Research priorities for supporting subnational climate policies
Name
Commentary_final copy_title correct.pdf
Description
Accepted version
Size
444.09 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
9af48db4c9bd4cde31cfbb452c2e506e
Author(s)
Klemun, Magdalena M
Edwards, Morgan R
Trancik, Jessika E
Date Issued
August 13, 2020
Journal
WIREs Climate Change
Publisher
Wiley
Citation
Klemun, Magdalena M, Edwards, Morgan R and Trancik, Jessika E. 2020. "Research priorities for supporting subnational climate policies." WIREs Climate Change, 11 (6).
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Growing momentum for decentralized climate policy and the falling costs of low‐carbon technologies are creating new climate change mitigation opportunities for subnational actors. Here we discuss how research can best support these subnational efforts to allow limited resources to stretch further. To stimulate this discussion, we identify four research priorities. (1) Innovation mechanisms examines local policy opportunities for technology improvement to achieve high returns on investments. (2) Co‐benefits analyzes the non‐climate benefits of emissions reductions to highlight how local policies can affect communities directly. (3) Emissions monitoring develops rapid, low‐cost, local measurement strategies to allow communities to assess and weigh in on the emissions impacts of local energy systems. (4) Decision levers reframes large‐scale analyses into more targeted and actionable metrics for local policy decisions. This piece was informed and inspired by a set of interviews we conducted with representatives in business, government, NGOs, and educational institutions actively engaged in local climate action, and by our own research.
MIT Department
MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.646
