Incentives for the development of renewable energy have increasingly become an instrument of climate policy, that is, as a means to reduce GHG emissions. This research analyzes the German experience in promoting renewable energy over the past decade to identify the ex-post cost of reducing CO2...

The aim of this paper is to identify the main challenges regarding the achievement of a low-carbon energy system in the EU by 2050. We analyze the visions presented by stakeholders and existing strategies of member state to achieve this transition. The five main challenges identified are the...

The United States may soon have a market for carbon. If so, it will grow out of government regulation of carbon emissions in the form of a cap-and-trade system like the EU's Emissions Trading System for CO2 or the US Acid Rain Program for SO2. The efficient functioning of the market is key to...

This paper summarizes recent empirical research on compliance costs and strategies and on permit market performance under the U.S. acid rain program, the first large-scale, long-term program to use tradeable emissions permits to control pollution. An efficient market for emissions permits...

This paper provides an initial analysis of the EU ETS based on the installation-level data for verified emissions and allowance allocations in the first trading year. Those data, released on May 15, 2006, and subsequent updates revealed that CO2 emissions were about 4% lower than the allocated...

This paper provides an estimate of short-term abatement of CO2 emissions through fuel switching in the European power sector in response to the CO2 price imposed by the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) in 2005 and 2006. The estimate is based on the use of a highly detailed simulation model...

This paper provides an empirical assessment of CO2 emissions abatement in the UK power sector during the trial period of the EU ETS. Using an econometrically estimated model of fuel switching, it separates the impacts of changes in relative fuel prices and changes in the EUA price on the...