LIMITS · Low climate IMpact scenarios and the Implications of required Tight emission control Strategies

Now and in the foreseeable future, action on climate mitigation and adaptation doesn’t seem to be sufficient to manage greenhouse gases and their impact at the scale required to achieve stringent objectives such as those compatible with the 2°C target. This project aims at carrying out a rigorous assessment of what a stringent climate policy entails, and what is needed to overcome major impediments. This information will allow policymakers to better assess the costs and benefits of aggressive climate targets, and on how to make them implementable. Specifically, LIMITS will avail of the best methodological instruments to assess climate policies, whose analysis will interact with policy evaluation. Key global integrated assessment models will run climate mitigation and adaptation scenarios under new conditions and constraints, and the policy implications will be thoroughly evaluated. The needed physical changes in energy infrastructure and land use needed to comply to climate action will be assessed globally and regionally, for many of major world economies. In addition, the co-relationships of climate strategies with other pressing social and environmental issues, such as economic development, energy security and air pollution, will be analysed to identify a set of robust strategies that have the best chances of making stringent climate policy implementable.""