Home » » » International Mitigation

Our Research

Climate Teams: International Greenhouse Gas Mitigation

helena lopes 459331 unsplash Countries together
can transfer our resources
and reach net zero.

Researchers at Motu, Seoul National University, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia, Environmental Defense Fund, and the University of California, Santa Barbara are proposing a new mechanism to extend international climate cooperation. The climate team mechanism is designed to allow countries to work together to transfer resources for credible emission reductions. More information on this project is at the climateteams.org website.

Some countries are willing to transfer significant resources to increase the speed of others’ transition to zero net emissions. No effective, credible international mechanism that can be applied to emission reductions in all sectors currently exists to do this, but the cooperative approaches of Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement provide space for innovation.

A ‘climate team’ offers one model to enable host (low marginal cost) and investor (high marginal cost) countries to cooperate to genuinely reduce global emissions and enable more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) in both. A large (national or jurisdictional) scale climate team agreement can more easily demonstrate additionality of mitigation and avoid leakage. It can take advantage of existing commitments (NDCs as a basis for crediting baselines) and monitoring (National Inventories) thus increasing transparency and reducing administrative costs.

Transformational change requires significant policy changes and large investments which can be both economically and politically costly. The climate team model gives the host country confidence that they will receive an acceptable return if they successfully reduce emissions.

More information is also available here, in a report for the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements (on page 71, entitled Climate Teams: A New Model for Investor-Host Climate Cooperation).

A two-page outline of the climate teams model is also available along with biographical information about those involved.

Funders

Korea Forest Service

Publications

Think globally, act cooperatively: Progressing offshore mitigation for Aotearoa New Zealand

Authors: Catherine Leining | Hannah Kotula | Sasha Maher

Note

This paper shows how Aotearoa New Zealand could work with other countries to accelerate global climate progress, by funding offshore mitigation to help meet its 2030 target under the Paris Agreement.

The world is…

Financial Transfers and Climate Cooperation

Authors: Edmund Lou | Suzi Kerr | Steffen Lippert

Working Paper

Transfers of money
Can help reduce free riding
When should we give them?

We investigate the impact of side-payments to countries that have a low net benefit from participating in efficient climate cooperation in a…

Climate Action Teams (CATs)

Authors: Catherine Leining | Suzi Kerr | Ana Pueyo

Article

Researchers (including some from Motu Research) have developed Climate Action Teams (CATs), an innovative way for countries to use the latest global climate summit (COP26) rulebook for international carbon markets — in a way that…

The economic and emissions benefits of engineered wood products in a low-carbon future

Authors: Niven Winchester | John Reilly

Article

There has been rapid growth in the use of engineered wood products in the construction sector in recent decades. We evaluate the economy-wide impacts on CO2 emissions from fossil energy use of replacing carbon-intensive construction inputs,…

A win-win solution to abate aviation CO2 emissions

Author: Niven Winchester

Article

Carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft are projected to triple between now and mid-century, even if substantial technology and operational improvements are implemented to make flying more energy efficient. Absent policy constraints, this explosive growth rate…

Economists and leadership toward low-emission societies

Author: Suzi Kerr

Presentation

Climate change is the biggest environmental challenge of our time. Because it is so far reaching and multi-faceted, an effective response requires that we draw on all human wisdom, including economics. Economists have already played…

A new approach to emissions trading in a post-Paris climate

Authors: Catherine Leining | Suzi Kerr

Article

We cannot and must not rely on international markets to set our future domestic emission price. As both taxpayers and responsible global citizens, we need to decide where to fund emission reductions. Most mitigation opportunities…

Transfers, self-enforcing agreements and climate cooperation

Authors: Edmund Lou | Suzi Kerr | Steffen Lippert

Article

International agreements addressing climate change must overcome the difficulties implied by the absence of an institution with the power to ensure compliance. They have to be self-enforcing: the threat of future punishment must give participants…

A mechanism for cooperation under Article 6.2

Author: Suzi Kerr

Presentation

The challenges that climate teams address:

Globally need to get to net-zero long-lived gases – faster is better
Facilitate more rapid transition of emerging economies - ‘hosts’
Enable more ambitious contributions by industrialized countries - ‘partners’

Cooperation and emissions price harmonisation without linking: prospects for ‘climate teams’ in East Asia

Author: Suzi Kerr

Presentation

This is Suzi Kerr's presentation to the Harvard Centre in Shanghai on how 'climate teams' could work. You can find more information on climate teams here. More about the conference is available here.

Three countries in East…

Korean experience with reforestation

Authors: Dong-hwan Kim | Seong-il Kim

Presentation

Dong-hwan Kim and Seong-il Kim gave this presentation to a climate team workshop in May 2018 looking at reforestation.

South Korea is the only country to have successfully reforested, this presentation looks at why this is…

Climate Teams Presentation

Author: Suzi Kerr

Presentation

A presentation by Suzi Kerr on how a Climate Teams model could work internationally to get the globe to net-zero long-lived greenhouse gases.

This presentation uses the example of the mismatch between mitigation opportunities and resources…