For several decades, the countries in Central and Eastern Europe pursued an energyintensive strategy of economic development based on distorted relative prices of energy. This typical feature of central planning created the illusion of a virtually unlimited supply of energy. The illusion came to...

The most cost-effective policies for achieving CO2 abatement (e.g., carbon taxes) fail to get off the ground politically because of unacceptable distributional consequences. This paper explores CO2 abatement policies designed to address distributional concerns. Using an intertemporal numerical...

This paper deals with a conceptual framework allowing the analysis of long-run qualitative change in the energy system. The energy sector seems to be particularly appropriate for the analysis of qualitative change due to the following reasons: The energy sector is relevant for the development of...

This report synthesises data from a range of sources to estimate the size of subsidies to the energy sector in the 15 pre-2004 Member States of the European Union. It finds that the level of subsidies to fossil fuels remains high despite their environmental impacts, while support for renewable...