In January 2021, Jim Williams, Professor at the University of San Francisco, and Director of the Sustainable Development Solution Network's Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP), along with energy modeling experts from Evolved Energy Research and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, published Carbon-Neutral Pathways for the United States in the journal AGU Advances. 

This study describes multiple possible pathways for the U.S. to reach net- zero and net-negative CO2 emissions by 2050 in line with the Paris Climate Agreement and demonstrates that "the U.S. can reach zero net CO2 emissions from energy and industry in 2050 at a net cost of 0.2-1.2% of GDP, not counting the benefits of avoiding damages from climate change or the health benefits from improved air quality," according to the publication announcement.

The announcement also states: "All pathways employed four basic strategies: energy efficiency, decarbonized electricity, electrification, and capturing carbon. Least cost pathways were based on >80% wind and solar electricity plus limited thermal generation for reliability. A 100% renewable primary energy system is feasible at somewhat higher cost and land use ... The actions required in the next 10 years are known with high confidence and align with those found in other recent work, including Princeton’s Net Zero America Project. The highest-priority near-term actions are similar across all the modeled pathways and have clear quantitative benchmarks for policy:

• Renewables buildout (>500 GW total wind and solar capacity by 2030)
• Coal retirement (<1% of total generation by 2030)
• Maintaining current nuclear and natural gas capacity
• Electrification of light-duty vehicles (EVs > 50% of LDV sales by 2030) and buildings (heat pumps >50% of residential HVAC sales by 2030).​"

​The link to the full publication is here.

In November 2020, the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21) released two reports addressing the need to shift the transportation, heating and cooling sectors to renewable energy.

Transportation: The rapidly growing transportation sector generated nearly 25% of global energy-related GHG emissions in 2019, yet only 3.7% of the sector's energy consumption was met by renewable sources, according to REN21. Citing the need for a "rapid and fundamental shift ... in transport to enable the decarbonisation required to meet the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement," REN21 and the FIA Foundation released an in-depth study, Renewable Energy Pathways in Road Transport, to highlight sustainable solutions. A link to the full report is here, and those interested in staying informed and participating in future energy and transportation initiatives are invited to sign up here. 

Heating and Cooling: The continued use of fossil fuels as the main fuel for heating and cooling contributes significantly to air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. A new report, Renewable Energy Policies in a Time of Transition: Heating and Cooling (2020), prepared by REN21, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), "provides an overview of the role of renewables in heating and cooling with context on the different technological options and applications." It also "showcases supporting policy mechanisms necessary to support the development and deployment of renewables in heating and cooling." A link to the full report is here. 

By Megan Darby, Climate Home News. The next UN climate summit will take place December 2-13, 2019 in Santiago, Chile, officials announced in March. 

COP25, as it is known, was originally scheduled for November in Brazil, but the plan changed after Jair Bolsonaro’s incoming administration withdrew the offer to host.

Environment minister Carolina Schmidt led a successful bid for Chile to take over the presidency. She will be the first woman to oversee the negotiations in eight years.

While there was no immediate comment from her office, Schmidt has publicised some of her early preparations for the role. She met last year’s Cop president Michal Kurtyka, of Poland, earlier in the week and on Wednesday tweeted: “We must move towards effective climatic action.”

There had been talk of deferring the conference until January 2020, to give the country more time to raise funds and prepare. However the UN Climate Change Bureau ultimately agreed to squeeze it into 2019. The precise venue is to be confirmed.
It is not the only high-profile event in Santiago’s calendar: leaders of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries are due to convene November 16-17, 2019.

“The Piñera admin is making a bold statement in favor of multilateralism,” tweeted Latin America climate expert Guy Edwards.

A ‘pre-COP’ ministerial meeting is expected to take place in Costa Rica, possibly as soon as October, according to sources.

This article originally appeared on Climate Home News.

Image: United Nations Climate Action Summit 2019

The government of Costa Rica has released an ambitious plan to decarbonize the country's economy by 2050. The plan has received international attention and praise as the latest example of Costa Rica's climate and clean energy leadership.

The introduction to the plan states:

- Decarbonization and resilience are conceived as a means to transform the development model to one based on the bioeconomy, green growth, inclusion and the improvement of the quality of life of citizens.

- The definition of the key actions was carried out based on the paradigm of transformational change - in contrast to the logic of incremental change - which is required to abolish the use of fossil fuels in our economy.

- In order to bring the concept of decarbonization to practice, a methodology was used whose starting point is a long-term vision of Costa Rica: to have a decarbonized economy by 2050, which has reached the lowest possible level of emissions consistent with the global climate goal - that is; the goal of containing the increase in global temperature well below 2 ° C (and ideally a limit of increase to 1.5 ° C) with respect to pre-industrial levels.

- From this global goal and applying a "backcasting" exercise considering the national reality, the public policy packages and actions that must be implemented from today to reach the goal to 2050 were identified.

A link to the full plan (in Spanish) is here.

A key component of the plan will be electrifying transportation, which accounts for 40% of Costa Rica's greenhouse gas emissions. 

In 2018, 98% of the country’s electricity came from renewable sources, and the economy grew 3%.

In June 2016, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.S. President Barack Obama, and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto issued a joint leaders statement recognizing that our "highly integrated economies and energy systems afford a tremendous opportunity to harness growth in our continuing transition to a clean energy economy."

The North American leaders committed to a North American Climate, Clean Energy, and Environment Partnership that identifies deliverables to be achieved and activities to be pursued in the following categories:

- Advancing Clean and Secure Energy
- Driving Down Short-Lived Climate Pollutants
- Promoting Clean and Efficient Transportation
- Protecting Nature and Advancing Science
- Showing Global Leadership in Addressing Climate Change

Major goals include achieving 50% clean power generation in North America by 2025 as well as demand reduction through energy efficiency. Problematically, the statement includes nuclear as a source "clean power," which significantly reduces the potential positive impact of this initiative on the transition to clean renewable power in the region.

Read the full Action Plan here.

On February 12, 2016, energy ministers of the United States, Canada, and Mexico signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Climate Change and Energy Collaboration and launched a web platform that displays maps of North American energy infrastructure.

Per the MOU the three countries will collaborate and share information in six key areas:

• Sharing experience and knowledge in the development of reliable, resilient and low-carbon electricity grids;
• Modeling, deploying and accelerating innovation of clean energy technologies, including renewables;
• Exchanging information in order to improve energy efficiency for equipment, appliances, industries and buildings, including energy management systems;
• Exchanging information and promoting joint action to advance the deployment of carbon capture, use and storage;
• Identifying trilateral activities to further climate change adaptation and resilience; and, 
• Sharing best practices and seeking methods to reduce emissions from the oil and gas sector, including methane and black carbon.
  

In addition, certain North American energy information and maps are now gathered on one web-based platform - North American Cooperation on Energy Information - which includes:

• A first suite of static and interactive North American energy infrastructure maps;
  
• A combined North American energy outlook;
• Data tables and methodological guides to allow for the comparison of energy trade between the three countries; and,
• A glossary of terms and definitions available in each country’s official languages.

The collaboration may form the foundation of a continent-wide initiative on energy infrastructure, including electric car infrastructure, according to Canadian Energy Perspectives.

At the Climate Summit for Local Leaders held in Paris on December 4, 2015, more than 1,000 city and regional officials issued the Paris City Hall Declaration committing to "support ambitious long-term climate goals such as a transition to 100% renewable energy in our communities, or a 80% greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2050." More here.

In Paris, Indigenous peoples called on world leaders to keep fossil fuels in the ground, respect human rights, and transition to 100% clean renewable energy.

A coalition of Indigenous leaders and activists from North and South America gathered at a press conference on Sunday 12/6/15 to present three key documents on climate change.

The documents, proposed by Indigenous leaders from the Arctic to the Amazon, on Sunday 12/6/15 include:

• the first international treaty between Indigenous women of the Americas,
  
• a call for international recognition and protection of sacred territories, and
  
• a declaration cosigned by more than 150 indigenous leaders, environmental, and climate justice organizations that urges world leaders to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

Indigenous leaders and their allies urged world governments to include the rights of native communities in the text of the international treaty expected to come out of the U.N. Climate Summit in Paris.