As part of the discussion on a new international climate agreement, which is supposed to be concluded by 2015, the Wuppertal Institute contributed a submission to the UNFCCC's Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action.
The contribution by the Wuppertal Institute suggests that Parties should revisit the widely shared assumption that there is a trade-off between climate protection and economic well-being. First, maintaining the current energy system is hardly inexpensive and will tend to become ever more expensive in the future. Second, a high share of the necessary reductions can be achieved at a net economic benefit through energy efficiency. Third, the economics of renewable energy-based energy provision are changing rapidly.
Furthermore the authors Wolfgang Sterk, Stefan Lechtenböhmer, Christiane Beuermann et. al. recommend to reconsider the political wisdom of focusing almost exclusively on emission quantities, as the climate regime has so far done. This approach has the advantage of providing environmental clarity - but all political incentives point in the direction of setting weak rather than strong emission targets.
The submission is here ready for download.