COP21: Results, Implications, Pathways and Policies for Low-Emissions European Societies (COP21-RIPPLES)

The COP21 RIPPLES project aims to analyse the transformations in the energy systems, and in the wider economy, that are required in order to implement the Paris Agreement (NDCs), and investigate what steps are needed to attain deeper, more ambitious decarbonisation targets, as well as the socio-economic consequences that this transition will trigger.

On 1 December 2016, the Horizon 2020 project “COP21: Results, Implications, Pathways and Policies for Low-Emissions European Societies (COP21-RIPPLES)” officially started. Coordinated by the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) in Paris, the project will provide interdisciplinary analysis of the conditions of EU climate policy in the new strategic context of the Paris climate change agreement concluded in 2015.

The VUB’s Institute for European Studies (IES) is one of the main partners of the project. Under the lead of Prof. Sebastian Oberthür, the IES cluster on Environment and Sustainable Development is in particular co-coordinating Work Package 4 of the project that assesses the adequacy of the Paris outcomes for effective international climate governance and the EU’s role.

COP21-RIPPLES has four objectives:

1) Assess the adequacy of national climate action plans submitted under the Paris Agreement in light of the global temperature target of limiting warming to 2°C/1.5°C.

2) Assess the implications of national climate action plans and their strengthening on other European socio-economic objectives (e.g. innovation and technology deployment; trade and competitiveness; investment, financial flows and economic growth (“green growth”); and global energy markets and energy security).

3) Assess the adequacy of the outcomes of Paris, and the implications and opportunities emerging from ongoing UN climate negotiations.

4) Provide recommendations for EU climate policy and climate diplomacy.

Partners

Bruegel / Climate Analytics / Climate Strategies / The Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) / The National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) / The Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) / The COPPETEC Foundation / The Institute for European Studies (IES) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) / Sofia University / The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge / The Chancellor Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford / Tsinghua University / University of Cape Town (UCT) / University College London (UCL) / University of East Anglia (UEA) / WiseEuropa / Wuppertal Institute

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