(CN) — The next decade is key to combatting carbon emissions, and government mandates are the path forward, according to a new report. Experts from around the world, including the United Kingdom, Brazil, China and India, worked collaboratively to produce the report, titled “ A positive tipping cascade in power, transport and heating ,” using data from over 70 countries. The researchers identified regulatory mandates, carbon taxes and subsidies in those 70 countries and compared their effectiveness. Their goal was to see which would be the quickest path to positive tipping points, or lead to lower prices for consumers, allowing clean technologies to surpass fossil fuels. What they found was that regulatory mandates with set timeframes are the key to ensuring clean technologies become the more affordable option, thereby reducing emissions. The researchers found that mandates were more effective than carbon prices or subsidies, particularly with the need for global emissions to be about halved in the next five years, as advised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2018. “We need a rapid transformation in our economies and society that dramatically cuts prices and carbon emissions,” Tim Lenton, co-author and professor at the University of Exeter, said in a statement. “Focusing on positive tipping points benefits consumers, taxpayers, businesses and people around the world facing the worst impacts of climate change.” Specifically, the researchers looked at four sectors: power, heating, heavy road transport and light road transport. In all four sectors, the researchers found regulatory mandates that require manufacturers to meet a rising proportion of sales from clean technologies, or phase out polluting fuels, were the most effective tactic to tip the scale and create positive feedback loops. Using models to simulate the ways investors or consumers make choices between technologies based on cost, performance and availability, […]
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