France has a very ambitious environmental-policy agenda, aimed chiefly at cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but also at dealing with local air and water pollution, waste management and the conservation of biodiversity. The laws that followed the Grenelle de l’environnement encompass...

We explore the impact of an EU-wide nuclear phase-out by 2030 provided the EU energy and climate policy for 2030 is implemented. Using a numerical simulation model of the European energy industry (LIBEMOD), we find that a complete nuclear phase-out in Europe by 2030 has a moderate impact on...

This paper explores cost-effective low-carbon R&D and capital investment portfolios for the electricity generation sector through 2060. We present a novel method for long-term planning by combining an economic model of endogenous non-linear technical change and a generation capacity planning...

The paper presents an adjusted Faustmann Rule for optimal harvest of a forest when there is a social cost of carbon emissions. The theoretical framework takes account of the dynamics and interactions of forests’ multiple carbon pools and assumes an infinite time horizon. Our paper provides a...

This paper explains how, in the context of incomplete coordination among all countries, unilateral policies that might at first sight seem pro-green could actually turn out to harm the global environment. The free-riding motives and the difficulty of reaching an effective international...

During recent years increased attention has been given to second-generation wood-based bioenergy. The carbon stored in the forest is highest when there is little or no harvest from the forest. Increasing the harvest from a forest, in order to produce more bioenergy, may thus conflict with the...

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a project-based carbon trade mechanism that subsidizes the users of climate-friendly technologies and encourages technology transfer. The CDM has provided financial support for a large share of Chinese wind projects since 2002. Using pooled...

We study the incidence of carbon-reduction and green-energy promotion policies in an open fossil-fuel importing general equilibrium economy. The focus is on mixed price-based or quantity-based policies. Instruments directed toward promoting green energy are shown to reduce also carbon emissions...

Fossil fuels are non-renewable carbon resources, and the extraction path of these resources depends both on present and future demand. When this "Hotelling feature" is taken into consideration, the whole price path of carbon fuel will shift downwards as a response to the reduced cost of the...

Our main message is that it is optimal to use less coal and more oil once one takes account of coal being a backstop which emits much more CO2 than oil. The way of achieving this is to have a steeply rising carbon tax during the initial oil-only phase, a less-steeply rising carbon tax during the...