Background Material - Climate & Environment
Key Messages of the IPCC AR4 Synthesis Report
By: IPPC
Nov 2007
The Synthesis Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) complements the three working group (WG) reports. It provides an integrated view of climate change, its causes, its effects, as well as mitigation and adaptation options and their interrelationships, focussing on issues particularly relevant for policymakers.
Key messages [pdf, 59 KB]
Summary for Policy Makers [pdf, 5,66 MB]
Overview of Working Group Reports
Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change
By: Sir Nicolas Stern
Oct 2006
The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change is a 700-page report released on October 30, 2006 by economist Nicholas Stern for the British government, which discusses the effect of climate change and global warming on the world economy. Although not the first economic report on global warming, it is significant as the largest and most widely known and discussed report of its kind.
Executive Summary [pdf, 307 KB]
Short Summary [pdf, 20 KB]
The U.S. Economic Impacts of Climate Change and the Costs of Inaction: Review and Assessment
By: Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CIER), University of Maryland
Oct 2007
Policies aimed at curbing greenhouse gases are misunderstood by many including Congress, often resulting in inaction. This inaction is frequently motivated by the perceived high cost of reducing greenhouse emissions while the cost of not taking action is often ignored or not calculated. This report reviews economic studies and predicts the cost impacts of climate change. The findings are arranged by region and key sectors likely to be effected by climate change are identified.
Download Paper [pdf, 5.33 MB]
Climate Solutions: The WWF Vision for 2050
By: WWF International
2007
According to WWF, Governments must act in the next five years to keep emissions below the level scientists believe is needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The world can double its energy demand while preventing a potential 2 degree Celsius temperature rise by 2050, but only by taking urgent action in areas such as energy efficiency and renewable technologies, they say. Nuclear power is "unacceptable" as there are "more than sufficient" more environmentally-benign options available. WWF stresses the importance of government targets and large-scale investment.
Download Paper [pdf, 2.12 MB]
Energy Policies of IEA Countries (Compendium)
By: International Energy Agency
2005
The overview section examines trends in energy markets, including an analysis on different fuels after the oil price hike of March 1999. It examines the policy development of Member countries in regulatory reform. It compliments Members on their steady efforts but calls for further progress. It also analyses actions taken by Member countries to meet Kyoto targets, and notes that more action will be required. It includes analysis on energy efficiency and R&D policies by Member countries and a short study on the developments in Non-Member countries.
Download Paper [pdf, 2.84 MB]
Towards a Transatlantic Consensus on Climate Change
By: National Commission on Energy Policy
May 2004
The SWP and the Brookings Institution convened this informal, high-level policy dialogue to bring together public and private sector leaders from both sides of the Atlantic, in an attempt to bridge the transatlantic divide in an issue area which may prove to be one the biggest environmental, economic and energy security policy challenges of the 21st century. Participants included political leaders, policy-makers, business executives and leading experts on climate and energy policy as well as transatlantic relations.
Download Paper [pdf, 413 KB]
Global Emission and the „Chindia“ Factor
Standard and Poor's‘ Special Report: The Credit Impact of Climate Change
By: Aneesh Prabhu
May 2007
One challenge that makes climate stabilization more daunting is that projections for global emission increases could understate the growth coming from China and India. These transitional economies are feeling strong pressures to expand energy supply as quick as possible, often by using carbon-intensive resources and technologies. If all announced coal-fired plants are built in China and India, additional carbon dioxide emissions could be multiples of the overall cuts proposed by the Kyoto Protocol.
Download Paper [pdf, 2.44 MB]
Page 48
Energy Technologies at the Cutting Edge
By: International Energy Agency (IEA)
2007
Ensuring energy security and addressing climate change issues in a cost-effective way are the main challenges of energy policies and in the longer term will be solved only through technology cooperation. To encourage collaborative efforts to meet these energy challenges, the IEA created a legal contract – Implementing Agreement – and a system of standard rules and regulations. This allows interested member and non-member governments or other organisations to pool resources and to foster the research, development and deployment of particular technologies.
For more than 30 years, this international technology collaboration has been a fundamental building block in facilitating progress of new or improved energy technologies. This is the third in the series of publications highlighting the recent results and achievements of the IEA Implementing Agreements.
Download Paper [pdf, 2.8 MB]
External Costs of Electricity Generation from Renewable Energies Compared to Electricity Generation from Fossil Energy Sources
By: BMU (Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservancy and Nuclear Safety)
Mar 2006
Various energy and environmental policy instruments are geared towards an internalisation of external effects in the energy sector. Despite considerable research work over the past 15 years there are still uncertainties with regard to quantifying external costs. Moreover, new findings in recent years have in some cases led to a re-assessment of the external costs of electricity generation. The study summarises the latest current status of knowledge on the external costs of electricity generation and elaborating recommendations for using the available data in the context of energy policy.
Download Paper [pdf, 133 KB]
Energy: The Long View
By: Oxford Institute for Energy Studies
Oct 2007
As we become increasingly concerned about the sustainability of our energy systems, we need to develop ways of thinking about energy from a long term perspective - for instance, climate change studies often involve forecasts hundreds of years into the future. A new study, by Malcolm Keay, draws inspiration from Churchill's dictum "The further backward you look, the further forward you can see". It traces past energy developments and trends, since before the industrial revolution, to see what lessons history may hold about possible long term energy futures.
Download Paper [pdf, 342 KB]
back to top
