Following their set-up phase from 2013 to 2016, the eight networked inter-university cen­tres of research excellence – the Swiss Competence Centers for Energy Research (SCCERs) – are to be consolidated and strengthened up to the end of 2020. A look at the interim findings.

The Paris Agreement requires developing countries, like other nations, to take wide-ranging action to mitigate climate change. In order to finance large scale mitigation action, development banks blend climate finance with resources from international carbon markets. A team of experts is developing and analysing a range of solutions on behalf of the World Bank.

Article 6 of the Paris Agreement enables the signatory states to cooperate in mitigating climate change. However, the market mechanism can also create false incentives, for example if host countries set less ambitious targets for themselves in order to be able to sell more internationally transferred mitigation outcomes (ITMO). Together with an international research team, INFRAS developed four approaches to counter this phenomenon.

Demand for transport is growing rapidly in Indonesia. At the same the country – which has a population of 260 million – must massively reduce its transport-related CO₂ emis­sions. But just how promising are the measures that are planned? INFRAS developed methods to find out, and also supported a local pilot scheme.

Forty to fifty million charging stations will be needed globally by 2030 in order to provide electricity to the growing number of electric vehicles. This will result in a large number of business models for investing and marketing charging infrastructure, as a joint white paper from INFRAS and SUSI Partners shows.

To monitor and measure progress on sustainable development, the statistical office of the European Union, Eurostat, determined a set of indicators and regularly publishes information on where the EU stands.

How might the new market mechanisms under Art. 6 of the Paris Agreement be struc­tured? That was the question for the Bonn Climate Change Conference at the end of June 2019. A consortium of various climate change experts drafted four input papers as a basis for discussion.

The transport sector causes just under one billion euros in external costs annually throughout the EU (2016). On behalf of the European Commission, an international research consortium including INFRAS broke these costs down for each mode of transport, and calculated who actually pays them.

Stricter emission limits have led, amongst other things, to a sharp drop in air pollutant emissions in Switzerland in recent years. The current report on the inventory of air pollutant emissions explains this development - and describes how emissions were calculated.