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To effectively mitigate climate change, policymakers worldwide established various GHG tracking and trading systems. In the light of ambitious climate goals, stricter regulations, and increasing demand for climate action, various groups such as researchers and governmental institutions suggested additional approaches. This paper addresses the complexity that arises from the breadth of suggested approaches and implemented systems for GHG tracking and trading. By doing so, it synthesizes relevant dimensions in a way that is understandable to enterprises and policymakers, enabling them to design meaningful systems incorporating the reduction of GHG emissions and advance cleaner production. Therefore, this paper presents a first-of-its-kind taxonomy of GHG tracking and trading approaches through a systematic literature review. It illustrates ten main design and implementation dimensions with 30 corresponding characteristics. To accelerate decarbonization, this paper sets impulses for future GHG tracking in the electricity sector based on semi-structured expert interviews. Consecutively, it provides policy directions for CO 2 -adaptive decision-making for enterprises, formulated as a Call for Action with seven prospective questions. These include, for example, questions concerning technical aspects like data management, legal issues like the sufficiency of existing data security and privacy regulations, as well as economic topics like the calculation of an appropriate local and temporal granularity. • Presenting a first-of-its-kind taxonomy of GHG tracking and trading approaches through a systematic literature review. • Creating targeted knowledge for enterprises and policymakers for designing meaningful systems to reduce GHG emissions. • Setting impulses for future GHG tracking in the electricity sector based on semi-structured expert interviews. • Providing policy directions for CO 2 -adaptive decision-making for enterprises, formulated as a Call for Action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nudge-based decarbonization policies possess significant potential to foster low-carbon lifestyles and contribute to the mitigation of climate change. However, securing public support for such policies is a complex endeavor. The pivotal role of policy narratives in molding public perceptions and garnering support underscores the necessity for a strategic approach in the crafting and deployment of these narratives to strengthen public endorsement of nudge-based decarbonization strategies. This study examines the influence of victim framing on the potency of policy narratives to bolster public support for nudge-based decarbonization policies. The study elucidates that narratives portraying climate change victims as humans rather than wildlife more effectively bolster support for policies. Furthermore, policy narratives featuring a lesser number of victims prove more efficacious in augmenting support for these policies. Moreover, the relationship between the number of victims and the narrative's impact on policy support transitions from negative to positive in the context of high narrativity. These disparities in narrative effectiveness can be attributed to their varying abilities to evoke compassion. These insights offer valuable guidance for enhancing public support for nudge-based decarbonization policies, highlighting the strategic use of policy narrative as a key tool in policy promotion. • Policy narratives portraying climate change victims as humans rather than wildlife more effectively bolster public support for nudge-based decarbonization policies. • Policy narratives featuring a lesser number of victims prove more efficacious in augmenting public support for these policies. • In the context of high narrativity, the relationship between the number of victims and the policy narrative's impact on public support for these policies transitions from negative to positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2018, Costa Rica demonstrated its commitment to the Paris Agreement and published its Decarbonization Plan for achieving zero net emissions by the year 2050. We evaluate the impacts of the country's strategy for decarbonizing its Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses (AFOLU) sectors by coupling the Integrated Economic-Environmental Modeling framework with high-resolution spatial land use-land cover change and ecosystem services modeling (IEEM+ESM). Our results show that decarbonization of AFOLU would simultaneously enhance carbon storage, water purification, water regulation and erosion mitigation ecosystem services. Moreover, the positive cumulative wealth impact of decarbonization would be approximately US$7.27 billion by 2050 while lifting an additional 3810 individuals out of poverty. From a public investment perspective, decarbonization would have a fiscally neutral impact with the economic benefits sufficient in magnitude to off-set policy implementation costs and generate economic returns of over US$852 million when changes in natural capital stocks and environmental quality are considered. This application to Costa Rica is the first integrated economy-wide analysis of a growing number of decarbonization plans globally. The IEEM+ESM approach provides an integrated framework for analyzing decarbonization plans and can be used to refine AFOLU mitigation strategies to capitalize on synergies and minimize negative trade-offs across the three dimensions of wealth and sustainable economic development, namely economy, society and the environment. • Decarbonization of Costa Rica's AFOLU will generate US$7.3 billion in wealth. • AFOLU decarbonization will be fiscally neutral and generate returns of US$852 million. • The methods can be applied to integrated analysis of decarbonization globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese government has announced ambitious carbon reduction goals to address climate change, however, there has been limited scientific attention to the achievement of deep decarbonization in regions with insufficient economic development. Moreover, the complex impacts of climate change mitigation on energy system, environment and economic development remain unclear in Northwest China. Here we construct a comprehensive evaluation model system to evaluate the effects of different climate mitigation pathways in Qinghai, Ningxia, Gansu and Xinjiang provinces. Results show that the four provinces need to vigorously increase the share of electricity that consumed in final energy to 53.1–60.0% and 52.9–62.0% for 2 °C and 1.5 °C target, respectively, and reduce total energy demand to 11.6–44.4 Mtoe and 8.2–34.1 Mtoe in 2050. Meanwhile, the CO 2 emissions for their energy systems will reach peak by 2025 at lower values. Moreover, the synergies of CO 2 reduction are most conducive to abating SO 2 pollution and also contributing to decreasing PM 2.5 concentrations. Additionally, the GDP losses in 2050 fluctuate from 5.0 to 21.7 billion USD in the 2 °C scenario to 11.5–52.7 billion USD in the 1.5 °C scenario. Our study provides practical guidance on achieving carbon reductions in less developed regions of China and lays foundations to promote decarbonization of energy systems in other provinces. • Realizing climate goals requires low-carbon energy systems led by electricity. • Energy-related carbon emissions in Northwest China will peak by 2025. • More ambitious climate and clean air policies are needed for air quality improvement. • Economic loss shows an upward trend in the future under climate targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The green energy transition is aimed at mitigating the impact of climate change. Yet, the current emphasis on 'green' is narrowly centred around decarbonisation, or CO 2 reduction, often side-lining the roles of other gases, such as sulphur hexafluoride (SF 6) and PCF-14 (CF 4), which have a respective 24,300- and 7380-times higher global warming potential than CO 2 on a time horizon of a century. In addition, any energy transition is a complex affair that simultaneously impacts the environmental, economic and social systems, with significant system-level interactions. For example, the material requirement for renewable energy is known to be substantial, at a factor of 15 times greater than natural gas-based energy for offshore wind generation, and almost 7 times greater for solar. The resulting increased competition for materials is reducing the appetite for global collaboration. In addition, the global capacity to deploy renewable energy technology or participate in climate change mitigation is geographically variable and no single solution is universally viable. This study examines an expanded definition of 'green' energy and proposes a beyond-decarbonisation approach that is more comprehensive and globally inclusive, in pursuit for a sustainable transition. The increased diversity of our approach promises advantages such as heightened global collaboration, diminished geopolitical tension, improved energy access, expanded market opportunities, and socio-environmental co-benefits. Strategies pivotal to this approach involve understanding the role of carbon-based energy systems in the transition, amplifying renewable resources, augmenting cross-sector energy efficiency, implementing effective carbon markets, and integrating nature-based as well as carbon removal technologies. Moreover, it is imperative to implement all-cost and all-benefit monitoring and evaluation systems to optimise existing decarbonisation methods systematically. This could entail the use of composite metrics that normalise the gain in climate change mitigation against economic, social or environmental metrics. Addressing societal apprehensions requires a focus on pragmatic and fair outcomes, geopolitical stability, market impacts, developmental objectives, effective public engagement, and recognition of the role of enterprises. Policymakers are important in fostering global synergy by implementing policies that encourage international collaboration, investment, enterprise engagement, institution fortification, and cross-sector policy integration. • The green energy transition is currently mainly decarb-centric. • We propose a beyond-decarbonisation approach that is multi-faceted and inclusive. • Realistic strategies and achievable targets will ensure a sustainable transition. • Inclusion supports developing nations, facilitates knowledge and technology transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]