Climate Protection Potential in Land Use, Buildings, Industry, Land Transport

Sectoral systems differ substantially in their political economies, technologies, financing structures, industrial composition, and international connectedness. Taking these differences into account allows for enhancing international cooperation for climate action.

Within the NDC ASPECTS project, researchers are looking at four sectors: buildings, energy-intensive industries, land transport, as well as agriculture, forestry and other land use. These sectors generate significant greenhouse gas emissions, yet have thus far made only limited progress in decarbonisation. To drive the transformation of sectoral systems and address the specific challenges, researchers are analysing the intrinsic logic of the four sectors. In addition to national-level analyses, the project also investigates how global governance and international cooperation can contribute to decarbonising these four sectors. The participating scientists from the Basque Centre for Climate Change, the Free University of Brussels, the University of Eastern Finland and the Wuppertal Institute have compiled the results in four policy briefs. They discuss the current state of international governance and cooperation in these sectors and identify opportunities to improve them.

"There is significant untapped potential for emission reductions in the buildings sector. Accelerating mitigation efforts here has the potential to contribute to achieving no less than 16 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)", explains Wolfgang Obergassel, Co-Head of the Global Climate Governance Research Unit at the Wuppertal Institute. The policy brief "Global Climate Governance for the Decarbonisation of the Buildings Sector" shows which international political frameworks and decisions are necessary for realising this goal. Obergassel developed the policy brief together with Dr. Chun Xia-Bauer, Senior Researcher in the Energy Policy Research Unit at the Wuppertal Institute.

The policy briefs highlight: To achieve emission reductions across all four sectors, parties to the Paris Agreement could take a range of actions, for example through the new Mitigation Work Programme (MWP) under the Paris Agreement. These include developing sector-specific international decarbonisation roadmaps, promoting exchange on potential technological, economic, and policy options, or endorsing relevant international cooperation efforts. In addition, the policy briefs include proposals for sector-specific cooperation opportunities that go beyond the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The four policy briefs are available free of charge via the link below.