Effectiveness of 1,500 global climate policies ranked for first time

Last Friday (23rd August), a study led by Climate Econometricians at the University of Oxford, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), and the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) was published in Science. 

The study analysed 1,500 observed policies over two decades documented in a comprehensive OECD climate policy database, utilising AI-enhanced statistical techniques, spread across the buildings, electricity, industry and transport sectors in 41 countries. It is the first time a global dataset of policies has been compared and ranked in this way. 

The researchers measured ‘emission breaks’ that followed policy interventions using a methodology developed by Climate Econometrics at The Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School (INET Oxford). 63 successful policy interventions were identified using this approach, where total emissions reduced by between 0.6 and 1.8 Gt CO2.  

The data has been made available to policy-makers by the researchers; study co-author Professor Felix Pretis, Co-Director of the Climate Econometrics Programme at Nuffield College, University of Oxford said:  

“Scaling up good practice policies identified in this study to other sectors and other parts of the world can in the short term be a powerful climate mitigation strategy…The dashboard that we make available to policy-makers provides an accessible platform to conduct country-by-country, sector-by-sector comparisons and to find a suitable policy mix for different situations.” 

The research concluded: 

Climate policies are more effective as part of a mix: In most cases, effect sizes of climate policies are larger if a policy instrument is part of a policy mix rather than implemented alone –for example combining carbon pricing with a subsidy. 

Developed and developing countries have different climate policy needs: In developed countries, carbon pricing stands out as an effective policy, whereas in developing countries, regulation is the most powerful policy. 

The Paris emissions gap can be closed: Focusing on the 63 cases of effective climate policies would close the current emissions gap to meet the Paris Targets by 26% to 41%, a significant contribution. 

Find out more here.