Climate policies that achieved major emission reductions: Global evidence from 
two decades

Stechemesser, Annika; Koch, Nicolas; Mark, Ebba; Dilger, Elina; Klösel, Patrick; Menicacci, Laura; Nachtigall, Daniel; Pretis, Felix; Ritter, Nolan; Schwarz, Moritz; Vossen, Helena; Wenzel, Anna

doi:10.1126/science.adl6547

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Add to Basket

Please note that a newer version of this item is available:
https://publications.pik-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_30172_4

DetailsSummary

Released

Journal Article

Climate policies that achieved major emission reductions: Global evidence from two decades

Authors

/persons/resource/Stechemesser

Stechemesser, Annika
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;
Corresponding Author, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

/persons/resource/koch.nicolas

Koch, Nicolas
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;
Corresponding Author, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

Mark, Ebba
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/elina.dilger

Dilger, Elina
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

/persons/resource/patrick.kloesel

Klösel, Patrick
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

/persons/resource/laura.menicacci

Menicacci, Laura
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

Nachtigall, Daniel
External Organizations;

Pretis, Felix
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/nolan.ritter

Ritter, Nolan
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

/persons/resource/moritz.schwarz

Schwarz, Moritz
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

/persons/resource/helena.vossen

Vossen, Helena
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

/persons/resource/anna.wenzel

Wenzel, Anna
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

External Ressource

https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10046709
(Supplementary material)

Fulltext (public)

There are no public fulltexts stored in PIKpublic

Supplementary Material (public)

There is no public supplementary material available

Citation

Stechemesser, A., Koch, N., Mark, E., Dilger, E., Klösel, P., Menicacci, L., Nachtigall, D., Pretis, F., Ritter, N., Schwarz, M., Vossen, H., Wenzel, A. (2024): Climate policies that achieved major emission reductions: Global evidence from two decades. - Science, 385, 6711, 884-892.
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adl6547

Cite as: https://publications.pik-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_30172

Abstract

Meeting the Paris Agreement’s climate targets necessitates better knowledge about which climate policies work in reducing emissions at the necessary scale. We provide a global, systematic ex post evaluation to identify policy combinations that have led to large emission reductions out of 1500 climate policies implemented between 1998 and 2022 across 41 countries from six continents. Our approach integrates a comprehensive climate policy database with a machine learning–based extension of the common difference-in-differences approach. We identified 63 successful policy interventions with total emission reductions between 0.6 billion and 1.8 billion metric tonnes CO2. Our insights on effective but rarely studied policy combinations highlight the important role of price-based instruments in well-designed policy mixes and the policy efforts necessary for closing the emissions gap.