Several EU member states are exploring options for setting minimum domestic carbon prices within the EU Emission Trading System (ETS). First, a "TAX" policy would introduce a carbon tax equal to the difference between the prevailing ETS price and the targeted minimum price. Second, a national...

The Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement fall short of the abatement needed to reach the 2°C target. Emissions trading could be a "costless" means to reduce the ambition gap if countries used their gains from trade for additional abatement. However, this requires...

Countries with ambitious climate targets are concerned about carbon leakage to countries with more lenient or no carbon pricing. A common policy measure against leakage is output-based allocation of emissions allowances, whose effectiveness could be further enhanced by consumption taxes levied...

Concerns about adverse impacts on domestic energy-intensive and trade-exposed (EITE) industries are at the fore of the political debate about unilateral climate policies. Tariffs on the carbon embodied in imported goods from countries without emission pricing appeal as a measure to reduce carbon...

Several European countries have decided to phase out coal power generation. Emissions from electricity generation are already regulated by the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), and in some countries like Germany the phaseout of coal will be accompanied with cancellation of emissions allowances....

It is widely acknowledged that the transition towards a zero-emissions economy requires electrification of energy-related processes across all sectors of the economy - so-called sector coupling. In our analysis we consider countries whose electricity sectors are regulated by a multilateral...

Policy makers in the EU and elsewhere are concerned that unilateral carbon pricing induces carbon leakage through relocation of emission-intensive and trade-exposed industries to other regions. A common measure to mitigate such leakage is to combine an emission trading system (ETS) with...

Unilateral climate policy induces carbon leakage through the relocation of emission-intensive and trade-exposed industries to regions with no or more lenient emission regulation. Both analytical and numerical studies suggest that emission pricing combined with border carbon adjustments may be a...

Tradable black (CO2) and green (renewables) quotas gain in popularity and stringency within climate policies of many OECD countries. The overlapping regulation through both instruments, however, may have important adverse economic implications. Based on stylized theoretical analysis and...

That climate policies are costly is evident and therefore often creates major fears. But the alternative (no action) also has a cost. Mitigation costs and damages incurred depend on what the climate policies are; moreover, they are substitutes. This brings climate policies naturally in the realm...