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The strategic roles of adaptation and technological investment in international climate politics have been analyzed within various approaches. What makes this paper unique is that we investigate the combined impact of adaptation and investment on global mitigation and we compare the subgame-perfect equilibria for different sequences of decisions. Considering a purely non-cooperative, game-theoretic framework, we find that by investment countries commit to lower national contributions to the global public good of mitigation. Moreover, the order of adaptation before mitigation might reinforce this strategic effect of technological investments. As a consequence, the subgame-perfect equilibrium for symmetric countries yields a globally lower level of mitigation, and higher global costs of climate change when countries engage in advanced adaptation. Besides this theoretical contribution, the paper proposes some strategies to combat the unfortunate 'rush to adaptation' which can be currently observed in climate politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of its climate strategy, the EU aims at increasing the share of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E) in overall electricity generation. Attaining this target poses a considerable challenge as the electricity sector is "locked" into a carbon-intensive system, which hampers the adoption of RES-E technologies. Electricity generation, transmission and distribution grids as well as storage and demand response are subject to important path dependences, which put existing, non-renewable energy sources at an advantage. This paper examines how an EU framework for RES-E support policies should be designed to facilitate a carbon lock-out. For this purpose, we specify the major technological, economic and institutional barriers to RES-E. For each of the barriers, a policy review is carried out which assesses the performance of existing policy instruments and identifies needs for reform. The review reveals several shortcomings: while policies targeting generation are widely in place, measures to address barriers associated with electricity grids, storage and demand are still in their infancy and have to be extended. Moreover, the implementation of policies has been fragmented across EU Member States. In this respect, national policies should be embedded into an integrated EU-wide planning of the RES-E system with overarching energy scenarios and partially harmonized policy rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]