. Sydney’s government has been exploring ways to mitigate this problem using its roads. From 2015, the NSW Office of Heritage and Environment has partnered with Street Coolers, a community led-initiative investigating how to reduce ambient temperatures in residential areas. Street Coolers deploys two main strategies to cool the cities’ roads; lighter pavements, and shading roads using vegetation. The trials have shown that lighter pavements are on average 5°C cooler, while shaded pavements were up to 9°C cooler. Eight local councils are adopting these new ways to keep the city cool, with the City of Parramatta in Western Sydney now trialling a material named "CoolSeal". The material has the potential to reduce heat above roads anywhere from 5-14°C. The city is also trying to remove emissions from the road themselves. In the world’s first "green road" material trial, the city worked with academics to create geopolymer concrete, made from industrial waste from coal-fired power stations and containing fly ash, slag, waste concrete and other recycled materials. The new concrete mix generates 300kgs of CO2 per ton of cement, compared to 900kgs per ton of traditional cement production.

__Boulder, Colorado saw three times as many heat pumps installed in 2019 than the previous year. __

Building electrification is becoming a rising alternative to fossil fuel-based residential heating and cooling. In particular, installing high-efficiency heat pumps into a home can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heating by between 20-60%, a figure which will rise as the electric grid becomes cleaner. US cities like Boulder, Washington DC and New York are therefore encouraging electric heating and cooling systems to decarbonise the residential sector. In 2017, the city of Boulder developed a sophisticated modelling tool showing the effects of building electrification on every home, then targeted homes that were good candidates for installations. The Boulder Comfort365 campaign was launched in 2018, emphasising to city residents that installing heat pumps could help them save money, energy, and attain a higher quality of life. The campaign also boasts a suite of financial rebates and low-interest payment options, as the city encourages its population to invest in this important energy transition tool.

South Africa’s Department of Energy and Development will create more than 25,000 m2 of cool roofs as part of the Million Cool Roofs project.

A town in South Africa is cooling its buildings with a simple solution: reflective paint. In 2015, the municipal government of !Kheis, a town of about 15,000 residents, saw an opportunity to test sustainable methods of combating heat. Teaming up with South Africa’s national government and the US Department of Energy, the town conducted pilot schemes experimenting with highly reflective roof coatings. Although simple, the solution has an outsized impact — "cool roofs" reflect the sun’s heat away from homes, instead of trapping heat. This results in a lower inside temperature, increasing comfort and decreasing the need for air conditioners. The results of the pilot showed that cool roofs in South Africa had the potential to reduce temperatures in South Africa by about 20%, and lower cooling-related energy consumption by about 15%. The Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program’s (K-CEP) Million Cool Roofs project has given $100,000 grants to ten countries to scale the solution, including South Africa. The South African National Energy Department of Development Institute will use the grant to expand the solution in other cities, estimating that its initiative will cover the residences of a further 5000 people, while also helping local job-seekers. The nine other Million Cool Roofs finalists, including Niger, Côte D’Ivoire, and Senegal, are also scaling up the solution all received $100,000 to scale the solution. Indonesia has seen indoor temperatures drop by up to 10.7°C at pilot sites.

Vancouver’s Neighborhood Energy Strategy has cut emissions from heating by 50% and avoids 14,000 tons of GHG emissions per year.

Heating one large unit is more efficient than heating many separate ones. This is why district heating — an energy system in which one central plant provides collective heating and cooling to a network of houses — both increases efficiency and curbs emissions. Modern district energy infrastructures are also highly flexible and connect disparate energy sources such as renewables and biomass, making them a key part of the transition to zero-carbon. District energy is also best implemented by municipalities; for example, Vancouver’s Neighbourhood Energy Strategy helped the city repurpose traditional district systems to clean energy and promote new low-carbon systems, halving its emissions. Tokyo’s well-established district heating system also helped to halve its CO2 emissions. The UN has launched the District Heating in Cities initiative, highlighting district energy initiatives in Chile, India and many others. The initiative has 11 invested projects with over 4.8 Mt of CO2 mitigation potential over 20 years.

*The 2019 round of grants will reduce 34,676 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually. *

Ireland’s Better Energy Communities (BEC) is a national retrofit initiative specifically aimed at supporting innovative approaches to community energy. The programme looks for ideas that have a mix of solutions, contain co-benefits, and most importantly, are community focused. For example, Arranmore Island used retrofit funding from BEC as part of its five-year energy strategy, creating jobs and local pride to tackle problems such as depopulation and emigration. Some communities have retrofitted churches and local buildings to reduce emissions from local activity. Retrofits include technologies such as heat pumps, water filters, solar panels, leak proofing and insulation building. By grouping buildings together, community-wide benefits are offered at lower cost and are more efficient. The initiative also brings everyone into the conversation about climate change. Cumulatively the programme has now supported upgrades in 18,200 homes and 2,570 non-domestic buildings. The 2019 round of grants supported 57 projects, which will upgrade 698 homes and 570 non-domestic buildings, saving a total of 122.5GWh of energy for residents and communities.

By 2015, solar hot water heaters in China reduced emissions by 76 Mt of CO2, compared to default technologies.

Solar water heaters work by exposing water to the sun, heating it for residential use. Traditional heating systems use huge amounts of energy and installing a solar heater reduces emissions from water heating by 50-70%. China has capitalised on this opportunity with a favourable policy environment, leading to a record-breaking 27 million solar water heaters installed by 2010, with a government aim of 300 million square meters of solar rooftop by 2020. Two main policies helped achieve this: a system of payback subsidies, and mandatory installation in some local governments. In 2013 alone, China installed a total capacity of 45 GWth, which made up 80% of global installations that year. Solar heaters are usually included in whole-home retrofits, but their sweeping cuts mean they can be implemented as a standalone tool quickly and effectively. In countries like Cyprus or Israel, solar water heaters have been used for decades, and are installed in more than 90% of homes.

*The policy is aiming to reduce emissions by 40% by 2030, about 6 million tonnes of emissions. *

71% of New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions come from its buildings. To tackle a problem of this scale, the city has passed a policy package with correspondingly aggressive targets. The Climate Mobilisation Act leaves few buildings untouched. While new smaller residential buildings will have to meet energy performance standards and build in solar or green roofs, the real target is New York’s skyline. Local Law 97 sets tightening carbon emission caps on buildings over 25,000 square feet, a category that includes over 50,000 buildings and includes the large hotels and high-market apartment buildings that make up some of the city’s worst offenders. Unlike other policies of this nature, the act enforces penalties for noncompliance. As early as 2024, buildings that exceed their limits will be fined at a penalty of $268 per extra ton of carbon. The policy is one of the most ambitious in the country, and its proponents say this is exactly the point. To make these huge cuts in emissions, building operators will be forced to think past low-hanging fruit and rethink their entire energy system. The hope is that the policy will ‘make the road by walking it’, encouraging innovative retrofitting efforts and new designs. The city wants to collaborate with buildings to reach these goals, with initiatives such as the NYC Retrofit Accelerator poised to play an important role in the transformation.

__By July 2016, the program had already reduced 70,000 tons of GHG emissions per year. As of 2018, participants had cut energy use by 17%. __

Chicago’s building energy use is responsible for around 71% of the city’s emissions. To bring these down, the city’s sustainability office partnered with private institutions to launch the Energy Retrofit Challenge. The challenge asked Chicago’s big buildings to agree to one goal — reduce energy consumption by at least 20% within five years. While the program is voluntary, it has cultivated a level of prestige and goodwill that has drawn over 100 participants, spanning 56 million square feet of the city. Annual awards ceremonies encourage continuous improvements in energy efficiency, and each participant tracks and shares their efficiency gains through a portal. The competition aspect proved highly successful — within the first 18 months of the launch, participating buildings reduced (weather-averaged) energy use by 7%. Taking part in the challenge gives buildings access to resources, advice and connections that they can use to increase their efficiency, while also stimulating local demand for energy efficient products. The challenge also updates its goals, with new benchmarks on renewable energy incorporated for some of the founding members. Building on this success, Chicago’s government has announced plans to power all 900 of its city buildings with renewable energy by 2025.

__624 solar installations have resulted in an estimated 10,600 tons of emissions reductions. __

An innovative buying mechanism is making it easier and less expensive for homeowners in London to access renewable energy. Solar Together London lets interested residents find each other, allowing them to leverage group purchasing power to increase efficiency. Residents can sign up online for free, and are then united with other buyers. A mini-auction is held, where companies bid against each other, and the resident then gets to choose whether or not they accept. Group purchasing on the community scale drives down prices, offering a better deal for homeowners who then also get to save money from energy heating bills. So far, three rounds have resulted in 624 home installations of solar panels. The program started in only four boroughs but has since rolled out to 12. Local purchasing schemes help alleviate the upfront costs of renewable energy, and grouping platforms like this are highly replicable in any city. The initiative has been praised by participants, but it will need to do a lot more to meet London’s ambitious climate goals — to be carbon-neutral by 2050, the city will need to scale solar fast and include plans for low-income residents.

*Between 2009 and 2017, the certification programme covered 65 buildings and has avoided 116,789 tonnes of CO2 emissions. *

Mexico City’s Sustainable Buildings Certification Programme uses behavioural and financial incentives to encourage the development of environmentally-friendly buildings. The programme was launched in 2009, after two years of research and collaboration with the local construction and building industry. The Ministry of Environment developed an assessment scheme to award new and retrofitted buildings a label of either compliant, efficient or excellent. Policy-makers combined behavioural nudges with financial ones: higher certificate levels receive bigger property and payroll tax reductions. Participating buildings also qualify for a dedicated retrofit loan support scheme to help them finance the projects. In order to maintain compliance, the buildings are re-assessed every two years. The programme took a comprehensive view of building performance, requiring multiple actions to reach the "excellent" category — energy efficiency, water management, transport, insulation and more. As of 2017, the scheme covered 8,220 square metres of floor, saved 133 million kWh of electricity, and 1,735,356 cubic metres of water. The city also leads by example, with over 21,000 m2 of green roofs on government buildings.

*The NYC CoolRoofs programme has coated over 10 million square feet of rooftop with reflective coating. *

White roofs are spreading across the boroughs of New York, deflecting heat and reducing the need for air conditioning. Since 2015, New York’s Department of Small Business Services and the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability have been supporting local jobseekers by training them to install cool roofs around the city. NYC CoolRoof employees are paid to become technicians, and are often joined by public volunteers on "Community Coating Days". The program then offers free cool roof installation to non-profits, social housing, as well as community centres like schools, museums, and hospitals. Building owners can install cool roofs at a reduced rate through the policy, as CoolRoofs will partner with vendors and cover labour and technical assistance. The program provides energy savings to buildings owners by reducing cooling costs by about 10-30%. As every 2,500 square feet of coated roof avoids 1 ton of CO2 emissions per year, the program helps the city move towards its goal of reducing emissions 80% by 2050. Reflective roofs can have a significant effect on the urban heat island problem that afflicts dense cities like New York.

__In Stockholm’s Data Park, a 10 MW load can reduce CO2 emissions by 8,000 tons per year. __

The internet is responsible for about 3.7% of global emissions. As the public sector investigates how to make online activity more sustainable, the city of Stockholm is combating the problem by recovering the thermal energy usually wasted by data centres. Stockholm’s Data Park is a joint initiative by the city and local district heating and cooling providers. Data centres operate around the clock, generating huge amounts of thermal energy that is often wasted. However, in the data park, this heat is used to heat cold water which is recovered and sent to a network of buildings via the city’s district energy infrastructure. Just a load of 10 MW in a data centre produces enough energy to heat around 20,000 flats each year. The solution works well for both the city and industry partners, as the city purchases energy that would otherwise be wasted and provides no financial benefit. In 2019, three companies announced plans to build new data centres in Stockholm, with the potential to heat 35,000 nearby homes. By continuously improving heat recovery and growing the circular nature of the park, Stockholm Data Park plays a key part of Stockholm’s district-scale waste-to-heat strategy.

__Rwanda’s market for refrigeration and cooling is worth an estimated 35 billion Rwandan francs. The CoolLease programme will funnel purchasing power towards more climate-friendly cooling solutions. __

Rwanda is demonstrating strong leadership in solving the global cooling crisis. In 2016, Kigali became the birthplace of the Kigali amendment to the Montreal Protocol, a landmark international agreement tying cooling action and refrigerant phase-down and climate action. Rwanda is only the second country to announce a National Cooling Strategy. A large part of the strategy involves cutting energy demand using policies such as minimum energy requirements. One policy stands out — in 2019, the Ministry of Environment launched out the ‘CoolLease’ scheme, a first-of-its-kind incentive scheme to tackle emissions from air conditioners. Funded by K-CEP in conjunction with UNEP and BASE, CoolLease embraces the concept of cooling as a service. Building owners effectively rent cooling technology from technology providers. The providers are responsible for installation and maintenance of the cooling equipment, and can remove the equipment if the lessee defaults on payments. The policy transfers responsibility for efficient systems to the provider, making it easier and cheaper to replace old models. It also combats the challenge of high-initial costs, making it easier for residents to choose more climate-friendly options. CoolLease funding is only available to energy-efficient and climate-friendly technologies, helping to funnel Rwanda’s 35 billion franc cooling industry towards sustainable solutions.

__The CoolBiz campaign is reported to save between 1 and 3 million tons of CO2 every summer. __

To curb emissions from cooling during Japan’s warm summers, the Ministry of Environment tried something simple — asking offices to just turn the thermostats up. The CoolBiz campaign asks office buildings and industries to set their thermostats to 28 degrees and to relax expectations around Japan’s formal work attire, encouraging employees to wear t-shirts and chinos instead. The government even presents a handy guide for what clothing is summer-appropriate, and fashion retailers such as Uniqlo have launched CoolBiz-specific clothing lines. Shedding the suits reduced the need for strong air conditioning. When combined with a country-wide effort to turn down the air conditioning (mandatory in government buildings), the emissions reductions add up. 2019 is the 15th year of CoolBiz, which has seen strong participation every year. Japan is reported to have cut 1.4 million tons of CO2 in 2006 and 1.56 million in 2011.

The recycling of industrial byproducts in the park reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 635,000 tonnes a year and saves the participants a collective 14 million euros.

In the Kalundborg symbiosis, one company’s waste is another company’s resource. The park is a collaboration between Kalundborg municipality and 10 other private and public institutions, in which the close proximity of buildings allows for an easy and energy-saving transfer of industrial byproducts. In total, there are 22 streams of waste exchange between the facilities, including energy forms like steam or electricity, waste water or surface water, and a bevy of waste materials such as sand, slurry, and fly ash. The three public utilities connect the park to the city’s district energy system, further using waste energy to heat and cool the city’s homes. The interconnection of industry saves each partner not just money, but resources as well; the park has collectively 87,000 tons of materials and 3.6 million m3 of water. The economic benefits provide a powerful incentive for local industries to develop in Kalundborg, stimulating the local economy. While the Kalundborg symbiosis was the first of its kind, it will soon be joined by others — the EU’s Horizon 2020 fund has invested in SCALER, a project aimed at proliferating industrial symbiosis across Europe.

__By 2018, over 90% of supermarkets were donating unsold food instead of sending it to landfills. __

In 2015, French policy-makers unanimously approved a law banning food waste. The law means that French supermarkets, restaurants and other food retailers must try as hard as possible to recycle or redistribute any leftover food before it gets sent to landfills. Now, over 5,000 food banks receive 50% of their food donations from grocery stores. Supermarkets are incentivised with tax breaks, helping to raise the percentage of supermarkets donating unsold food from 66% pre-2016 to over 90% by 2018. France is extending this logic to the retail industry. In January 2020, the parliament passed a law that bans the fashion industry, electronic retailers, online retailers and others from destroying unsold goods without attempting to recycle or donate them first. The law also firmly tackles single-use plastic by mandating its elimination by 2040, targets 100% plastic recycling by 2025, and phases out paper receipts. Companies are financially responsible for destroying any goods that cannot be recycled, making the donated goods tax incentive an even more attractive option. While implementing the laws over the next few years, France hopes to make consumers aware of how a circular economy could work, moving away from a throwaway society.

__Kenya’s Ministry of Environment is on track to phase-out the use and importation of ozone-depleting substances by 2026. __

Kenya has adopted regulations on refrigeration and air conditioning products to try and mitigate climate damaging effects as the market grows over the next decade. In urban hubs like Nairobi and Mombasa, the demand for cooling is predicted to grow immensely — 1.8 million units are projected to be imported in the next ten years. The chemical refrigerants used in these units, such as F-gases, have an extremely high potential for warming. To combat this, the Kenyan government is working with the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program to enact strong minimum performance requirements. A draft of these regulations was released in 2018, but faced backlash from industry actors. Washington-based NGO, CLASP, offered a technical review of Kenya’s market, demonstrating that there was significant room for higher energy standards that would incentivise imports of more efficient units. In April 2019, the revised standards went into effect, requiring an improved efficiency level of at least 11% and a regulation of ozone-damaging HFCs. The regulations are already showing a strong positive effect on the import market. 6 months after implementation, 63 new models met the requirements, none of which contained the HFC R-22, while eliminating 73% of the least efficient air conditioner models. Other initiatives also explore scaling the use of natural refrigerants.

__EESL’s lighting program facilitated the installation of over 285 million LED lights, reducing carbon emissions by 30 million tonnes. __

In 2010, India’s Ministry of Power created Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL); a government owned firm tasked with scaling energy-efficient appliances across the country. It works as a finance mechanism bridging the gap between customers and companies. EESL aggregates demand and buys products in bulk. Technology providers compete for these bulk purchases, which stimulates innovation in industry while also bringing down costs for consumers. In some cases, EESL uses a pay-as-you-save model in which the cost of the appliances are paid over time by the savings on energy bills. One of EESL’s most successful initiatives was the Affordable LED for All (UJALA) project, designed to scale up energy-efficient lightbulbs. The scheme distributed over 285 million LEDs, saving over $2.3 million and slashing carbon emissions from lighting. Another scheme focussed on scaling up efficient water pumps, saving municipalities US$492 million annually, and avoiding 3.9 million tons of CO2 per year. EESL continues to scale its projects, including street lamps, smart metres, and as of 2020, electric vehicles. The company’s successful decade of operation shows how combining purchasing power can save consumers money, contribute to climate goals, and encourage high-quality manufacturing and innovative products.

__Hawaii’s Department of Transport saved 1,500 pounds of CO2 in a demonstration project. If scaled to all of Hawaii’s construction, mineralised concrete has the potential to save 27 million pounds of CO2. __

Hawaiian policy-makers are looking to carbon-reinforced concrete to reduce emissions from the construction industry. The production of concrete produces about 6% of the world’s emissions per year, and companies such as CarbonCure are trying to find a solution. In a process known as CO2 mineralisation, carbon dioxide is permanently captured and can be used as a construction material in making cement. This helps store carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. As of April 2020, CarbonCure claims to have saved 142.9 million pounds of emissions using this process. In 2019, Hawaii’s Department of Transport teamed up with CarbonCure’s local construction partners to build a demonstration project, showing how carbonised concrete can reduce the carbon footprint of construction work. The city of Honolulu has already passed a resolution recommending that all governments procure carbon-injected concrete in their construction work. Pending state legislation will require that the all state construction uses carbonised concrete. According to a spokeswoman, the government aims to use this material where possible moving forwards. Elsewhere in the USA, public bodies are also encouraging the use of mineralised concrete to reduce embodied carbon in construction.

__From 2010-2014, reporting companies reduced emissions by an average of 12.3%. As of 2019, there were 52 Japanese companies with approved science-based-targets. The Japanese Ministry of Environment aims to reach 100 by the end of 2020. __

Japan’s government is encouraging businesses to step-up during the climate crisis. Japan is one of few countries to require businesses report their emissions, with various voluntary or mandatory schemes. The most prominent is Tokyo’s Carbon Reduction Reporting (CRR) policy. The CRR policy mandates that SMEs report their annual GHG emissions to the government, and covers 60% of the total emissions from Tokyo’s industrial and commercial sectors. The "Carbon Report Cards" are used to rank the buildings according to ‘benchmarks’. These are published and must be shown to tenants or leasers, creating a name-and-shame principle that encourages buildings to try and cut down their emissions. Buildings that meet the highest benchmark are celebrated and officially recognised as "low-carbon buildings". Unlike other building reporting schemes, which grade buildings according to energy performance, Tokyo’s policy focuses on CO2 equivalent emissions. This forces buildings to consider their supply chains and is more focussed on mitigating climate change. The city also offers various financial incentives for building operators to purchase more energy-efficient appliances, capitalising on the behavioural desire to upgrade to the next benchmark. Company actions are a pillar of Japan’s most recent climate strategy, and the government became the first to provide dedicated support to companies to set science based targets on their emissions. A dedicated budget of 150 million yen ($1.4million) is available to fund this support. The Ministry of Environment offers participating companies one-on-one SBT advice, and has been very successful in achieving compliance from businesses. Japan’s focus on businesses is a strategy that bargains on corporate innovation being able to find best practices in order to meet targets, creating innovative supply-chain overhauls.

__Zurich has achieved a rate of nearly 50% recycled concrete in new public buildings. __

The City of Zurich’s regulations on concrete show the effectiveness of using public procurement to send economic signals. The city spends around €55-90 million ( around $67-110 million) per year on structural work in new buildings, which includes the production of concrete. The city has addressed construction emissions in two ways: requiring the use of recycled concrete, and requiring that concrete used in public buildings meet a standard labelled CEM III/B. CEM III/B cement replaces a material named "clinker" with a lower-carbon alternative, therefore reducing by 25-30% compared to conventional concrete. Using recycled concrete creates a more circular economy, reducing environmental impact by stretching materials farther. For example, the city collected old kerbstones and re-used them to make new ones, which reduced 1.4kg of CO2 per unit compared to imported ones. The city's newest building, the Zurich Kunsthaus Art Museum, will be made almost entirely of reduced-carbon and recycled concrete. Zurich’s position as a sustainable concrete pioneer has encouraged research into how to reduce emissions from the difficult-to-decarbonise sector. Using concrete remains a CO2 intense activity, and procuring alternatives such as fly-ash concrete is best. Where it isn’t, Zurich’s example shows there are still significant emissions reductions to be had with existing technologies.

__Moor restoration across the UK will lock 14,700 tonnes of carbon per year into the peat bogs. __

The peat that covers moors and bogs is more than just decaying vegetation; it’s a carbon store second only to the oceans. Healthy peat has a carbon content of over 50%, which means that degraded peat releases a dangerous amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In the UK alone, 20 million tons of carbon is stored in moorland that has been degraded by industrial pollution. In 2018, the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs dedicated £10 million to four peat restoration projects, including Moors for the Future. The Moors for the Future partnership targets seven sites across the northern UK, conserving moorland, tracking carbon emissions and data, and building dams to re-wet the moors. They project that the work will result in 4,500 tons of carbon per year being locked into the blanket bog moors as a result of restoration, equivalent to taking more than 880 cars off the road.

More than half of Costa Rica’s land is now under forest-cover, compared to a quarter in 1983.

Costa Rica is an outlier amidst growing global deforestation rates. Over the last two decades, the country became the first tropical country to slow and then reverse its deforestation rates. One of its most impactful policies has been a successful Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) program, an innovative public financing scheme that encourages reforestation. The PES scheme covers over a million hectares of land and works by assigning a monetary value to environmental services that aren’t traditionally monetised. In Costa Rica, a forest manager who agrees to use climate-friendly practices such as water filtration or sustainable logging over the contractual period can receive a payment for doing so, measured by how much that action will benefit the environment. Costa Rica’s National Forest Fund, FONAFIFO, is the main implementing agency and both selects and monitors the beneficiaries. The payments are mostly financed through the country’s fuel tax, funnelling funds from polluters to those protecting the environment. While the scheme began in 1996 under the country’s Forestry Act, its supporters argue that its main strength has been continued adaptation. In 2004, the Act was amended to include criteria aiming at the development of disenfranchised communities, and is updated as new research surfaces on silvopasture and agroforestry. The system has led to a dramatic increase in the country’s forest cover, as well as strong economic growth from tourism. Costa Rica has benefited from a highly engaged population and a mix of highly complementary policies. Maintaining the system will require continued flexibility, especially in areas such as indigenous rights, where the policy has been previously criticised.

__By planting over 8,300 trees and 350,000 shrubs, the city has dropped streetside temperatures by around three degrees. __

Medellin’s ‘Green Corridor’ project targets air pollution, the urban heat island effect, and increases public transport with one solution; nature. The government planted green corridors along 18 roads and 12 waterways, with each corridor aiming to mirror a natural forest environment. These botanical gardens also benefit the local economy, by training citizens from disadvantaged backgrounds to become city gardeners and technicians. The increase of green space also has public health outcomes from reduced air pollution and improved mental health. The city has seen temperatures fall by two or three degrees celsius, ensuring significant energy reductions from reduced artificial cooling. As of January 2020, the city plans to plant 1,000 more trees around Medellin to continue its journey as an Ecocity.

*In Nigeria, over 15 nurseries have been established and more than 10,000 seedlings planted in degraded forests. It’s estimated that REDD+ projects have protected 373,832 hectares worldwide. *

Mangroves are highly efficient carbon sinks. Globally, their soil is estimated to hold approximately 22 billion tons of carbon, which escapes into the atmosphere when the wetlands are destroyed. West Nigeria’s mangrove forests are the one of the most important ecosystems in the region, but also form an important part of local business. Mangrove wood is deforested for cooking, manufacturing, and other domestic uses. To protect the carbon stored in these systems, UN Environment is supporting a REDD+ scheme in Cross River State, which is home to more than 50% of the country’s forests. The acronym stands for Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, and is a mitigation mechanism developed by the UNFCCC to combat deforestation. It works by supporting incentive schemes for ecosystem services, placing a monetary value on the environmental benefits of certain actions to make them competitive with profits from deforestation. The UNFCCC gives payments for results, encouraging countries to stick to their policies. In Nigeria, the REDD+ scheme supports community initiatives to conserve the mangrove forests, while also prioritising gender empowerment, poverty reduction, and biodiversity. Local project coordinators run training on sustainable farming practices and encourage timber farming of different forest products to reduce overall deforestation. So far, the programme has supported 18 community projects with 2,000 participants. These efforts support the national government’s deforestation efforts, which include a goal to plant 25 million trees in 2020.

*As of January 2019, a total of 782,584 trees had been planted. The project is estimated to have sequestered 45,007 tons of CO2 over 20 years. *

Durban, South Africa, has turned a degraded landfill site into a thriving reforestation project and created both jobs and biodiversity in the process. Starting in 2008, the city began creating a coastal forest ecosystem on the degraded land, planting hundreds of thousands of indigenous trees. The eThekwini municipality has scaled up the project over time, planting on degraded sugarcane farmland and planting over 51 different species of tree. The area has also seen an increase in wildlife. The number of bird species jumped from 91 to 145. The project has also created over 600 full and part-time jobs, training unemployed community members to be ‘tree-preneurs’.

*In the areas managed by local communities, the deforestation rate has been 0.4% for over 15 years. By contrast, a government-managed park saw a 30% loss in forest cover. *

Guatemala’s Biosphere Reserve is a 2.1 million hectare conservation area that has long been suffering from illegal deforestation, tourism, and forest fires. But comparative rates of deforestation from 2000-2017 proves that the people best situated to protect the forest are the indigenous communities who live there. The report shows that in 2017, the forest actually recovered land for the first time since the study began, and the recovery was especially successful in areas under the government’s community forest concession policy. The policy gives local communities the right to profit from the forest if they do so sustainably. Local forest management is also vital to both the culture and economy of the communities, creating jobs and lowering the level of outmigration from the concession communities to below the national average. The concessions are granted by long-term agreements, but many are due to be reviewed in the next ten years. Local communities, often supported by international NGOs such as The Rainforest Alliance, have spent years campaigning for increased indigenous management and sustainable forestry. In December 2019, the Carmelita cooperation’s contract was renewed for a further 25 years. However, the future of the communities is not certain, and organisations such as ACOFOP demonstrate the strengths of community management in order to retain their right to the forest. The simultaneous environmental and socioeconomic benefits of this model for forest governance adds to the already strong human rights imperative to return forest management rights to indigenous communities.

__The Palau National Park protects 475,077 square kilometers of ocean, making it one of the biggest protected marine parks in the world. __

As of January 1st 2020, 80% of Palau’s national waters officially became a protected area. Local government officials, experts and ocean advocates agreed upon the sanctuary in 2015, mandating that any extractive activities such as fishing or mining would be prohibited. The protection of coastal ecosystems like Palau’s is vital to mitigating climate change, as coastal vegetation is almost ten times more effective at storing carbon than temperate forests. While more countries like New Zealand continue to protect large swathes of the ocean, scientists emphasise that it still isn’t enough — in order to meaningfully protect ecosystems and a warming planet, 30% must be protected by 2030.

*Ethiopia reports planting a record-breaking 350 million trees in just 12 hours. *

Ethiopia’s massive tree-planting initiative in 2019 made global headlines, and for good reason — it is reported to have broken the record for trees planted in a single day. State employees were given the day off, and joined citizens all over the country in distributing seeds and seedlings. The planting sprint is part of the country’s National Green Development programme, which aims to plant 4 billion trees on 1.5 million hectares, in an effort to combat deforestation. Ethiopia’s agricultural sector is already suffering the effects of a warming climate, such as drought, flooding, and food insecurity. Forests act as a crucial carbon sink, and form a crucial part of the climate solution. While tree-planting sadly won't solve the crisis alone, Ethiopia’s success is a bright spot in combating rising levels of global deforestation.

*As of March 2020, 30% of the Seychelles’ exclusive economic zone was converted into marine protected areas. *

As a nation with 115 islands in its archipelago, the Seychelles has a lot of coast to protect. In 2018, the Seychelles took a new step in conservation financing with the world’s first “blue bond”. Although debt for nature swaps have been used as part of green bonds before, the government of the Seychelles is the first to expand this mechanism to the seas. The bond raised $15 million from investors around the world, and proceeds are designated specifically for projects such as restoring ecosystems and encouraging regenerative fishing practices. The initiative builds off a 2015 deal in which almost £16.8 million of its national debt was written off in exchange for a commitment to ocean conservation. The new protections also have roots in the country’s Protected Area Financial plan, an initiative which expanded the protected areas from 557km2 to more than 400,000km2 in four years. As a result of the bond, Seychelles has reduced its national debt while turning 30% of the nation’s EEZ into protected marine areas that cover nearly 85% of its coral reefs. It’s success in financing conservation has prompted replications from the Nordic Investment Bank and the World Bank.

Between 2002 and 2014, C02 emissions from diesel fell by 43%.

Lisbon’s ‘Green Path’ — park infrastructure that connects two national parks and creates a forested corridor right through the city — demonstrates the multiple co-benefits of urban green space. In the early 2000s, city officials noticed a trend of depopulation, increased levels of flooding, and increasing emissions from transport. The city invested in urban regeneration, and developed the ecological corridor linking between two major parks, Monsanto and Eduardo VII park. This created a network of green spaces for recreation and leisure, increased bike infrastructure, and promoted biodiversity and natural landscapes. The city government also co-created many of the parks with local stakeholders, encouraging input and discussion on each community’s specific needs from their parks — for example, Quinta de Granja urban park features allotment gardens, while other areas prioritised forested woodland. The park has had a significant cooling effect, and the increased natural spaces have reduced water wastage and the severity of floods. It is also easier for citizens to cycle and walk around the city, reducing the amount of private vehicles in circulation. In conjunction with fuel-efficiency measures and public transport efforts, the corridors have helped drop Lisbon’s transport emissions; emissions from diesel dropped by 43% from 2002-2014. The green corridors strategy continues into 2021, with the addition of 200 new hectares of green areas, planting 80,000 trees over 4 years, and decreasing paved areas that add to the urban heating effect.

__As of January 2021, the BGFZ has benefitted over 910,151 people and mitigates over 2,529,296 kgs of CO2 annually. __

Zambia’s Beyond the Grid Fund aims to simultaneously bring renewable energy to Zambian households while stimulating private sector investment in renewable energy. Its innovative result-based financing mechanism asks energy service companies to apply for funds by submitting comprehensive business models, details on the quality of their product and how many people they aim to help, and a plan for the future. Importantly, they must show how they will continue to operate after the end of BGFZ’s contract. The BGFZ has some universal standards, including that the technology must be maintained under a warranty for at least three years. This model means that the recipient of what is termed a “Energy Service Subscription” receives a high-quality and uninterrupted service. This means that the companies with the best and most sustainable models are rewarded, guaranteeing high social impact to the population and de-risking investment in the growing renewable sector. The programme was launched in July 2017 and is funded by the Swedish government and implemented by REEEP, in collaboration with the Zambian government. So far, the initiative has made over 150,000 energy subscriptions. The concept is also being extended with the Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa, which aims to replicate the project in countries like Burkina Faso, Liberia, Mozambique and Uganda.

From 2008-2012, the Top Runner program encouraged energy efficiency improvements that resulted in an estimated yearly reduction of 25,000 Mt CO2.

Japan’s "Top Runner" programme for improving energy efficiency is a standout example of how market-based instruments can drive down energy use. The policy is relatively simple: every few years, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) reviews different categories of products. The most energy-efficient product in each category is then named the "Top Runner". This standard must then be met by other manufacturers before the next review. This means that though the programme has been running a long time, it continuously encourages improvement and innovation; from 2008-2012, TV sets improved in efficiency by 61%. Refrigerators improved in energy efficiency by 43% in a five year period. The policy also inspires competitive innovation as companies compete to be named the Top Runner. The METI also has the ability to publicly name and shame companies that do not meet targets, as well as order fines. The policy covers 24 categories of appliances and products, leading to energy savings across sectors: an OECD report estimated that the Top Runner Programme reduced energy consumption by 5% in Transport and 8% in the residential sector.

__Renewables share in German gross power production in 2019 was 42.6%, a greater share than Natural gas, coal, or nuclear. __

Decarbonising large-scale electricity generation is an effective way to cut emissions across all sectors, such as transport or buildings. But doing so requires a huge shift in energy infrastructure. Well designed policies are required to accelerate investment in renewable energy plants, and Germany’s Feed-in-Tariffs (FITs) prove an instructive example. In the Energy Sources Act of 2000, Germany introduced the tariff — a policy that sets energy prices at a fixed amount for the duration of a long-term purchasing contract. By guaranteeing consistent and predictable prices, the FIT gave German renewable energy providers confidence that their initial investments in projects would be economically viable. This led to a boom in renewable infrastructure, particularly wind; from 2009-2016, Germany’s offshore wind generation capacity grew from 40 MW to 4130 MW. Additionally, when in 2012 the growth of production meant consumer costs got too high, the policy was adapted to a sliding-premium model where the price is determined by last year’s market. The policy is part of a package named “Energiewende”, Germany’s planned transition away from fossil fuels and nuclear energy towards clean power. Countries around the world have implemented FITs of varying scales, but Germany’s case highlights how FITs create an attractive and stable legal framework to encourage nascent renewable energy investment.

__Contracts for Difference have supported 10 gigawatts of offshore wind deployment in the last 10 years, with 5.5 gigawatts in 2019. Britain is the world’s largest offshore wind market. __

To decarbonise its electricity sector, the UK has accelerated the development of offshore wind. Offshore wind farms are less variable than solar and onshore wind — wind blows overnight and in every season in the UK — but started off as expensive technology in need of investment. In 2013, the UK government’s Electricity Market Reform implemented the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, a way to create revenue certainty for energy developers while protecting consumers and suppliers from cost volatility using an innovative two-way payment mechanism. The CfD scheme works by awarding 15-year contracts to developers at a fixed "strike price" — a price estimated ahead of time by the government for renewable energy in pounds per megawatt hour (mwH). But if the wholesale price drops below the strike price, the government will pay the difference back to the project owner. If the wholesale price rises above the strike price, then the project gives the surplus earnings back to the government. The scheme therefore gives renewable project investors a guarantee of predictable financial returns, and lowered risk in starting a new project. This favourable legal environment has led to huge scaling of offshore wind; over the last decade, Britain’s offshore wind capacity has increased twenty times over. Prices have fallen significantly. In the 2015 bidding round, the lowest price was £114.39 mwH, which dropped to a record-breaking £39.65 mwH in 2019. These improvements mean the UK is hurtling towards an important tipping point, where it becomes cheaper to build new renewable projects than to keep running fossil-fuel based power stations.

__Sweden’s GHG emissions have dropped by 26% with continued economic growth. __

Sweden has the highest carbon tax in the world. It’s also one of the only carbon taxes that is high enough to be consistent with meeting the goals of the Paris agreement. While most global institutions agree that carbon taxes are a vital tool in cost-effectively mitigating climate change, countries have faced significant political challenges when implementing them. Sweden’s success is partly structural — its electricity grid is already comparatively low-carbon, and high levels of taxation are more accepted. But the design of the tax also explains the success. The tax was introduced in 1991 and has gradually ratcheted higher over time, giving businesses and consumers time to prepare and adjust. The government lowered labour taxes as it hiked carbon taxes, in a bid to maintain political support. Industries affected by the EU’s carbon trading system were exempted, so they weren’t taxed twice. The government has also helped its citizens with the transition, with aid schemes in areas such as home heating and energy efficient appliances, mostly relying on the expansion of Sweden’s highly developed district energy system. Creating adaptive policy will be important for any country attempting to implement a sufficiently high policy.

__Through informing consumer choices, the Green Credit card is estimated to have avoided 2.5 million tons of GHGs between July 2011 and December 2016. __

In 2011, Korea’s Ministry of Environment collaborated with the Institute of Environment, Technology and Industry to create the Green Credit Card. The card can be used just like a normal credit card, except that it rewards users for making environmentally friendly choices, such as using public transport or purchasing sustainable products. Points are also awarded to lower utility bills. Users of the card can save up their points and convert it to "EcoMoney", using it like cash at participating hotels and restaurants, buying energy-saving appliances such as light bulbs, or donating it to environmental funds. By December 2016, Korea had issued 15 million cards, incentivising sustainable consumption in 55% of the economically active population. The cards function as an information tool, nudging the user towards sustainable behaviours and educating consumers on which products are best for the environment through a labelling system. In addition to the emissions saved from sustainable purchasing, it is estimated that a further 1.46 million tonnes of GHG emissions were reduced through promoting public transport and saving residential energy.

__Projects implemented in 2018 and funded by revenue from California’s Cap and Trade system are estimated to reduce about 17 million Megatons of CO2 over time. __

Like most carbon pricing measures, California’s policy has seen its effectiveness debated. But one innovation that is earning the state praise is the way it spends its revenue. California’s Cap-and-Trade program launched in 2013 and remains a central pillar of its suite of climate policy regulations. Like all cap-and-trade policies, the law aims to incentivise companies to reduce their emissions by creating a carbon market. California’s law covers about 80% of state emissions, and was recently renewed to extend until 2030. California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) views the policy as a success — the state’s emissions declined by 13% from 2006-2018 while the economy grew and jobs were created. But faster-than-expected decarbonisation demands tighter caps, which CARB will need to act on in order to avoid companies buying permits while they are cheap and "banking" them to use later. From 2013-2018, the cap-and-trade program has raised over $6.5 billion, and California earmarks at least 35% of this revenue to invest in climate mitigation initiatives. This amounted to $1.4 billion in spending by 2018. A 2019 report details these initiatives, the most prominent of which is the $38 million Low Income Weatherization Program, a retrofit and energy programme that has reduced energy use by an average of 44% in participating families. With a focus on equity, California’s investments funnel polluter dollars into clean transformations around the state. It’s also likely that carbon prices are more popular when revenue is spent on projects that help people, helping to make carbon prices more politically viable.

__Britain’s reliance on coal has dropped from 40% in 2012 to less than 3% in 2019. __

In 2015, Britain’s government announced that power from coal would be phased out by 2025. The Climate Change Act of 2013 had already started to disincentive coal by introducing a carbon price, a charge for fossil fuel emitters that sits on top of the EU’s tax to drive faster decarbonisation. The government also enacted Emissions Performance Standards — standards that are impossible for coal-fired generation to meet without carbon capture technology. These technologies aren’t yet economically feasible, so the restrictions effectively rule out new coal construction. Along with support for renewable energies like offshore wind, the policies formed clear signals from the government that there was no future for the British coal industry, and the measures have brought down coal faster than anticipated. In 2018, Britain’s renewable energy capacity overtook fossil fuels for the first time. As of April 2020, only four operating coal plants are left. However, it's not as simple as just saying no to coal — to a large extent coal capacity has been replaced by natural gas. The government will also have to think carefully about how to manage job transitions for those left without roles in the coal sector. But the end of coal in Britain is a signal to the rest of the world, where coal is also falling rapidly. Coal power generation in the US decreased by a third between 2010 and 2017. Although some countries like China and India continue to scope new coal, their pipelines are continuing to shrink as coal becomes the evidently risky option. In 2019, Britain went a record 3,700 hours without using coal for power.

*In 2017, emissions from participating facilities were reduced by 27% from the base year of 2007. *

Tokyo was the first city to launch a city-based emissions trading scheme in 2010. The Japanese capital, an economic powerhouse, emits more carbon than some countries, and in 2010 the government enacted a cap-and-trade system to try and meet its climate goals. Nearly 40% of the city’s emissions come from the industrial and commercial sectors, so the law targets these facilities and functions as an alternative for building codes. Around 1,400 facilities are required to take part, covering about 20% of the city’s total emissions. The policy sets a limit on emissions, and extends "emissions credits" to allow companies to trade to meet that limit. The caps are set every three years. Part of the scheme’s strength is its focus on certainty. Facilities can gain credits for purchasing high-efficiency equipment or switching to low-carbon electricity providers, which give immediate emissions reductions rather than estimated return on long-term investments. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is the validating body, and monitors results to make sure no facility is cheating the system. Credits are also available for absolute reductions in emissions (not efficiency), further incentivising switches to carbon-free technologies rather than just increasing efficiency over time. The scheme has been largely successful, and other cities have since enacted similar schemes. The success has remained constant — over a period of five years, participating facilities reduced their emissions by an average of 20%.

__The Dutch government estimates that the procurement requirements have led to the avoidance of at least 5 megatonnes of CO2 for contracts won in 2015-2016. __

Anytime the Dutch government holds a public tender, it has to follow a set of guidelines calculated by the National Institute of Health and the Environment. Sustainable public procurement means that environmental impact, health, and circular economics are considered just as much as cost. The guidelines, abbreviated to MEAT, include a "CO2 Performance Ladder" and a metric for calculating sustainable building performance, alongside measures of innovation and cost effectiveness. The requirements cover all sectors, including transport, office buildings, technology and energy. In one example, the winning bid for a motorway construction project offered a 50% CO2 emissions reduction than the last tender in the bid. Funnelling purchasing power incentivises all industries to cut emissions in order to compete for government tenders. In a review of the procurement contracts, the government found the system had been widely implemented, and led to considerable cuts in emissions.

*According to C100, more than $2.9 billion of green bonds have been issued since 2017. *

To drum up green finance, Singapore’s Monetary Authority is making it easy to buy green bonds. While the buyer pays for the bond themselves, the government will cover the cost of getting that bond validated, paying for any independent external reviews according to an internationally recognised framework. By doing this, the scheme tackles one of the key hurdles for green bonds by taking away the uncertainty around an emerging market. So far bonds have been issued to foreign and domestic companies in various areas, including solar and wind farms in India, and geothermal projects in Indonesia. The program is just one of a suite of policies aiming to scale up green finance in ASEAN countries, and will last until 2023.

*As of 2018, the program had financed projects in more than 50 companies, and is now encouraging the region’s solar distribution project. *

To stimulate the local green economy, Santa Fe’s Secretariat of State for Energy and the Municipality of Rosario partnered with the province’s public bank to give SMEs more access to finance. The region’s industry depends mostly on natural gas, with companies shying away from starting renewable projects due to high upfront costs. The Green Credit Lines initiative was designed to combat this. The government provided support to applicants with technical evaluations and the process of submitting projects to the bank. From 2014-2018, over ARS 75 million in investment was approved, 60% of which went to renewable energy projects and a third to energy efficiency. In 2018, the government expanded the line of green credit to the local solar distributed generation programme — Prosumidores — allowing households and SMEs to install renewable energy equipment and connect to the local grid. The use of finance has encouraged renewable energy in both SMEs and households, stimulating local production, saving locals money, and providing over 1000 jobs to young people.

*As of 2017, Portland’s CO2 emissions were 38% below 1990 levels. *

The City of Portland, Oregon, is highlighting the need to centre equity in climate policy-making. While it is communities of colour and low-income communities that are most affected by climate change, they also are least likely to feel the benefits of most broad climate investments. An example of this is a problem sometimes termed "low-carbon gentrification" — as cities create more urban green spaces, levy carbon taxes, or disincentivise private vehicles, these communities are disproportionately pushed out of the city. Portland emphasises that this is not just a necessary ethical question, but a climate mitigation one as well. For example, Portland’s efforts to reduce emissions from transport included billions of dollars of investment, but saw key measures such as bus usership stay flat. Instead of just setting higher goals without understanding the problem, the city asked questions like “who can’t ride the bus safely, and why?”. Understanding the way public safety affects people of colour, women, and differently abled city residents gives a more useful picture of how to create effective climate transport policy. Portland is engaging its citizens in this debate, holding workshops, forums, and engaging local climate justice leaders and organisations to develop high-impact carbon emissions reduction strategies for the Portland Climate Action Plan. In 2019, Portland passed a measure to create the Portland Clean Energy Fund, a plan to funnel revenue from big polluters to underserved communities of colour. The fund is an initiative created by local climate justice organisations, and will levy a 1% surcharge on big businesses’ city operation taxes, such as Apple and Walmart. The fund estimates a revenue of $44-61 million, which will be explicitly used to create green jobs, offer energy efficiency upgrades, and introduce other initiatives to benefit those on the frontlines of climate change.

Cities are hubs of climate action, and combining their collective purchasing power could lead to carbon-reducing benefits. Many city networks exist to accelerate both learnings and policy transfer, with prominent examples such as the Global Covenant of Mayors, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. All of these cooperative networks share best practices, but can also move the needle on collaborative policy. For example, The Carbon Neutral Alliance is creating a policy framework to help cities tackle embodied carbon, aiming to deliver tools to meet carbon-neutral standards for buildings. Green Alliance, a UK-based think tank focussed on environmental policy, argues that city networks can do more than just share information. The report argues that consumption emissions are the next frontier of municipal climate action and asserts that centreing consumption doubles emissions reduction potential. The theory is that grouping cities into ‘clusters’ based on consumption patterns could streamline global supply chains and leverage purchasing power toward environmental goods. In 2017, a group of C40 cities joined together to invest in low-carbon buses. After the cities released the C40 Clean Bus Declaration, the Greater London Authority reported a 10% reduction in price for the fleet and attributed this to the economic signal sent to bus manufacturers. This strategy could be replicated in other consumption patterns, creating huge potential. Green Alliance sees the most opportunity for cities to reduce emissions from beef. The Green Alliance report uses C40 data from beef consumption to compare climate action both separately and in collaboration. If a group of European cities formed a buyers club to purchase low-carbon beef and beef alternatives, it could reduce emissions by 34%. If joined by a coalition of Latin American cities such as Argentina, it could drive this down by 62%, representing 30.6 megatons of emissions reductions.

*The city has kept its emissions flat since 2010 while experiencing economic growth. *

In 2013, Leuven set up Leuven2030, a municipal authority group involving NGOs, businesses and many other participants tasked with delivering carbon neutrality by 2030. This innovative governance structure has greatly accelerated the city’s ability to carry out climate policy, and buoyed its support from the community. The group periodically creates roadmaps — the most recent one covers 80 different areas of action, from public transport to creating climate neutral business supply chains. A roadmap also includes indirect emissions, a dimension that most cities have yet to consider. While anyone is welcome, they must also be committed to tackling the problem. In order to join the group, potential members must present a binding green plan of action. Leuven2030’s citizen engagement and system-wide approach to climate policy also creates a sense of ownership from the local community, which increases the likelihood of compliance. In 2016, the city passed a circulation plan for the city centre that reduced vehicle traffic and increased pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure. The plan was deemed controversial by those who worried businesses would be affected, but the badge of Leuven2030 created a coalition of backers. In just three years, cycling in the city increased by 44%.

__Oslo estimates that measures passed under the 2017 budget reduced emissions by 460,000 tons, compared to 2015 levels. __

The success of Oslo’s carbon budget shows how governance strategies can accelerate decarbonisation. The City of Oslo introduced the budget in 2016, and now treats emissions like it does money — creating yearly budgets for each department to bring the climate into every decision. In fact, the city council is only able to approve plans if they will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Using the Paris agreement’s most ambitious targets, the city calculated how much carbon dioxide would need to be reduced each year, and then mapped out concrete measures that would help them achieve those goals. These roadmaps accelerate the implementation of climate actions. For example, the city established a toll ring that automatically charges lower tolls to zero-emission vehicles and is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 93,000 tonnes in 2020. The strategy — renewed yearly to account for changing statistics — is developed in collaboration with 40 industry and business stakeholders to ensure universal buy-in. The city also developed a barometer with 14 measures to monitor if the budget is working properly, helping the city to keep track of weak spots and strengths in its strategy. Oslo’s 2020 budget specifically targets the transport of goods, construction sites, and public transport. The climate budget method is highly replicable, and Oslo believes that its main strength is holding every sector of government accountable for reducing emissions.

The cities of Barcelona and Boston kicked off 2020 by declaring Climate Emergencies, joining more than 1,799 other city and local governments to take this action. The climate emergency campaign is built on the idea that creating emergency responses on all government levels increases pressure on national and international action, accelerating climate policy across the world. The UK’s national climate declaration came after a surge of declarations in local councils. The EU is the biggest bloc to declare an emergency, while New York city is the largest city. While declarations are largely symbolic — most don’t implement any concrete steps — they act as catalysts to real action by increasing community awareness and government accountability, and accelerate the adoption of climate plans.

COP27 closed with a breakthrough agreement for wealthier nations to provide loss and damage funding for vulnerable nations hit hardest by climate disasters.

This fund represents a major breakthrough in acknowledging the differentiated impacts of global climate breakdown. However, serious contention remains over the specific methods by which the fund is administered and distributed. For the Loss and Damages fund to fulfil its potential, it needs to overcome certain challenges:

• Lack of clarity: Given the broad definitions used in the agreement, specifics of the arrangement still need to be defined. For example, the ‘donor base’ of this new fund remains a point of contention. The overall strategic framework of the loss and damage agreement needs greater clarity. Apolitical’s course on Reaching Net Zero provides the skills to help government employees implement ambitious policies.

__Cardiff Tidal Lagoon is a proposed tidal energy power plant. It would use the natural variation of the tide to produce enough zero-carbon electricity to power every home in Wales. __

Despite the huge potential for producing renewable energy, the project remains in the planning and consultation stage. For it to fulfil its potential, the biggest barrier it is facing is:

• Stakeholder engagement: The scale of the project means it has to enjoy widespread support in order to have a chance of approval. To engage stakeholders effectively requires the use of soft skills, such as strong presentations, effective problem framing, and compelling usage of feedback. Apolitical’s Introduction to Public Engagement outlines evidence-backed steps for working closer with the public.

__South Africa is in negotiations with the international community to swap from coal to renewable energy. It has secured $8.5bn (£6bn) to fund the transition. __

The decarbonisation deal hasn’t yet been signed off. Investors and the South African energy grid are reticent to take the first move. To fulfil the immense potential of a decarbonised grid in South Africa, both the nation and its financial backers must overcome certain challenges:

• New solutions pose new problems: Whilst the novelty of this policy is what gives it such potential, it also poses problems. New issues arising from climate change governance and decarbonisation often act as obstacles to effective policy implementation. Apolitical provides training courses designed to make public servants ready for these new challenges, such as the Public Servants and Climate Change, Reaching Net Zero course.

__The COP15 agreement represents the next step in global efforts to curb biodiversity loss and ecosystem decline. By putting 30% of the planet under protected areas by 2030 and providing greater finance for developing countries, the COP15 delegates hope to reverse global ecological decline. __

Components of the deal remain contentious. The targets are concrete, but it is still being determined where these new nature reserves will be and who will fund them. In order to implement the agreement and reverse biodiversity decline, certain challenges must be overcome:

• Messaging: conservation movements have been accused of perpetuating unjust power arrangements, and proper messaging will be needed to demonstrate how the policies outlined in the agreement are different. Apolitical’s course on Centring Equity in Climate Action helps provide these skills to public servants.

__Vanuatu has published a draft resolution requesting that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) outlines the legal obligations polluting nations have for the climate damage they cause to vulnerable nations, such as Vanuatu. __

Implementation Gap: Vanuatu is a constant voice in international climate agreements, having recently proposed the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Climate Justice Resolution was recently proposed by Vanuatu at the UN, but created by a broad coalition of nations that are particularly at risk from the effects of climate breakdown. However, the proposal remains relatively unknown outside these nations, and the demands of the Vanuatu-led coalition need to be heard.

• Lack of popular communications: The governments in the coalition need to boost their messaging capabilities to be able to build a wider profile for their proposal and its demands. Increasing the digital literacy and social media presence of public employees will be vital to this, such skills can be developed through Apolitical’s course on Centring Equity in Climate Action.