An important question for policy makers, in the G20 and beyond, is how to bring climate action into the broader sustainable development agenda. It is increasingly recognised that climate change is intricately linked to sustainable development, not just in terms of joint underlying drivers, but also with respect to synergistic policy choices. On the one hand, climate change mitigation policy, if well designed, can lead to significant co-benefits for development. On the other hand, climate impacts and risks have been strongly identified as ‘threat multipliers’.

To effectively inform decision making on these issues, whether at the national or international level, science must take an integrated and holistic perspective. A central question at the national level, for instance, is how climate and development policies may interact – do they reinforce or hinder each other when trying to achieve a range of societal priorities, like, for example, energy poverty eradication, air quality improvement, energy security enhancement, climate resilience and food and water access? A comprehensive analysis of future development pathways needs to align both global and national perspectives, with the aim of addressing multiple policy priorities simultaneously.

The CD-LINKS challenge is to advance the state-of-the-art of integrated, model-based analysis of the development-energy-climate nexus. This means (i) working toward the next generation of technological and socio-economic pathways that take into account climate-resilient adaptation strategies, and (ii) establishing a research network and capacity building platform in order to leverage knowledge-exchange among institutions from Europe and other key players within the G20.

Objectives

CD-LINKS will combine multiple streams of research – empirical analysis, model enhancement and scenario development – to achieve its multiple objectives.

• • At the heart of the project, national and global transformation pathways will be developed that address climate change within the broader sustainable development agendas of G20 countries. Collaboration between national and global modelling teams will yield more coherent pictures of the future than is typical of pathways studies.

• • The project will explore low-carbon development pathways and adaptation strategies that ensure the achievement of a wide range of sustainable development objectives, including in particular, alleviating energy poverty and income inequality, reducing air pollution and associated health impacts, ensuring water availability, food and energy security, and managing the risks of climate-related extreme events.

• • In support of evidence-based decision making, the analysis of low-carbon development pathways will be complemented by empirical analyses of past and existing policies that have had a climate or broader development focus. A review of national action plans, planned policies and international country pledges will round out the picture by assessing expected trends over the short-to-medium term.

• CD-LINKS will go further than previously developed transformation pathways, which have been largely silent about policy implementation, by translating insights from the scenario work into concrete and tangible recommendations for policy implementation at the national and international level.