The EU climate and energy policy for 2020 is summed up by three goals called 20-20-20: a) reduce GHG emissions by 20% compared to 1990; b) save 20% of the EU’s energy consumption compared to projections for 2020; c) develop a 20% share of renewable energies in overall EU energy consumption by 2020. In...

This paper first reviews the conceptual case for, and appropriate design of, fiscal policies to address major externalities associated with energy use—global warming, local air pollution, and various side effects (e.g., congestion) from motor vehicles. Techniques for (roughly) estimating the...

Subglobal climate policies will be the norm for some years to come. However, several options exist for improving the efficiency of domestic emissions regulation. A prominent but contentious policy option for improving the external efficiency is the implementation of carbon tariffs on...

France has a very ambitious environmental-policy agenda, aimed chiefly at cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but also at dealing with local air and water pollution, waste management and the conservation of biodiversity. The laws that followed the Grenelle de l’environnement encompass...

From Rio to Rio: A global carbon price signal to escape the great climate inconsistency Two decades after the 1992 Rio Conference,we must admit to collective failure in combating human induced climate change. We cannot escape serious climate disruption if we keep going down that road. We must...

There are many choices within the design of an emissions trading system. In this paper we focus on one specific aspect – the point of regulation for the energy sector. This choice affects transaction costs; comprehensiveness, and hence the amount of emissions covered and the extent to which...

I estimate the level of emissions cost pass-through to hourly wholesale electricity prices in Germany, based on spot market data. I control for contemporaneous shocks to demand and supply by constructing a detailed supply curve for fossil generation, and intersecting it with residual demand for...

This paper calculates, for the top twenty emitting countries, how much pricing of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is in their own national interests due to domestic co-benefits. On average, nationally efficient prices are substantial, $57.5 per ton of CO2 (for year 2010), reflecting primarily...

A basic tenet of economics posits that when consumers or firms don't face the true social cost of their actions, market outcomes are inefficient. In the case of negative externalities, Pigouvian taxes are one way to correct this market failure, where the optimal tax leads agents to internalize...

Germany could have reached Kyoto protocol obligations earlier if German solar investments would be relocated to Sicily. Additional benefits of emission savings and energy production should rise up to 72%. Nevertheless German solar power plants 2008 counted for 20 % of the financial benefits...