Research on global carbon abatement driven by R&D investment in the context of INDCs

Gaoxiang Gu and Zheng Wang

Energy, 2018, vol. 148, issue C, 662-675

Abstract: The intended nationally determined contributions were adopted as the national plans for addressing the climate change challenge after 2020, aiming at limiting global warming to 2 or 1.5 °C. In this context, energy-saving R&D has become an important way for reducing GHG emissions. This study used a climate-economy integrated assessment model to study the carbon reduction and climate mitigation effects of R&D investment by scenario simulation. The results show that most of the major carbon emitters cannot achieve their INDC targets by continuing their current R&D growth trends. Unless the R&D investment rates of countries increase to radically high levels, global warming by 2100 cannot be controlled to below 2 or 1.5 °C even when the major carbon emitters have approached or achieved their INDC targets. Low-carbon technology transfer will obviously reduce the carbon emissions of developing countries, but cannot achieve the 2 °C target. Considering the actual R&D capabilities of countries and the economic loss under excessive R&D input, raising R&D rates to approximately 4 or 5 percent and combining them with technology transfer and production damage measures will be a more realistic approach.

Keywords: R&D investment; Knowledge stock; Integrated assessment model (IAM); Process technological progress; Intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:148:y:2018:i:c:p:662-675

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2018.01.142

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