This paper presents an overview of the use of renewable energy in Hungary. It analyses the role of renewables in the sustainable development of the country and in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Although Hungary is rich in geothermal sources, the use of renewable energy sources is not...

Water shortages and climate change are worldwide issues. Reduction in water leakage in distribution networks as well as the associated energy saving and environmental impacts have recently received increased attention by scientists and water industries. Pressure management has been proposed as a...

The paper summarises the Hungarian Climate Change Action Plan developed within the framework of the US Country Studies Programme. The two main areas of the Hungarian climate change policy will be the energy and the forestry sectors. The outdated power plants will be retired or retrofitted, and...

We use a standard computable general equilibrium model to explore the fiscal implications of stringent carbon dioxide emission reduction in Europe. Both the immediate targets (20-30% by 2020) and the medium-term targets (80-90% by 2050) for abatement can be met with a carbon tax that is modest...

The behaviour of future policy-makers substantially influences future greenhouse gas emissions. Uncertainty about the motives of future policy-makers may thus strongly influence the climate policy strategies of current policy-makers. Analytical and numerical analyses in this paper confirm this...

The literature of welfare-maximising greenhouse gas emission reduction strategies pays remarkably little attention to equity. This paper introduces three ways to consider efficiency and equity simultaneously. The first method, inspired by Kant and Rawls, maximises net present welfare, without...

I study the feasibility of stringent targets for stabilizing ambient greenhouse gas concentrations. Climate policy has diminishing returns, and there is therefore a maximum to what can be achieved. The success of climate policy is hampered if the terrestrial biosphere turns from a carbon sink to...

The EU has proposed four flexibility mechanisms for the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions in the period 2013-2020: (1) the Emissions Trade Scheme (ETS), a permit market between selected companies; (2) trade in non-ETS allotments between Member States; (3) the Clean Development Mechanism...

We analyse games of greenhouse gas emission reduction in which the emissions and the emission reduction costs of one country depend on other countries? emission abatement. In an analytically tractable model, we show that international trade effects on costs and emissions can either increase or...