A mix of policies is needed to close the climate ambition gap

Strefler, J., Kriegler, E., Bauer, N., Humpenöder, F., Hasse, R., Dessens, O., Pye, S., Fragkos, P., Tsimpoukis, A., Madianos, M., van Heerden, R., Tagomori, I., de Boer, H.-S., van Ruijven, B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1232-5892, Kishimoto, P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8578-753X, Mastrucci, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5611-7780, Emmerling, J., Tavoni, M., Guivarch, C., Leblanc, F., et al. (2026). A mix of policies is needed to close the climate ambition gap. Environmental Research Letters 21 (15) e154032. 10.1088/1748-9326/ae8a6a.

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Abstract

We compare eight integrated assessment models to analyze the effects of additional climate policies targeting production and energy supply, consumption and energy demand, and the land sector on top of a moderate carbon price. We find that the combination of these additional policies can close the gap between well-below 2 °C and 1.5 °C pathways with overshoot assuming the same carbon price trajectory. While production and energy supply policies are necessary to decarbonize the energy sector in the long run, consumption and demand-side transformations can reduce emissions especially in the short-term, thus enabling lower cumulative emissions leading to lower peak temperature. Additional land policies can not only reduce CO 2 emissions further, but also target non-CO 2 emissions and reduce global warming even further.

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