Supply‐side climate policy: A new frontier in climate governance

From the margins of climate governance, supply‐side policies that seek to restrict the production of climate‐heating fossil fuels and keep sizeable quantities of remaining reserves in the ground are gaining greater prominence. From national‐level production bans and phase‐out policies to divestment campaigns and the creation of “climate clubs,” such as the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (BOGA), an increasing number of such policies are being adopted by national and state governments, cities and financial actors around the world. This marked shift in climate governance reflects a growing recognition that the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement cannot be achieved without enhanced efforts to leave large swathes of remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground and actively phase‐out existing fossil fuels infrastructures. Unsurprisingly, there has been increasing scholarly attention to different dimensions of supply‐side policy: from identifying the nature and scale of the “production gap” (between planned fossil fuel production and that which is compatible with climate goals), to initial attempts to map and explain the adoption of supply‐side policies across different regions and sectors, as well as forward‐looking analysis of possible pathways to multilateral supply‐side agreements. This article surveys this academic and policy landscape to review what we currently know about supply‐side policies: how, when, why and by whom they are adopted, how significant they are, and the ways in which national and regional measures might be supported multilaterally.This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance Climate, Nature, and Ethics > Climate Change and Global Justice