Mitigation of Climate Change

This course provides an introduction to climate change mitigation and low carbon development. Climate change mitigation is about reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit average global temperature increase. The largest contributor to these emissions is the energy system, including both energy supply and demand sectors, so a large part of this course focuses on energy. The course provides an overview of historic emissions and potential future emission pathways, covering technological options, economic feasibility and various policy instruments. The basics of energy systems, carbon accounting and emission mitigation analysis are explained, including interpretation of energy balances, emission reduction potentials and marginal abatement cost curves. Attention is paid to mitigation of both direct and indirect supply chain emissions in five major sectors: energy supply, buildings, transport, industry, and agriculture and forestry.