Increasing climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation are threatening the well-being of present and future generations. Current global policy efforts are insufficient to achieve the agreed goals. Accelerated action and transitions are needed. Although this is not...
The COVID-19 pandemic has a substantial impact on socio-economic activities and energy use, and therefore on CO2 emissions. For the short term, in the case of prolonged lockdowns worldwide until the end of 2020, a global CO2 emission reduction of 8%, compared to 2019, is...
Large-scale implementation of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is often considered to be an important measure to reach the climate targets set out in the Paris Agreement. A new study from researchers at Radboud University, Utrecht University and the PBL...
Biomass will likely play an important role in a climate-neutral, circular economy. At the same time, there is ongoing public debate on biomass. Biomass use, in any case, needs to comply with clear sustainability criteria, and international climate goals should not be called...
Nature and biodiversity are being lost worldwide, and the capacity of ecosystems to provide services to people is deteriorating. Most of the targets for 2020 of the UN-Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will not be achieved and if the trends of the last decades...
The financial sector is exposed to risks as a result of biodiversity loss. This emerged from a joint study by Dutch Central Bank (DNB) and PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. The new study builds on the report Values at risk?, published last year by DNB, in which...
On 23 April 2020, the World Resource Institute, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, VU Amsterdam, Deltares and Utrecht University published a new interactive website on global flooding. Aqueduct Floods is a user-friendly tool which maps present and future river...
Achieving the overall goals of the Paris Agreement will require a deep reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions, ideally by around 40%–50% by 2030. An international study involving modelling teams from around the world has developed scenarios to take stock of current...
Overall, the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is an effective instrument for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In an article published today in the ifo DICE Report, researchers Herman Vollebergh and Corjan Brink from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency...
In the scientific journal Nature Climate Change, researchers from PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and Utrecht University are presenting a new meta-model for estimating the costs of achieving climate targets of the Paris Agreement, including the main sources of...
