Climate change [What Think Tanks are thinking]

The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties, also known as COP26, held in Glasgow, made limited progress on measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Leaders and government officials did agree on plans to limit deforestation and emissions of methane, one of the gases responsible for global warming, but they made little headway on curbing CO2 discharges. Notably, the leaders of China and Russia did not attend. Before the conference, scientists, analysts and many politicians had urged swift and radical action on climate change, pointing to this year’s weather anomalies - severe floods in Europe and China, fires in the United States, Australia and many other countries, and more frequent hurricanes. This note offers links to recent commentaries, studies and reports from international think tanks on climate issues, notably the European Green Deal, a set of policy initiatives by the European Commission with the overarching aim of making Europe climate neutral by mid-century. Links to more studies on COP26 will be published in a forthcoming item in this series in the next few weeks.