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Energy efficiency and decarbonization are important elements of climate change mitigation. We draw on European mitigation scenarios from the EMF28 modeling exercise to decompose economy-wide and sectoral emissions into their main components. We utilize the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) to gain insights into five effects: affluence, energy intensity, carbon intensity, conversion efficiency, and structural change. Economy-wide analysis suggests that energy efficiency improvements (including end-use efficiency of production and structural change of the economy) determine emission reductions short to medium term while decarbonization becomes more important in the long term. Sectoral analysis suggests that electricity generation holds the largest potential for decarbonization. Mitigation in the transport and energy-intensive sectors is limited by technology availability, forcing output and energy inputs to decline to meet the given mitigation pathways. We conclude that energy efficiency improvements could bridge the time until carbon-free technologies mature, while their quick development remains essential.

The Stanford Energy Modeling Forum exercise 32 (EMF 32) used 11 different models to assess emissions, energy, and economic outcomes from a plausible range of economy-wide carbon price policies to reduce carbon dioxide (CO${}_{\mathrm{\text{2}}})$ emissions in the United States. Here we discuss the most policy-relevant results of the study, mindful of the strengths and weaknesses of current models. Across all models, carbon prices lead to significant reductions in CO₂ emissions and conventional pollutants, with the vast majority of the reductions occurring in the electricity sector. Importantly, emissions reductions do not significantly depend on the rebate or tax cut used to return revenues to the economy. Expected economic costs, as modeled by either GDP or welfare, are modest, but vary across models. These costs are offset by benefits from avoided climate damages and health benefits from reductions in conventional air pollution. Using revenues to reduce preexisting capital or labor taxes reduces costs in most models relative to lump-sum rebates, but the size of the cost reductions varies significantly. Devoting at least some revenue to household rebates can significantly reduce adverse impacts on low income households. Carbon prices at $25/ton or even lower levels cause significant shifts away from coal as an energy source with responses of other energy sources highly dependent upon technology cost assumptions. Beyond 2030, we conclude that model uncertainties are too large to make quantitative results useful for near-term policy design. We close by describing recommendations for policymakers on interacting with model results in the future.

The international community is now acutely aware of the negative global impact of climate change. But efforts to advance global climate agendas will not go far without China and the United States leading the way, given the two major powers’ sheer economic size, global influence, and contributions to greenhouse gas emissions. A growing consensus is that China and the United States share common interests in promoting a global transition toward a carbon-free future. China-U.S. climate cooperation may also encourage other major carbon emitters to shoulder greater international responsibilities and help advance a global low-carbon agenda. This article previews the Biden administration’s climate and energy policies, analyzes the state and impact of China-U.S. interactions in climate governance and energy transition, and presents a set of policy recommendations on how to build trust and increase cooperation between the world’s largest economies and carbon emitters. Washington’s green recovery-centered climate plan will not go far without advancing international cooperation in industrial restructuring, infrastructure investment, emerging key resource development, and market demand. Likewise, Beijing’s ambitious goals of peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 will also be difficult to attain if it cannot accelerate green economic growth at home and shoulder the joint leadership of climate governance abroad. In this context, China-U.S. climate cooperation and joint efforts toward carbon neutrality could serve as an icebreaker for the current frosty bilateral relationship.

The Public Electricity and Heat Production (PEHP) is the most emissive sector in European economy. The characteristic features of PEHP contribute to the importance of its mitigation role. In this study, the decarbonization potential of energy sector was retrospectively analyzed. Proposed algorithm contained, at the first layer, the year-by-year data analysis and calculation while at the second graphical interpretation and pattern grouping. Despite the double-layering, the developed approach included the three following stepwise stages: the CO₂ emission alternatives scenarios pathways methodology, the CO₂ emission driving forces modes and influence weight methodology, and the transformation pattern identifying and grouping. Based on 1990–2017 CO₂ emission inventories, the investigation of long-term PEHP decarbonization in 26 European countries was performed, in year-by-year and country-by-country processing. All results and findings have become the foundation for describing achieved decarbonization goals and 27 years mitigation ways. The Energy Consumption (EC) and Emission Factor (EF) have been pointed as a key driving forces of CO₂ emission and as a key development indicator of PEHP sectoral transformation structure. Based on the developed country-by-country graphical interpretation interface, the five key patterns of PEHP decarbonization processes in European countries were observed and defined. The algorithm which has been applied and tested in 26 countries for 27 years was proved to be a universal and flexible tool to determine the lack of a utilitarian path of PEHP CO₂ emission mitigation in Europe.

Achievement of the central goal of the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement — that of limiting the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels — depends critically on eliminating the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity and then electrifying as much of the rest of the world’s economy — transportation, heating and cooling, and industry — as is feasible. “Decarbonizing” electricity is not only possible, but is possible with the means we have at hand today. The obstacles to it are not primarily technological in nature, but institutional and financial. Overcoming them requires the adoption of a broad suite of policies and market reforms that reward investment in non-emitting resources and end-use energy efficiency, penalize reliance on fossil fuels for generating electricity, and accelerate the adoption of end-use technologies that rely on decarbonized electricity. The needed policies and reforms are well-understood and, in a number of places around the world, have already proven their worth. Widespread adoption remains elusive, however, as regions and nations grapple with the political, social, and economic challenges that attend reform of the highly capital-intensive electric industry. The good news is that the policy groundwork laid by progressive governments over the past 30 years has unleashed the economic forces that have driven, and will continue to drive, change: the clean energy future also happens to be the lowest-cost energy future.

Decarbonising emissions-heavy industrial sectors is key to delivering on the Paris Agreement. In Austria, the iron and steel sector holds a large share of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions and is in need of introduction of new technologies, orienting on green hydrogen and renewable energies. Acknowledging that such a transition features diverse exogenous risks and possible consequences, our research attempts to prioritise the risks associated with a pathway promoting a low-carbon iron and steel sector in Austria, from the stakeholders’ perspective. We use a 2-tuple TOPSIS model and carry out group decision making based on the Computing with Words methodology.

The chapter analyzes the main directions and tools for implementing the principles of sustainable development in Russia. The aggravation of environmental and social problems, especially in the last two decades, has led to the actualization of the concept of sustainable development. At the present stage, almost all countries have already included sustainable development goals in their strategies and have achieved certain results in their implementation. According to the University of Cambridge Sustainability Report, in 2021, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark were the most effective in this area. In this rating, which includes 165 countries, Russia took only 46th place. In this regard, this chapter focuses on studying the tools introduced and planned for introduction in the near future to implement the principles of sustainable development in Russia. As a result, the authors proved that the priority areas for implementing the principles of sustainable development in Russia are reducing the negative impact on the environment and achieving carbon neutrality. The best available technologies and the environmental tax can become key tools in implementing these areas. The implementation of these areas and the use of the selected tools will allow Russia to make progress in achieving sustainable development goals and enter at least the top 20 leading countries in this direction.

The chapter focuses on the energy transition as a necessary prerequisite for developing a green economy. The features of the new energy transition are based on the introduction and use of clean technologies, such as renewable energy and hydrogen. The urgency of taking drastic measures to transition to green energy is connected with the speedy solution to climate problems on the planet. The countries are actively taking measures to decarbonize economic processes; businesses are adopting business strategies that include reducing the negative impact on the environment and introducing green technologies. The paper analyzes current trends in the energy sector to identify the readiness of a new energy transition to the principles of a green economy.

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) encompasses a technology with the potential to fill many roles in the pursuit of global energy and climate objectives. There are now some 10 ongoing carbon capture projects in ASEAN countries, with the majority of these initiatives being announced since January 2020. Nevertheless, the implementation of CCUS as a strategy to address climate change has encountered opposition from certain individuals who argue that it perpetuates continued reliance on fossil fuels rather than promoting their substitution with renewable energy alternatives, such as solar and wind power. This study employs energy justice as an analytical tool to analyze social and economic aspects within energy systems to ensure fairness in allocating both benefits and responsibilities associated with energy provision. The results show that potential injustices might occur in developing CCUS technology. Hence, the eight principles of energy justice — availability, affordability, due process, good governance, sustainability, intergenerational equity, intragenerational equity, and responsibility — must be taken into consideration so as to promote inclusiveness and enable broad participation in ASEAN’s CCUS development plans.