Ensuring that human-induced climate change does not lead to a global mean temperature rise of more than 2oC since pre-industrial levels requires substantial emission reductions, leading to low- or even zero-emission economies and societies. Realizing this is extremely challenging and requires a great variety of decision-makers to simultaneously overcome economic feasibility, technology availability and social acceptance issues of identified climate solutions.
CARISMA supports the development and diffusion of options for climate change mitigation, both technologies and practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Climate-friendly technologies and practices often already exist, yet for several reasons they do not enter the mainstream. Decision-makers in the public and private sectors alike are, for a variety of reasons, inclined to continue the high-carbon status quo. This holds for already developed technologies and practices, as well as for technologies and practices that are untested or in the research phase.
Through extensive engagement with the policy-making and business communities, CARISMA aims to help them better understand these reasons with a specific focus on:
- Research and innovation, including international cooperation, around climate change mitigation options;
- Economic costs, social aspects and environmental benefits of climate change mitigation options;
- Existing mitigation policies and how these interact with other environmental and climate policies;
- How the success of policies for climate change mitigation depends on their socio-economic implementation contexts and policy implementation cycles.