What Place for Renewables in the INDCs?

Abstract

COP 21 In Paris most likely marks a turning point in international climate policy making: UNFCCC parties for the first time adopted a legally binding agreement that is universal and provides a mechanism that has the potential to build global mitigation efforts that help us to avert dangerous climate change. Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) are a crucial element of the Paris Agreement. They are the foundation on which the success of global mitigation efforts will be built. Scientific assessments concluded that current INDCs are an important contribution, but still fall short of reaching the long-term goal adopted with the Paris Agreement of “Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels…” by the end of the century (UNFCCC 2015a: Article 2). The available assessments vary in their results – depending on the underlying models the assessments deployed (Levin and Fransen 2015).