Recent research has shown that agreements centered on the adoption of breakthrough technologies can break the deadlock in international climate negotiations if the mitigation technology exhibits a network externality that transforms full cooperation into a self-enforcing outcome. This paper...

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...

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...

According to the Framework Convention on Climate Change, global collective action is needed to stabilize “greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous [our emphasis] anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” The Framework Convention thus...

The strategy of adaptation to climate change has become a central topic within the UNFCCC negotiations in recent years. On the national level, adaptation plans are elaborated, and on the international level, the need for funding adaptation in developing countries is discussed. This tendency...

Previous research shows that collective action to avoid a catastrophic threshold, such as a climate "tipping point," is unaffected by uncertainty about the impact of crossing the threshold but that collective action collapses if the location of the threshold is uncertain. Theory suggests that...

Obwohl der Emissionshandel theoretisch ein ideales umwelt- und klimapolitisches Instrument darstellt, stößt seine praktische Gestaltung und Umsetzung auf zahlreiche Schwierigkeiten. So waren bei der Einführung des europäischen Emissionshandelssystems und der Erstellung der Nationalen...

In Europa ist innerhalb kurzer Zeit der weltweit größte Emissionshandel eingeführt worden. Politik, Behörden und Wirtschaft haben mit dem 2005 begonnenen CO2-Handel bereits wichtige Erfahrungen gesammelt. Mit der Erstellung der nationalen Zuteilungspläne und deren Prüfung durch die...

I explore possible impacts of reciprocal preferences on participation in international environmental agreements. Reciprocal countries condition their willingness to abate on others' abatement. No participation is always stable. A full or majority coalition can be stable, provided that...

We consider how one party can induce another party to join an international emission compact given private information. Due to multilateral externalities the principal uses her own emissions besides subsidies to incentivize the agent. This leads to a number of non-standard features: Optimal...