Im Dezember 2011 startete eine Kampagne des Bundeswirtschaftsministeriums unter dem Motto »Kraftwerke? Ja bitte!«. Um im Zuge der Energiewende und des Atomausstiegs weiterhin Versorgungssicherheit und bezahlbaren Strom zu gewährleisten, seien neue Kohle- und Gaskraftwerke unabdinglich. In...

Lange Zeit favorisierte das Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie eine zusätzliche Klimaabgabe für alte Kohlekraftwerke zur Erreichung der deutschen Klimaziele. Mit dem Kompromiss vom 1. Juli scheint dieser Vorschlag jetzt vom Tisch zu sein. Sind die Alternativvorschläge zur...

To attract greater levels of foreign direct investment into their gold mining sectors, many mineral-rich countries in sub-Saharan Africa have been willing to overlook serious instances of mining company non-compliance with environmental standards. These lapses in regulatory oversight and...

Im Dezember 2011 startete eine Kampagne des Bundeswirtschaftsministeriums unter dem Motto »Kraftwerke? Ja bitte!«. Um im Zuge der Energiewende und des Atomausstiegs weiterhin Versorgungssicherheit und bezahlbaren Strom zu gewährleisten, seien neue Kohle- und Gaskraftwerke unabdinglich. In...

The paper provides new empirical evidence on the relationship between environmental efficiency and labour productivity using industry level data. We first provide a critical and extensive discussion around the interconnected issues of environmental efficiency and performance, firm performances...

Without an international climate agreement, extraction of more natural gas could reduce emissions of CO2 as more “clean” natural gas may drive out “dirty” coal and oil. Using a computable equilibrium model for the Western European electricity and natural gas markets, we examine whether...

This paper shifts the perspective of the recent green paradox literature towards the demand side. Based on a simple model, I show that a subsidy on input factors in a Cobb-Douglas production function may contribute substantially to postponing resource extraction into the future and, thereby, to...

Among technological options to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, Carbon Capture and Storage technology (CCS) seems particularly promising. This technology allows to keep on extracting polluting fossil fuels without drastically increasing CO2 atmospheric concentration. We examine here a...

I examine a policy-making game among countries that must choose both a policy instrument (e.g., a tax or a quota) and its intensity (i.e., the tax rate or the quota level) to price pollution. When countries price pollution non-cooperatively, they not only set the intensity inefficiently, they...

As financial institutions and policymakers worldwide are considering how to integrate sustainability considerations throughout financial systems, a critical question is whether banks can effectively assess and monitor borrowers' environmental credit risk. China's green credit reforms, part of...