Module 4 Introduction to barriers to Mitigation

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Module 4Introduction to barriers to Mitigation

1. Concepts and scope
2. (Some) Sectoral Barriers
3. Overcoming Barriers

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Module 4a

• Concepts

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Introduction

• Numerous technologies and practices exist to
  reduce GHG emissions.
• Significant technical progress has been made in
  many areas such as wind turbines, hybrid engine
  cars, underground CO2 storage, etc.
• Opportunities to increase efficiency are overall.
  
• But significant barriers exist.
• Barriers add to the cost of implementation, and
  reduce the feasible potential
• Barriers can be technical, economic, political,
  cultural, social, behavioral and institutional.

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• Mitigation Potential
• Proposed conceptual framework

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The Concept of Barriers

• The transfer of technologies and practices that
  have the potential
• to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is often
  hampered by
• barriers that slow their penetration
• IPCC, 2001 Mitigation Working Group III to the
  Third Assessment Report
• A barrier is any obstacle to reaching a potential
  reduction of GHG that can be overcome by a
  policy, programme or measure.
• Opportunities for any given country might be
  found in the removal of any combination of
  barriers. An opportunity is a situation or
  circumstance to decrease the gap between the
  market potential of a technology or practice and
  the economic, socioeconomic, or technological
  potential.
• Barriers and opportunities tend to be
  context-specific, can change over time and vary
  across countries.
• Barriers identification is a key issue to select
  feasible mitigation options.

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Sources of Barriers

1. prices
2. financing
3. International trade
4. market structure
5. institutional and regulatory frameworks
6. Information provision
7. social, cultural and behavioral norms and
   aspirations

Barriers categories or areas

• Within each of these areas, barriers and
  opportunities represent
• failures or imperfections in markets, policies or
  other institutions that lie between the market
  potential and the possible achievement of the
  economic potential
• Other barriers are aspects of institutions or
  social and cultural systems that separate the
  economic and socioeconomic potentials.

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Some Key Issues

• Definition
• Categories (efficiency gap)
• Barriers mean additional costs
• They are context-specific, can change over time
  and vary across countries.
• They could be a key element to select feasible
  mitigation options

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Module 4b

• Sectoral Barriers

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Sectors Considered

1. Buildings
2. Transport
3. Industry
4. Energy Supply
5. Forestry
6. Solid Waste
7. Agriculture

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(Some) Barriers in the Buildings Sector

• Traditional customs
• Lack of skills
• Behavior and style
• Social barriers
• Misplaced incentives
• Lack of financing
• Market structure
• Absence of regulation
• Administratively set prices
• Imperfect information

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(Some) Barriers in the Transport Sector

• Infrastructure
• Lifestyles and Culture
• Economic Development
• Patterns of industrial production
• Consumer behavior (status or cost minimization)
• Lock-in technology (mobility, freedom,
  flexibility, fun, status, safety, a personal
  territory, a means of self expression)
• Subsidies - No full costs estimation
• Inadequate alternative options

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(Some) Barriers in the Industry Sector

• Lack of information
• Limited Capital Availability
• Lack of skilled personnel
• Decision making process
• Distorted perception

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(Some) Barriers in the Energy Supply Sector

• Energy Prices
• Inconsistency in evaluation of energy costs
• Lack of adequate financial support
• Institutional transformation and reforms
• Legal and regulatory frameworks
• Lack of information
• Decision making process and behavior
• Social and cultural constraints
• Capital availability

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(Some) Barriers in the Forestry Sector

• Lack of technical capability
• Lack of capacity for monitoring carbon stocks
• Opportunity cost of the land use

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(Some) Barriers in the Solid Waste Sector

• Lack of enabling policies initiatives,
  institutional mechanism, information and
  opportunities
• Organizational problems in collection and
  transport
• Lack of coordination among different groups
• Scale

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(Some) Barriers in the Agriculture Sector

• Farm-level adoption constraints
• Government subsidies
• Lack of capacity and skills
• Lack of information
• Lack of intellectual property rights

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Some remarks

• Not necessary the best sectors and options (for
  GHG mitigation) are the most feasible ones.
• Overcoming barriers is part of the decision on
  options
• A ranking of options could consider barriers as
  an indicator

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Module 4c

• Overcoming Barriers

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Overcoming Barriers

• Diagnosis ? Barrier ? Problem ? Policy
  (Intervention) ? Prioritize problems ? Objectives
  ? Strategies ? Actions ? Measures ? Results
• Depends on sector and technology pathway
• Identification, analysis and prioritization of
  barriers are time and country specific
• Barrier removal requires consideration of
  different interests and influences of
  stakeholders
• Driven by needs increase the flow of technology
  to the needs
• Improve the quality transfer only the right
  technology (ESTs)
• Policy itself has barriers a key challenge is
  the identification of feasible policies and to
  translate in adequate strategies.

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Overcoming Barriers

• Removal of barriers during capital stock turnover
  and periods of rapid social change can minimize
  disruption and mitigation costs.
• National responses to climate change can be more
  effective if deployed as a portfolio of policy
  instruments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas
  emissions. (Climate change as part of sector
  policies)
• Effectiveness can be enhanced when climate
  policies are integrated with the non-climate
  objectives of national and sectoral policy
  development (e.g., sustainable development).
• Coordinated actions among countries and sectors
  may help to reduce mitigation cost, address
  competitiveness concerns, potential conflicts
  with international trade rules, and carbon
  leakage. (JI/CDM)
• Nevertheless, earlier actions, including a
  portfolio of emissions mitigation, technology
  development and reduction of scientific
  uncertainty, increase flexibility in moving
  towards stabilization of atmospheric
  concentrations of greenhouse gases.

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Overcoming Barriers Sectoral Level

• Market based instruments (taxes, tradable
  permits, subsidies, deposit/refund systems)
• Standards, product bans, energy mix requirements
• Voluntary agreements
• Information, and labeling programs
• Government investment/ RD spending
• Regulation
• Sectoral options only as effective as allowed by
  macro conditions

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Overcoming Barriers Macro Levels

• Macro policies Some examples
• Reform of the legal system
• Creation of adequate markets conditions
• Enhancing physical and communications
  infrastructure
• Improve land tenure
• Improve macro-economic stability
• International co-ordination can address
  competitiveness, international trade rules, and
  leakage
• Setting appropriate macro-conditions can
  contribute more to mitigation than improving
  sectoral policies, measures, and instruments.
• IPCC shows a major gap in research few studies
  identify barriers and ways to overcome them, or
  estimate the cost of their removal.

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Opportunities For Overcoming Barriers

• Seeking synergies between competitiveness and GHG
  mitigation (e.g., when GHG mitigation could
  reduce costs)
• Communication among firms, between firms and
  users, or universities or government labs.
• Good communication strategies (marketing) may
  encourage consumer acceptance of new
  technologies.
• Economic, regulatory, and social incentives for
  reducing GHG emissions will also act as
  incentives for innovation to find new means of
  mitigation.
• Introduce low-emission technology, when
  previously locked-in technology begins to change.
• Changes in the market and regulatory context can
  also provide opportunities for innovation.

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Overcoming Sectoral BarriersBuildings

• Voluntary programs
• Building efficiency standards
• Equipment efficiency standards
• Demand-side management (DSM) programs
• Financing programs
• Government procurement
• Tax credits
• Accelerated RD
• Carbon cap and trade schemes

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Overcoming Sectoral Barriers Transport

• Fuel taxes
• Charges on road users, including parking fees,
  road taxes, license fees, and insurance premiums
• Shifting local government spending towards public
  transport and away from private transport.
• Fiscal and regulatory measures and public
  purchasing aimed at developing larger markets for
  low- GHG-emission vehicles plus international
  co-operation
• Implementing planning measures that encourage
  more sustainable transport patterns, avoiding the
  pollution, congestion, higher accident rates, and
  GHG emissions associated with cars. Introduce
  toll rings around big or medium sized cities,
• Moving away from zoning and car-based transport,
  and towards multi-function, high-density
  pedestrian zones
• Effective mitigation strategies would entail
  combinations of measures for overcoming the many
  forms of inertia and lock-in.

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Overcoming Sectoral Barriers Industry

• Technology diffusion policies there is no single
  instrument to reduce barriers instead, an
  integrated policy accounting for the
  characteristics of technologies, stakeholders,
  and countries addressed would be helpful.
• Information programmes designed to assist
  industry in understanding that employing
  technologies and practices will improve their
  competitiveness and reduce costs at the same time
  that use energy more efficiently.
• Best Practice programmes aimed to improve
  information on energy efficient technologies,
  demonstration projects and information
  dissemination, Energy audit programmes, among
  others.
• Environmental legislation can be a driving force
  in the adoption of new technologies.
• Direct subsidies and tax credits or other
  favorable tax treatments.
• Financial incentive programmes leading to large
  impacts on energy efficiency

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Overcoming Sectoral Barriers Energy Supply

• Multilateral cooperation is especially important
  for the development of hydropower programmes,
  regional interconnections, and developing small
  renewable technologies (e.g., mini hydro, solar,
  and wind).
• A reduction in nuclear or hydro unit size and/or
  improved safety might could help to overcome the
  capital availability barrier.
• Greater regional co-operation among developing
  countries in both research and development, and
  the development of an international commercial
  contracting network, to improve technology
  transfer.
• Accounting for the needs of potential users, and
  harmonizing diffusion strategies with local
  physical, human, and institutional resources,
  while building local technical and institutional
  capabilities.
• Expansion of electricity supply systems, while
  improving the efficiency of new capacity.
• Promoting commercialization of excess electricity
  production (e.g. from Industrial CHP) through
  better regulated access to existing grid systems.

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Overcoming Sectoral Barriers Forestry

• Forestry sector options are relatively low cost
  compared to those in the energy sector, which
  helps to reduce barriers.
• Promotion of mitigation projects also
  automatically promotes the flow of technology
• Independent verification of C abatement would
  help to increase the credibility and funding of
  forestry-sector mitigation projects.

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As a conclusion

• Need of policies (Intervention)
• Instruments and measures depend on national
  circumstances
• Policy itself has barriers a key challenge is
  the identification of feasible policies and to
  translate in adequate strategies

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Module 4c

• Examining Barriers During a Mitigation Assessment

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Examining Barriers During a Mitigation Assessment

• Mitigation assessment should include information
  on the barriers and opportunities for
  implementation.
• Useful to identify main implementation
  requirements including
• Financial support
• Assessment of technology options for the
  different mitigation options in various sectors
• Institutional capacity-building to sustain
  mitigation work
• Regulation policies
• Further improvements of the national decision
  framework
• Costs associated to the implementation of
  mitigation options

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Possible Topics for Discussion

• How can the concepts of mitigation potential
  (market, economic, social, technological) and
  barriers best be incorporated into a mitigation
  assessment?
• What approaches could be used for barrier
  identification and assessment?