Climate policy portfolios that accelerate emission reductions

Wilson, Charlie, Arvanitopoulos, Theodoros, Schaub, Simon, Jordan, Andrew, Tosun, Jale and Vasilakos, Nicholas (2025) Climate policy portfolios that accelerate emission reductions. Nature Communications. ISSN 2041-1723 (In Press)

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Abstract

The corpus of national climate policies continues to grow, but to what effect? Using data on 2,782 policy instruments in 43 OECD countries and major emerging economies over the period 2000–2019 we show that national climate policy portfolios that specialise on certain instrument types and sectors are associated with faster reductions in fossil CO2 emission intensity. Supported by exemplar country case studies, we also provide quantitative evidence that the effectiveness of climate policy is amplified by the presence of long-term emission reduction targets and governmental bodies including dedicated ministries and intergovernmental organisations. Over the study period, the cumulative CO2 emissions avoided by adopting all portfolios amounted to 15.9 GtCO2 of which half was in the emerging economies. Our findings identify what type of climate policy portfolios are best at accelerating emission reductions in line with Paris Agreement goals.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action
Faculty \ School:	University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
UEA Research Groups:	University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Responsible Business Regulation Group
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	12 Dec 2025 11:30
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2025 11:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/101374
DOI:	issn:2041-1723

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