In Paris, in December 2015, the governments of 195 countries adopted a universal and legally binding climate deal that has been hailed as ‘historic’ and ‘ambitious’. This deal, even if not perfect, reflects the globally shared awareness that the man-made impacts of climate change on our planet must urgently be reversed. More than anything this means that we must end the use of fossil fuels. They are the main drivers of climate change. However, the opportunities to ‘decarbonise’ the global economy are severely hampered by existing national and international energy policies, most importantly the large-scale and often hidden energy subsidies for fossil fuels. To realise the ambitions of the Paris climate
deal, governments need to speed up the transition to renewable energy sources. This policy brief provides some recommendations to do so.
