Recently, interest has been growing in how different types of policy instruments across countries could be compared. Since Paris, most Parties to the Paris Agreement have committed to quantified mitigation targets in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) documents. Countries determine themselves how to meet such targets, however. They use or plan to use a widely varied set of policy instruments to lower GHG emissions which allows them to accommodate national circumstances. This complicates the comparison of mitigation strategies, and the ability to gain a clear understanding of cumulative effort across countries. Several ideas have been launched recently to better enable such comparisons including the development of comparable metrics to measure the effects of policies on emission reductions. Also, interesting policy initiatives add to this development including a recent one from the OECD. Such initiatives also help to address concerns over competitiveness losses and carbon leakage from unilateral initiatives, reinforce trust and reduce the risks of non-compliance. This session discusses some of the background issues as well as potential avenues available to move forward.

Policy Session organisers: Simone Borghesi (EAERE POC Secretary General, European University Institute and University of Siena) and Jos Delbeke (EAERE POC, European University Institute and KU Leuven)