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• Project description
• Scientific objectives
• WP1 - Global mitigation pathways for limiting global temperature increase below 2°C
• WP2 - Implementation in major economies: Policy, institutional and financing needs
• WP3 - Implementation in major economies: Changes to energy infrastructure and land use patterns
• WP4 - Multiple benefits of climate mitigation and implications for development
• WP5 - Policy Outreach
• WP6 - Dissemination and Communication Strategy
• WP7 - Project management

Project description

Now and in the foreseeable future, action on climate mitigation and adaptation doesn’t seem to be sufficient to manage greenhouse gases and their impact at the scale required to achieve stringent objectives such as those compatible with the 2°C target.
The LIMITS project aims at generating original insight into how 2°C compatible targets can be really made implementable:

• The technological challenge of achieving a low carbon world. The outcome of the scenario work and the regional infrastructural change will provide a novel view of the physical challenge of transitioning to a low carbon world


• Climate finance. The project is meant to advance the status of knowledge on the issue of how to finance the low carbon transition


• Local versus global policy instruments: the project will advance our understanding of the interplay of climate and energy policies at different geographical scales


• Multidimensional analysis of climate change with specific assessments on the relation between climate and other (health, security, development) policies


• Will provide original research on the potential role of negative emissions technologies (such as biomass burning with CCS) on the timing and actions involved in meeting stringent climate policies

LIMITS takes advantage of the best methodological instruments to assess climate policies, whose analysis will interact with policy evaluation.
Key global integrated assessment models will run climate mitigation and adaptation scenarios under new conditions and constraints, and the policy implications will be thoroughly evaluated. 13 models will be used throughout the project covering a wide range of different aspects. Using these models, LIMITS will explore the implications and uncertainties in reaching a 2°C target under different assumptions regarding the remaining leeway for greenhouse gas emissions, technology availability, the participation of different regions in international climate policy, and implementation obstacles.
The input on local knowledge on the major economies is provided by local partners in China and India, but also in the USA (PNNL) and Japan (NIES) through external collaborations, and thanks to the interaction with key local experts and stakeholders.

LIMITS is a 3-year research project (starting in October 2011), with ten partners from Europe, China, India, and collaborators from the US and Japan. The project brings together experts in several different domains which include integrated assessment modelling, energy system analysis, finance, economic development, land use and agriculture. Many of the researchers involved in the project are also authors of the IPCC for the 5th assessment report.

LIMITS is articulated in 7 main workpackages and aims at carrying out and disseminating original and innovative research in the field of climate and energy policies.