Overview of recently adopted mitigation policies and climate-relevant policy

This report by the NewClimate Institute, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, and IIASA provides an update on climate mitigation policies, COVID-19 response measures, and the status of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and Long-Term Strategies (LTS) across 25 countries and regions between July 2019 and August 2020.

• Between July 2019 and August 2020, over 60 mitigation policies were adopted or developed, with the highest activity occurring in the energy sector (25 entries), followed by transport (12), land use, land use change and forestry (eight), buildings (two), and agriculture (one). Additionally, 16 cross-sectoral policies were identified, while no new policies were noted for the industry and waste sectors.
• While most policy developments are expected to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, specific policies in at least four countries could increase them: fossil fuel exploration expansion in Colombia, palm oil biodiesel production stimulus in Indonesia, potential mining in protected areas in Brazil, and proposed regulatory rollbacks in the United States.
• Regarding COVID-19 recovery, most of the 25 assessed countries and regions have not implemented explicitly "green" measures, with the Republic of Korea and the EU being the exceptions.
• The status of climate targets varies among the assessed entities: Vietnam is the only country to officially revise its NDC target, and Japan resubmitted its original target in March 2020. The European Commission proposed increasing the EU's 2030 emissions reduction target from 40% to 55% below 1990 levels, though it remained unapproved at the time of the report.
• Long-term strategy (LTS) progress includes five countries submitting strategies to the UNFCCC and five developing drafts or adopting them domestically. The EU aims for net-zero GHG emissions by 2050, and Japan aims for a decarbonised society in the second half of the century. China announced a net-zero carbon emissions goal for 2060 in September 2020, though it had not yet been converted into an LTS target.

APA

NewClimate Institute (2020). Overview of recently adopted mitigation policies and climate-relevant policy. http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/overview-of-recently-adopted-mitigation-policies-and-climate-relevant-policy

Chicago

NewClimate Institute. Overview of recently adopted mitigation policies and climate-relevant policy. 2020. http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/overview-of-recently-adopted-mitigation-policies-and-climate-relevant-policy.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=NewClimate Institute |title=Overview of recently adopted mitigation policies and climate-relevant policy |date=1 October 2020 |url=http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/overview-of-recently-adopted-mitigation-policies-and-climate-relevant-policy |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{newclimateinstitute2020overview, author = {{NewClimate Institute}}, title = {{Overview of recently adopted mitigation policies and climate-relevant policy}}, institution = {NewClimate Institute}, year = {2020}, month = oct, url = {http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/overview-of-recently-adopted-mitigation-policies-and-climate-relevant-policy}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }