Ten years after the Paris Agreement, the global ambition to limit warming to well below 2°C is still falling short of expectations. Initial momentum has faded as national climate pathways are increasingly shaped by competitiveness and energy security concerns, while shifting geopolitics further fragment global climate ambition.
The transition away from fossil fuels, in particular the phase out of coal, is the central stepping stone to keep the Paris goals within reach. However, for emerging and developing economies, coal remains tied to concerns about energy security, just transition and national development priorities. Substantial support is needed – but current climate finance commitments from advanced economies remain insufficient. This is a decisive challenge for the global clean transition but also an opportunity for the EU to develop concepts, initiatives or policies to engage and work jointly with its partners, notably developing economies as well as fast-emerging ones.
As the EU is defining its next milestones until 2040 on the path to climate neutrality by 2050, the renewed openness to international credits offers an entry point to leverage emerging concepts for ‘transition credits’ to strengthen partnerships and speed up coal phase-out while expanding renewable capacity in developing and emerging economies.
This work aims to explore policy options for integrating transition credits into the EU’s partnership approach and its broader climate framework. These options will be tested and refined through stakeholder workshops and will feed into a series of publications, including a commentary and policy briefs.
