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on Resource Economics |
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Issue of 2014‒01‒17
ten papers chosen by |
| By: | ZhongXiang Zhang (University Distinguished Professor and Chairman, School of Economics, Fudan University, Shanghai, China) |
| Abstract: | China’s rampant environmental pollution problems and rising greenhouse gas emissions and the resulting climate change are undermining its long-term economic growth. China, from its own perspective cannot afford to and, from an international perspective, is not meant to continue on the conventional path of encouraging economic growth at the expense of the environment. Instead, concerns about a range of environmental stresses from burning fossil fuels, energy security as a result of steeply rising oil imports and international pressure on it to exhibit greater ambition in fighting global climate change have sparked China’s determination to improve energy efficiency and cut pollutants, and to increase the use of clean energy in order to help its transition to a low-carbon economy. This chapter focuses on China’s efforts towards energy conservation, nuclear power and the use of renewable energy. The chapter examines a number of market-based instruments, economic and industrial policies and measures targeted for energy saving, pollution cutting, energy greening. To actually achieve the desired outcomes, however, requires strict implementation and coordination of these policies and measures. The chapter discusses a variety of implementation/compliance/reliability issues. The chapter ends with some concluding remarks and recommendations. |
| Keywords: | Energy Saving, Renewable Energy, Power Generation, Nuclear Power, CCS, Market-Based Instruments, Economic and Industrial Policies, Carbon Intensity, Resource Taxes; Implementation, Compliance and Reliability, Financial Institutions |
| JEL: | Q42 Q43 Q48 Q52 Q54 Q55 Q56 Q58 R13 R15 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2013.92&r=res |
| By: | Christoph Böhringer (Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre & ZenTra); Jared C. Carbone (University of Calgary and Resources for the Future, Department of Economics); Thomas F. Rutherford (University of Wisconsin, Madison) |
| Abstract: | Embodied carbon tariffs tax the direct and indirect carbon emissions embodied in trade — an idea popularized by countries seeking to extend the reach of domestic carbon regulations. We investigate their effectiveness using simulations from an applied general equilibrium model of global trade and energy use. We find that the tariffs do reduce foreign emissions, but their ability to improve the global cost-effectiveness of climate policy is limited. Their main welfare effect is to shift the burden of developed-world climate policies to the developing world. |
| Keywords: | climate policy, border tax adjustments, carbon leakage |
| JEL: | D58 H2 Q43 Q54 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zen:wpaper:25&r=res |
| By: | Hottenrott, Hanna; Rexhäuser, Sascha |
| Abstract: | Significant policy effort is devoted to stimulate the development, adoption and diffusion of environmentally-friendly technology. Sceptics worry about the effects of regulation-induced environmental technology on firms' competitiveness. Since innovation is a crucial productivity driver, a potential crowding out of inventive efforts could increase the cost of mitigating environmental damage. Using matching techniques, we study the short-term effects of regulation-induced environmental technology on non-green innovative activities for a sample of firms in Germany. We find indeed some evidence for a crowding out of the firms' in-house R&D. The estimated treatment effect is larger for firms that are likely to face financing constraints. However, we do not find negative effects on the number of ongoing R&D projects, investments in innovation-related fixed assets or on the outcome of innovation projects. Likewise, for firms with subsidy-backed environmental innovations no crowding out is found. -- |
| Keywords: | Environmental Policy,Regulation,R&D,Technological Change,Innovation,Crowding Out |
| JEL: | Q32 Q33 Q55 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:13115&r=res |
| By: | Bhavik Bakshi (Department of Chem. and Biom. Engineering, The Ohio State University); Nathan Cruze (Department of Statistics, The Ohio State University); Tim Haab (Department of Ag., Env., and Dev. Economics, The Ohio State University); Matthew Winden (Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater) |
| Abstract: | We develop a framework for modeling the technological, economic, environmental, and social impacts of the life cycle of seven transportation fuels (Corn, Stover, Switchgrass, Yellow Poplar, Newsprint and Municipal Solid Waste Ethanol Blends, as well as Gasoline), by linking engineering based life cycle analysis of transportation fuels with choice analysis techniques for eliciting and understanding the social preferences for multi-attribute consumption vectors. The use of life-cycle data allows us to account for a broad range of environmental, natural resource, and health effects over the entire production and consumption life cycle of each fuel. Combining these life cycle and stated choice analyses allows for social preferences to be established for the externalities resulting from the use of the different transportation fuels. This results in a unique physical-economic feedback model allowing for improved design and evaluation of transportation policy. Our results indicate first generation biofuels, such as Corn E10 and Corn E85, actually result in a net increase in the value of environmental damage, natural resource use and human health risk relative to gasoline. After accounting for life cycle costs, these popular “alternative” fuel options offer little apparent environmental or health benefits, calling into question policies encouraging their adoption as “green” fuels. For policies with the intent of reducing foreign oil dependency and encouraging resource conservation, these same fuels may have merit. Most of the cellulosic, or second generation, biofuels have the potential to create a net improvement in environmental, natural resource, and human health impacts. Our results indicate significant trade-offs between environmental damage, human health risks and resource depletion rates will have to be made in any attempt to implement alternative fuel policy at a national level. |
| Keywords: | Life Cycle Impact Assessment, Choice Analysis, Fuel Valuation, Integration Techniques |
| JEL: | Q42 Q48 Q51 Q53 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uww:wpaper:13-01&r=res |
| By: | Chu, Hsun; Lai, Ching-Chong |
| Abstract: | This paper develops an endogenous growth model featuring environmental externalities, abatement R&D, and market imperfections. We compare the economic performances under three distinct regimes that encompass public abatement, private abatement without tax recycling, and private abatement with tax recycling. It is found that the benefit arising from the private conduct of abatement will be larger if the degree of the firms’ monopoly power is greater. With a reasonably high degree of monopoly power, a mixed abatement policy by which the government recycles environmental tax revenues to subsidize the private abatement R&D is a plausible way of reaching the highest growth rate and welfare. |
| Keywords: | abatement R&D, market imperfections, endogenous growth |
| JEL: | H23 O32 O44 Q56 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:52869&r=res |
| By: | Marianna Gilli (University of Ferrara, Italy); Susanna Mancinelli (University of Ferrara, Italy); Massimiliano Mazzanti (University of Ferrara & Ceris Cnr Milan, Italy) |
| Abstract: | Innovation is a key element behind the achievement of desired environmental and economic performances. Regarding CO2, mitigation strategies would require cuts in emissions of around 80-90% with respect to 1990. We investigate whether complementarity, namely integration, between the adoption of environmental innovation measures and other technological and organizational innovations is a factor that has supported reduction in CO2 emissions per value added, that is environmental productivity. We merge new EU CIS and WIOD meso level data to assess the innovation effects on sector CO2 performances at a wide EU level. We find that jointly adopting different innovations is not a significant factor to increase environmental productivity, neither for the entire economy nor for manufacturing or narrower ETS sectors. The only case where a complementarity arises is for Northern EU manufacturing sectors that integrate eco innovations with product and process innovations to support environmental productivity. We believe that the lack of integrated innovation adoption behind environmental productivity performance is a signal of the current weaknesses economies face in tackling climate change and green economy challenges. Incremental rather than more radical strategies have predominated so far; this is probably insufficient when we look at long-term economic and environmental goals. |
| Keywords: | Complementarity, Innovation, Climate Change, Sector Performance |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2013.88&r=res |
| By: | Paolo D. Farah (Edge Hill University, Department of Law & Criminology, UK, gLAWcal, Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development, UK); Riccardo Tremolada (Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale, Dipartimento di Studi per l’Impresa e il Territorio, Italy, EU Commission Marie Curie Fellow (2013), Chinese Research Academy on Environmental Sciences (CRAES), China, J.D. and LL.M. Università degli Studi di Milano, School of Law, Italy) |
| Abstract: | China is appraised to have the world's largest exploitable reserves of shale gas, although several legal, regulatory, environmental and investment-related issues will likely restrain its scope. China's capacity to successfully face these hurdles and produce commercial shale gas will have a crucial impact on the regional gas market and on China’s energy mix, as Beijing strives to decrease reliance on imported oil and coal, while attempting to meet growing energy demand and maintain a certain level of resource autonomy. The development of the unconventional natural gas extractive industry will also endow China with further negotiating power to obtain more advantageous prices from Russia and future liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers. This paper, adopting a comparative perspective, underlines the trends learned from unconventional fuel development in the United States, emphasizing their potential application to the Chinese context in light of recently signed production-sharing contracts between qualified foreign investors and China. The wide range of regulatory and enforcement problems in this matter are accrued by an extremely limited liberalization of gas prices, lack of technological development, and political hurdles curbing the opening of resource extraction to private investors. These issues are exacerbated by concerns related to the risk of water pollution deriving from mismanaged drilling and fracturing, absence of adequate regulation framework and industry standards, entailing consequences on social stability and environmental degradation. |
| Keywords: | Shale Gas, Unconventional Fuel, China, U.S.A., Health, Water, Environmental Risks |
| JEL: | A12 A13 D40 D62 D81 F10 F13 F18 H23 K32 K33 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q48 F1 F13 F40 L95 Q3 Q30 Q32 Q33 Q25 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2013.95&r=res |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Sweden was facing a serious soil acidification and water eutrophication problem caused partly by emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from combustion processes in transport, industry and power. In 1992, Sweden introduced a high tax on NOx emissions from large combustion sources (e.g. power plants, industrial plants, waste incinerators). The tax was accompanied by a refund according to the amount of energy generated. This ensures that facilities with low NOx emission intensitites are net beneficiaries of the scheme. Continuous monitoring of emissions was also made mandatory. The tax was designed to accelerate and stimulate investment in advanced combustion and pollution-abatement technologies and as a supplement to existing regulatory measures. |
| Date: | 2013–12–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:envaac:2-en&r=res |
| By: | Klier, Thomas; Linn, Joshua (Resources for the Future) |
| Abstract: | Many countries are tightening passenger vehicle fuel economy standards. In assessing the welfare effects of standards, the literature has not properly accounted either for their effects on the rate of technology adoption, or for improvements in vehicle characteristics in the absence of tightening standards. A dynamic model shows that accounting for both factors has ambiguous effects on estimated welfare costs. We find that recent US and European standards have affected the rate of technology adoption as well as horsepower and torque. Estimated welfare losses from reduced horsepower and torque are of similar magnitude to the welfare gains from fuel savings. |
| Keywords: | passenger vehicles, US greenhouse gas emissions rate standards, European carbon dioxide emissions rate standards, technology adoption |
| JEL: | L62 Q4 Q5 |
| Date: | 2013–12–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-13-40&r=res |
| By: | Noussair, C.N.; Soest, D.P. van (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Abstract: We summarize and review the literature on two types of economic experiments. First we discuss the use of experimental laboratories to testbed market solutions to issues in environmental policy. We concentrate on experiments with one and two-sided markets, and applications in the domain of water allocation, food safety, and tradable permit systems. Second, we explore the consequences for environmental policies of the vast body of literature refuting the assumption that humans are only concerned with their own private welfare. We review the literature addressing whether government intervention is always necessary to protect the environment, and also whether it is always effective in doing so. |
| Keywords: | Survey;experiment;environment;social dilemma |
| JEL: | C92 Q20 Q30 Q50 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:2014001&r=res |