Mitigation of climate change: back to IPCC's fifth report

This article provides an overview of current knowledge on climate change mitigation, based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III fifth assessment report. The report emphasizes how little room for manoeuvre there is to meet the target of a global mean surface temperature increase below 2 deg. C, if ambitious policies to reduce greenhouse gases are not implemented by 2020. It also assesses sectoral potentials for emissions reductions and addresses emerging questions, in particular regarding the financing of decarbonization pathways. The report finally highlights the need for integrated policies to take advantage of co-benefits of climate policies (health, energy security, etc.), the evaluation of which is becoming more systematic. (authors)