Meeting Purpose

The Climate Group, Initiative for Sustainable Energy (ISEP) at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy will host a presentation on long term deep decarbonization pathways during Climate Week NYC.

The event will feature the initial findings from ISEP’s recent study of national and subnational governments’ long-term climate action strategies, as well as highlight the work of the Under2Coalition towards assisting their members in developing these strategies. Jurisdictions that have successfully published 2050 Strategies will also be invited to share their experiences. This event will be especially helpful in informing civil society and philanthropic leaders on the best ways to support what is now widely seen as a critical component of implementing the Paris Agreement and meeting the challenge to significantly decarbonize the global economy by mid-century.

The Under2Coalition’s Pathways workstream supports subnational governments in publishing “2050 Strategies.” These strategies require jurisdictions to conduct rigorous analyses outlining the decarbonization pathways that would allow them to achieve their mid-century emissions goals. This exercise exposes jurisdictions to the economic and technological tradeoffs of their short to medium-term investment decisions. While a handful of national and subnational jurisdictions have published 2050 Strategies, there is much to learn on the effectiveness of these efforts.

ISEP’s study complements the work of the Under2Coalition. With a better understanding of the positive benefits of 2050 Strategies and the elements necessary to develop an effective Strategy, more jurisdictions can be compelled to take on this important effort while also ensuring that the effort itself is worthwhile.

Background

The Under2 Coalition is driven by a group of ambitious state and regional governments committed to keeping global temperature rise to under 2°C. The coalition brings together more than 200 governments who represent over 1.3 billion people and nearly 40% of the global economy. The Climate Group is the Secretariat to the Under2 Coalition and works with governments to accelerate climate action through three workstreams.
2050 Pathways

Deep decarbonization pathway planning: supporting governments to develop robust medium and long-term (2050) emissions reduction plans in line with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Policy Action

Scaling innovative policy solutions: spreading today’s best climate policies and developing new policies to ensure full decarbonization.

Transparency

Mainstreaming transparency: supporting governments so they have the expertise and systems in place to assess their emissions accurately, track progress and ensure policies remain fit for delivering against climate targets.

The 2050 Pathways workstream supports governments to plan an achievable path towards net-zero emissions. As part of this work, we provide resources to help governments complete ‘2050 Pathways’ analyses. As members of the Under2 Coalition, states and regions have committed to limit GHG emissions by 80 to 95% below 1990 levels, or to 2 annual metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent per capita, by 2050.

This is a significant task, requiring a complete transition in their energy systems. It is also a tremendous opportunity to build the kind of communities that citizens want to live in – with cleaner air, better health, and quality local jobs in emerging clean energy sectors.

We know this transition is possible. We also know that to achieve it governments must begin planning now, to make sure that the actions taken today are consistent with the future we want to achieve. Therefore, we have asked Under2 members to commit to completing a “2050 Pathways analysis” within the next two years, which will help them chart a viable path to meeting the abmbitious GHG reduction goals of the Under2 MOU.

A 2050 Pathways process starts with a government’s long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goal, and then works backwards to identify the technologies, infrastructure and investments that will be required to achieve it, as well as the costs, risks and trade-offs associated with different policy approaches.

When conducted alongside government agencies, the process helps policymakers by identifying intermediate targets that must be achieved, potential “forks in the road” (mutually exclusive technology options), and emissions “dead ends” (short-term solutions that make it impossible to achieve long-term goals).

The Under2 Coalition has developed exclusive resources for its signatories, including events like these which bring together Under2 signatories and research partners to share experiences, best practices, and lessons learned to support signatories on the path to net-zero emissions.

Attendees

Invitees: State and regional government representatives attending Climate Week NYC 2018, academic researchers, representatives from civil society.

RSVP by Tuesday September 25, 2018

Please RSVP with full details of who will be attending to:

Jody Dean, 2050 Pathways Manager, The Climate Group

Email: jdean@theclimategroup.org
Agenda
10:00-10:15

Arrival
10:15-10:30 OPENING REMARKS AND WELCOME

Tim Ash Vie, Director of the Under2 Coalition Secretariat, The Climate Group and Johannes Urpelainen, Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Professor of Energy, Resources and Environment at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
10:30–11 :15 PRESENTATION AND Q&A

ISEP Fellow Narayan Subramanian
11:15 – 12:00

Networking and Coffee