Funding area: Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions

The Paris Agreement requires us to keep global heating to significantly less than 2 degrees Celsius and ideally to limit this to below 1.5 degrees Celsius in an effort to address climate change. Achieving this goal will require a fundamental restructuring of our economy and society, together with complete decarbonisation by the middle of this century.

Necessary measures include

stopping the use of fossil fuels,
expanding renewable energy sources,
increasing energy efficiency,
phasing out the use of fluorinated greenhouse gases (F gases) that are extremely harmful to the climate,
as well as sustainable approaches to transport and urban planning.

The development of a circular economy and waste management to protect the climate and conserve resources, and the adoption of sustainable patterns of production and consumption are other high-level activities needed to achieve these climate goals.

Just as relevant for mitigation efforts, are activities in the land use sector (for example agriculture), and the finance sector, which must champion sustainable investment in order to implement the Paris Agreement.

To achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) agreed as part of Agenda 2030, the wide range of synergies between greenhouse gas mitigation and climate adaptation measures must also be considered, as well as other development goals.

IKI's approaches to mitigating greenhouse gases

The International Climate Initiative (IKI) provides support to partner countries and their subnational actors in work that includes developing and implementing innovative instruments for mitigating their greenhouse gas emissions. The ultimate goal is to transform economic and supply structures so that they are sustainable and carbon-neutral. At the level of political governance, nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and long-term strategies (LTS) are essential tools.

The IKI also supports the development of systems for measurement, reporting and verification (MRV), and for ensuring full disclosure (in the sense of the Paris Agreement) of greenhouse gas emissions, mitigation activities, climate financing and measures for climate change adaptation.

A large number of projects also pursue the goal of mobilising public and private capital for climate change mitigation.

In terms of methodological goals, the mitigation funding area addresses policy consulting, capacity building and training measures, as well as cooperation on technologies.

At a glance

From 2008 to the end of 2021, a total of around 450 projects with a total funding volume of approximately 2.3 billion euros were approved in the funding area "Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions".