September 2011: The International Energy Agency (IEA) has published a new information paper titled “Summing up the parts: Combining Policy Instruments for Least-Cost Climate Mitigation Strategies.”

Written by Christina Hood, this paper provides guidance on the real world constraints facing climate change policy‐makers. It focuses on policies for supplementing a carbon price regime, interactions between carbon pricing and supplementary policies, and least-cost management of these interactions. The paper contains chapters on defining least-cost in climate mitigation; policies for climate mitigation; interactions among combined policies; and designing climate policy for least-cost mitigation.

Among the paper’s main conclusions, are that: carbon prices supplemented by energy efficiency and technologies policies, should form the core of any least-cost climate mitigation regime; policies must be designed as a package, as carbon pricing and supplementary policies interact and may undermine one another; macroeconomic impacts must be considered in addition to direct costs of implementing and policy bundle; in the absence of carbon pricing, energy efficiency and technology policies should be pursued; and policy packages should be regularly reviewed and updated to maintain internal and external coherence. [Publication: Summing Up the Parts: Combining Policy Instruments for Least-Cost Climate Mitigation Strategies]