Foundational Policies and Context
Establish the legal, governance, planning, and analytical frameworks that enable effective climate action.
Sub-topics
Filter by
No resource type matches that.
No jurisdictional level matches that.
No sub-topic matches that.
54 resources
Deadline 2020: How Cities Will Get the Job Done
Deadline 2020 was written for C40, a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change. The report presents a detailed pathway of what C40 cities need to do to play their part i...
World Bank Report, Decarbonizing Development: Three Steps to a Zero-Carbon Future
Decarbonizing Development looks at what it would take to decarbonize the world economy by 2100 in a way that is compatible with countries’ broader development goals. It emphasizes that countries must:...
Massachusetts 2050 Decarbonization Roadmap
Under the framework of Massachusetts’ Global Warming Solutions Act, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has committed to achieving Net Zero GHG emissions by 2050. Commissioned by the Executive Office of...
Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in Brazil
Following the publication of Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States, on which the ModelClimateLaws.org project was based, the Model Climate Laws team has encouraged foreign lawyer...
Report, Vision for Equitable Climate Action
The Vision for Equitable Climate Action (VECA) is a comprehensive vision for tackling the climate crisis drafted by members of the USCAN Equitable and Ambitious Climate Vision Action Team. Over nearly...
Report, Accelerating America’s Pledge
This 2019 report assesses what would be delivered from expanded actions by states, cities, businesses, and citizens and then layers on a robust, complementary, and ambitious federal policy program aft...
2024 Annual Decarbonization Perspective
This 2024 report from Evolved Energy Research provides an energy modeling analysis and evidence-based strategies for the United States to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The report is released ann...
Getting to Zero: A Pathway to a Carbon Neutral Seattle
Seattle commissioned outside consultants to develop a scenario of how the city might be able to achieve carbon neutrality. The resulting report constructed a Carbon Neutral scenario from the “bottom u...
Report, Mission Possible: Reaching Net-Zero Carbon Emissions from Harder-to-Abate Sectors by Mid-Century
The Energy Transition Commission’s 2018 report, Mission Possible: Reaching Net-Zero Carbon Emissions from Harder-to-Abate Sectors by Mid-Century, outlines the possible routes to fully decarbonize ceme...
National Academies Report, Accelerating Decarbonization of the US Energy System
According to a 2021 report from the National Academies of Sciences, the United States could achieve net-zero carbon pollution by 2050, address societal inequities, and reap benefits far greater than t...
Washington Deep Decarbonization Pathways Analysis
Washington engaged energy experts at Evolved Energy and the Deep Decarbonization Project to develop pathways that the state can pursue in an effort to decarbonize by 2050. The resulting study includes...
2020: The Climate Turning Point
Mission 2020’s Climate Turning Point report, co-authored by a broad array of climate advocates and researchers, surveys the necessity of peaking global emissions by 2020 in order to meet Paris Accord ...
From Risk to Return: Investing in a Clean Energy Economy
Risky Business’ 2016 report considers a large-scale shift away from ongoing spending on fossil fuels and toward up-front capital investments in clean energy technologies, consistent with reducing gree...
Report, Net-Zero Energy Systems
This research paper, originally published in Science, reviews what it would take to achieve energy system decarbonization, including parts of the energy system that are particularly difficult to decar...
Report, Model Statute for Proceedings Challenging Government Failure to Act on Climate Change
The purpose of this Model Statute is to suggest a path forward for individuals and communities to access their courts to challenge government action or inaction on climate change. The Model Statute, i...
Limiting Global Warming to 2C: Policy Findings from the Durban Platform Scenario Analyses
This report presents a number of key outcomes of the LIMITS project, which was born out of the UNFCCC Durban COP in order to formulate international climate policies in the context of the 2°C target. ...
Pathways to 2050: Alternative Scenarios for Decarbonizing the US Economy
C2ES’s 2019 report is the culmination of a collaborative exercise including a group of companies examining potential scenarios for achieving mid-century decarbonization goals. This scenario exercise a...
Senate Democrats Report, Case for Climate Action
In August 2020, Senate Democrats on Tuesday released a report laying out policy recommendations Congress should adopt in order to bring the U.S. to a net-zero carbon economy by 2050. The report, relea...
Report, Rewiring America
Saul Griffith’s 2020 report seeks to answer how to effectively decarbonize the US economy by 2035 without forcing Americans to sacrifice their current lifestyles and without having to invent any new t...
ExxonMobil’s 2019 Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040
ExxonMobil’s 2019 Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040 includes a section, “Pursuing a 2C Pathway,” which utilizes third-party, peer-reviewed work coordinated by the Energy Modeling Forum at Stanford Un...
Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project
The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) is a global collaboration of energy research teams charting practical pathways to deeply reducing greenhouse gas emissions in their own countries. It i...
LPDD Model Law: State Workforce Study
This model state law requires state agencies to assess the education, development and training needs for the workforce needed to meet the state’s climate and clean energy goals. The model law is appli...
Vulcan Project
The Vulcan Project quantifies all fossil fuel CO2 emissions for the entire United States at high space- and time-resolution with details on economic sector, fuel, and combustion process. It was create...
Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonisation in Australia
Following on the publication of Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States, the groundbreaking text on which the LPDD project was founded, our team has encouraged legal experts from o...
Massachusetts Climate Careers Fund
In May 2024, Massachusetts announced its Climate Careers Fund, which will provide no-interest loans to cover costs for tuition and living expenses for people enrolled in training and workforce program...
NREL Report, Electrification & Decarbonization
NREL’s 2017 report, Electrification & Decarbonization: Exploring U.S. Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Scenarios with Widespread Electrification and Power Sector Decarbonization, describes a...
Project Drawdown
Project Drawdown is a nonprofit organization that seeks to help the world reach “Drawdown”— the future point in time when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadi...
New Mexico’s Climate Careers Executive Order
New Mexico’s EO 2024-152 directs almost a dozen agencies to jointly create an infrastructure and climate-ready workforce development and training plan, including education programs for residents as yo...
California PATHWAYS Project
In early 2014, the California Air Resources Board, California Energy Commission, California Public Utilities Commission, and the California Independent System Operator engaged E3 to evaluate the feasi...
Report, How To Make Europe’s Energy System Climate-Neutral Before 2050
This 2020 Solar Power Europe and LUT University report provides an assessment demonstrating the lowest cost feasible energy mix with the transitioning of the power, heat, and transport sectors towards...
Perspectives for the Energy Transition: Investment Needs for the Low-Carbon Energy System
The IEA’s 2015 report sheds light on the essential elements of an energy sector transition that would be consistent with limiting the rise in global temperature to “well below 2°C,” as set out in the ...
IRENA Report, Renewable Energy Prospects: United States of America
IRENA’s 2015 report looks at the realistic potential for higher renewable energy uptake in all parts of the US energy system, including power, industry, buildings, and the transport sectors. It target...
LPDD Model Law: Federal Clean Energy Workforce Study
This model federal law would create a commission to oversee a comprehensive study of the workforce needs of the United States economy as it rapidly decarbonizes. A decarbonizing United States economy,...
United States Mid-Century Strategy for Deep Decarbonization
The United States Mid-Century Strategy for Deep Decarbonization illustrates pathways to achieve an 80 percent economy-wide emission reduction by 2050. It considers various scenarios, including a bench...
Shell’s Sky Scenario
An emissions scenario (called Sky) developed by Shell International examines the challenge of moving to an energy system with net-zero CO2 emissions and gradually eliminate emissions from deforestatio...
Tracking Clean Energy Progress: Informing Energy Sector Transformations
The IEA’s Tracking Clean Energy Progress reports assess the status of 45 critical energy technologies and sectors and provides recommendations on how they can get ‘on track’ with the IEA’s Sustainable...
EPA Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks
EPA’s Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks (2018) summarizes the latest information on U.S. anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission trends across various sources and sectors from 1990 through...
WRI Report, Delivering on the U.S. Climate Commitment: A 10-Point Plan Toward a Low-Carbon Future
WRI’s 2015 working paper examines where greenhouse gas emissions are headed if the United States does not take any new action to curb their release, how it can meet its 2025 emissions target using exi...
2019 Rhode Island Greenhouse Gas Reduction Study
The 2019 Rhode Island Greenhouse Gas Reduction Study updated on the previous 2016 study with a more accurate emissions baseline (accounting for gas leakage), and then modeled three decarbonization pat...
Report, Climate Reregulation in a Biden Administration
This August 2020 report from the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law charts a course for executive action that, under a new presidential administration, would reverse the deregulatory agenda of the Tr...
Report, Rebutting 33 False Claims About Solar, Wind, and Electric Vehicles
This April 2024 report from the Sabin Center examines 33 of the most pervasive false claims about solar energy, wind energy, and electric vehicles, tackling such popular topics as the mineral requirem...
Report, Energy Infrastructure Needs for a Net Zero Economy
This February 2021 report presents modeling results on energy infrastructure needs for a net-zero economy. These modeling results address four questions: What types of clean energy infrastructure are ...
EO 14057
In December 2021, President Biden signed EO 14057, which orders the U.S. government to be “net-zero” by 2050. EO 14057 directs the federal government to leverage its 300,000 buildings, 600,000 cars an...
Princeton Report, Net Zero America
A major Princeton University-led analysis concludes there’s a range of economically beneficial and technologically feasible options for reaching “net-zero” U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The s...
Technology and US Emissions Reductions Goals: Results of the EMF 24 Modeling Exercise
The EMF 24 U.S. Technology Scenarios engaged nine top energy-environment-economy models to examine the implications of technological improvements and technological availability for reducing U.S. green...
Washington’s Climate Workforce Legislation
Washington’s HB 1176 (2023) creates the Washington Climate Corps to expand service opportunities for young adults and veterans and connect them with climate and clean energy career opportunities. It a...
Report, Deep Decarbonization in the Northeastern United States and Expanded Coordination with Hydro-Québec
In 2018, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network published a detailed road map for achieving the Northeast’s goal of reducing GHG emissions 80% or more below 1990 levels by 2050 while maintainin...
Nature Report, Under-reporting of greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. cities
Decarbonization plans start with an accurate accounting of current GHG emissions. This 2021 Nature report highlights chronic ways in which US cities underestimate their GHG emissions. The report found...
NRDC report, America’s Clean Energy Frontier: The Pathway to a Safer Climate Future
NRDC’s 2017 report provides analysis demonstrating that with action on energy efficiency, renewable energy, electrification of vehicles and buildings with clean power, and electric grid enhancements, ...
Governors’ Climate Ready Workforce Initiative
In September, 2024, the U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of 24 governors representing approximately 60 percent of the U.S. economy and 55 percent of the U.S. population, launched the Gove...
ICF Report, Economic Analysis of US Decarbonization Pathways
ICF International authored a 2015 report using the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project’s US Decarbonization report as a basis and attempting to measure decarbonization’s economic impact. Its results...
LPDD Top Resources: Federal Permitting
As Congress considers potential revisions to the nation's laws governing the permitting of renewable energy projects, the LPDD team is excited to announce the publication of eight new model laws that ...
Report, 100% Clean and Renewable Wind, Water, and Sunlight (WWS) All-Sector Energy Roadmaps for the 50 United States
Jacobsen et al.’s 2015 study presents roadmaps for each of the 50 United States to convert their all-purpose energy systems (for electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, and industry) to ones pow...
DDPP Report, Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States, US 2050 Report
The DDP Report, Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States, evaluates the infrastructure and technology changes required to reduce U.S. GHG emissions in the year 2050 by 80% below 1990 leve...
No resource matches the filters you selected.
This is the filter, not the topic: clear it to see all 54 resources under Foundational Policies and Context.