Tired of climate targets? Shift focus of IPCC scenarios from emission and growth targets to policies

Ivan Savin; Jeroen van den Bergh

doi:10.1111/nyas.14900

Tired of climate targets? Shift focus of IPCC scenarios from emission and growth targets to policies

Ivan Savin, Jeroen van den Bergh^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Climate change has revived the debate on growth-versus-environment. In line with this, recently it has been proposed to shift the target focus of IPCC scenarios from emissions to post-growth. We argue here that this confounds ends and means, since while reduction of growth may be an outcome of good climate policies, it should not be a goal in itself. In fact, a post- or degrowth goal would mean an ineffective and costly way to reduce emissions. Instead, we suggest that the debate about pursuing economic growth versus achieving climate goals will become more transparent and policy-relevant through refocusing scenarios from targets to policy.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	5-10
Number of pages	6
Journal	Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Volume	1517
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14900
Publication status	Published - Nov 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Russian Science Foundation, Grant/Award Number: 19-18-00262; H2020 European Research Council, Grant/Award Number: 741087

Funding Information:
We are grateful to Detlef van Vuuren for helpful feedback. The usual disclaimer applies. This work was funded by an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme [Grant agreement n° 741087]. I.S. acknowledges financial support from the Russian Science Foundation [RSF Grant number 19-18-00262].

Funding Information:
We are grateful to Detlef van Vuuren for helpful feedback. The usual disclaimer applies. This work was funded by an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme [Grant agreement n◦ 741087]. I.S. acknowledges financial support from the Russian Science Foundation [RSF Grant number 19-18-00262].

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of New York Academy of Sciences.

Funding

Russian Science Foundation, Grant/Award Number: 19-18-00262; H2020 European Research Council, Grant/Award Number: 741087 We are grateful to Detlef van Vuuren for helpful feedback. The usual disclaimer applies. This work was funded by an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme [Grant agreement n° 741087]. I.S. acknowledges financial support from the Russian Science Foundation [RSF Grant number 19-18-00262]. We are grateful to Detlef van Vuuren for helpful feedback. The usual disclaimer applies. This work was funded by an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme [Grant agreement n◦ 741087]. I.S. acknowledges financial support from the Russian Science Foundation [RSF Grant number 19-18-00262].

Funders	Funder number
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	741087
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
H2020 European Research Council
European Research Council
Russian Science Foundation	19-18-00262
Russian Science Foundation
Horizon 2020

Keywords

climate policy
degrowth
economic growth
IPCC
post-growth

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1111/nyas.14900

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Cite this

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abstract = "Climate change has revived the debate on growth-versus-environment. In line with this, recently it has been proposed to shift the target focus of IPCC scenarios from emissions to post-growth. We argue here that this confounds ends and means, since while reduction of growth may be an outcome of good climate policies, it should not be a goal in itself. In fact, a post- or degrowth goal would mean an ineffective and costly way to reduce emissions. Instead, we suggest that the debate about pursuing economic growth versus achieving climate goals will become more transparent and policy-relevant through refocusing scenarios from targets to policy.",

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Tired of climate targets? Shift focus of IPCC scenarios from emission and growth targets to policies

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Persistent URL (handle)

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Cite this