Demand-side approaches for limiting global warming to 1.5 °C

The Paris Climate Agreement defined an ambition of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C above preindustrial levels. This has triggered research on stringent emission reduction targets and corresponding mitigation pathways across energy economy and societal systems. Driven by methodological considerations, supply side and carbon dioxide removal options feature prominently in the emerging pathway literature, while much less attention has been given to the role of demand-side approaches. This special issue addresses this gap, and aims to broaden and strengthen the knowledge base in this key research and policy area. This editorial paper synthesizes the special issue’s contributions horizontally through three shared themes we identify: policy interventions, demand-side measures, and methodological approaches. The review of articles is supplemented by insights from other relevant literature. Overall, our paper underlines that stringent demand-side policy portfolios are required to drive the pace and direction of deep decarbonization pathways and keep the 1.5 °C target within reach. It confirms that insufficient attention has been paid to demand-side measures, which are found to be inextricably linked to supply-side decarbonization and able to complement supply-side measures. The paper also shows that there is an abundance of demand-side measures to limit warming to 1.5 °C, but it warns that not all of these options are “seen” or captured by current quantitative tools or progress indicators, and some remain insufficiently represented in the current policy discourse. Based on the set of papers presented in the special issue, we conclude that demand-side mitigation in line with the 1.5 °C goal is possible; however, it remains enormously challenging and dependent on both innovative technologies and policies, and behavioral change. Limiting warming to 1.5 °C requires, more than ever, a plurality of methods and integrated behavioral and technology approaches to better support policymaking and resulting policy interventions

Methodologies for Assessment of Building's Energy Efficiency and Conservation: A Policy-Maker View

Recent global peer-review reports have concluded on importance of buildings in tacking the energy security and climate change challenges. To integrate the buildings energy efficiency into the policy agenda, significant research efforts have been recently done. More specifically, the public domain provides a bulk of literature on the application of buildings-related efficiency technologies and behavioural patterns, barriers to penetration of these practices, policies to overcome these barriers. From the policy-making perspective it is useful to understand how far our understanding of building energy efficiency goes and the approaches and methodologies are behind such assessment

Achieving and maintaining institutional feasibility in emissions trading: the case of New Zealand

Emission trading schemes (ETS) have emerged as a popular climate policy measure and are increasingly advocated as policy instruments to support the transition to a green economy. Using complementary analytical methods, this research investigated the institutional developments and complexities of the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS). It focuses on (1) institutional experience and administrative capacity, and (2) political acceptance during formation, design, implementation, and review. The research answer questions concerning critical conditions that have affected the institutional feasibility of the NZ ETS and the trade-offs in achieving and maintaining institutional feasibility. The experience in New Zealand has demonstrated that bipartisan political support and obliged participant acceptance for an ETS can be achieved and the administrative burden can be kept low through an inclusive consultation process and particular aspects of design to provide more certainty about costs. However, this institutional feasibility has also been a trade-off with other important aspects such as environmental effectiveness, predictability, and legitimacy, posing risks to maintaining political acceptance of the policy design and achieving the longer term objectives of transitioning to a green economy

Evaluating energy efficiency policies with energy-economy models

The growing complexities of energy systems, environmental problems, and technology markets are driving and testing most energy-economy models to their limits. To further advance bottom-up models from a multidisciplinary energy efficiency policy evaluation perspective, we review and critically analyze bottom-up energy-economy models and corresponding evaluation studies on energy efficiency policies to induce technological change. We use the household sector as a case study. Our analysis focuses on decision frameworks for technology choice, type of evaluation being carried out, treatment of market and behavioral failures, evaluated policy instruments, and key determinants used to mimic policy instruments. Although the review confirms criticism related to energy-economy models (e.g., unrealistic representation of decision making by consumers when choosing technologies), they provide valuable guidance for policy evaluation related to energy efficiency. Different areas to further advance models remain open, particularly related to modeling issues, techno-economic and environmental aspects, behavioral determinants, and policy considerations