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The unprecedented challenge of climate change requires that society undergoes a fundamental, systemic change away from carbon-intensive and unsustainable pathways of development.
The urgency of a transition towards sustainable development and net zero global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions was underlined in the special report Global Warming of 1.5°C1 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
It is crucial that climate and development policies tackle GHG emissions by avoiding further investments in fossil fuel infrastructure, promoting clean technologies and enhancing sinks of GHGs, including forests, to ensure alignment with the Paris Agreement’s temperature goal and the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In this context, there is an increasing need to assess the transformational impacts of policies and actions, and understand whether they can catalyse sustained paradigm shift in economic, political, social and technical systems.