POLICIES THAT WORK: HOW TO BUILD A LOW-EMISSIONS ECONOMY

The report argues that a small number of well-designed policies—categorized as economic signals, performance standards, and R&D support—can substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and provide economic benefits. It details ten specific policy areas, including vehicle and appliance standards, clean energy supply, and smart urban design, while emphasizing the need for policies to be predictable, market-driven, and synchronized with infrastructure turnover. The text highlights successful examples from the US, China, Europe, and Japan to demonstrate the effectiveness of these approaches.

• Effective energy policies generally fall into three categories: economic signals, which use pricing to reflect full costs; performance standards, which mandate efficiency levels; and support for research and development to lower technology costs.
• The report identifies ten specific policies that, if customized for regions and sectors, can address climate change and generate economic benefits: vehicle performance standards, fuel and vehicle levies, energy efficiency standards and labels, clean energy supply policies, utility-scale energy efficiency programs, industrial energy efficiency programs, enforced building codes, aligned economic incentives, smart urban design, and R&D support.
• Vehicle performance standards have significantly reduced pollutants and emissions; for example, standards in the EU, US, and Japan reduced conventional pollutants by approximately 99%, with social benefits outweighing costs by two to five times.
• Energy efficiency standards and labels for appliances have proven highly effective. In Mexico, 1995 standards for four appliance classes reduced electricity use by 10% (over 15 TWh) by 2005, saving consumers $2.7 billion and avoiding 40 Mt of CO2.
• Clean energy deployment is often driven by Feed-in tariffs (FITs), Renewable portfolio standards (RPSs), and tenders. FITs have been particularly successful for wind and solar, with 85% of global solar PV capacity built in markets using them, though they can be costly for less mature technologies.
• Industrial efficiency programs can yield massive emissions reductions, as seen in China's Top 1,000 Energy-Consuming Enterprises Program, which saved nearly 400 Mt of CO2 emissions between 2006 and 2010.
• Eliminating global fossil fuel subsidies, which totaled over $300 billion in 2010, could reduce global energy demand by 5% and provide nearly one-third of the CO2 reductions needed by 2020 to limit temperature rise to 2°C.
• Sustainable urban design, including Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems, offers a low-cost alternative to subways. Examples include Mexico City's Metrobus, which eliminates 100,000 tonnes of CO2e annually, and Johannesburg's BRT, which avoided nearly 400,000 tonnes of CO2e from 2009 to 2010.

APA

Energy Innovation (n.d.). POLICIES THAT WORK: HOW TO BUILD A LOW-EMISSIONS ECONOMY. https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/Policies-That-Work_Overview-Report-2.pdf

Chicago

Energy Innovation. POLICIES THAT WORK: HOW TO BUILD A LOW-EMISSIONS ECONOMY. n.d. https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/Policies-That-Work_Overview-Report-2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Energy Innovation |title=POLICIES THAT WORK: HOW TO BUILD A LOW-EMISSIONS ECONOMY |url=https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/Policies-That-Work_Overview-Report-2.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{energyinnovationndpolicies, author = {{Energy Innovation}}, title = {{POLICIES THAT WORK: HOW TO BUILD A LOW-EMISSIONS ECONOMY}}, institution = {Energy Innovation}, url = {https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/Policies-That-Work_Overview-Report-2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }