Topic Enviromental Markets

Industrial Decarbonisation in a Fragmented World:: An Effective Carbon Price with a ‘Climate Contribution’

Context and problem • The European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) was introduced to prevent carbon leakage, and to incentivise global carbon pricing. The UK is set to introduce a CBAM in 2027 for the same reasons. However, this policy measure will face limitations in a fragmented geopolitical environment if progress on global carbon pricing remains slow. • The reliance on international ...

Five Essays in Energy System Analysis: Exploring the Dunkelflaute and Unintended Storage Cycling

Die Umstellung von fossilen Brennstoffen auf erneuerbare Energien ist essenziell, um Klimaneutralität zu erreichen. Da das Potenzial steuerbarer erneuerbarer Energien in den meisten Ländern begrenzt ist, werden zukünftige Energiesysteme voraussichtlich überwiegend mit Strom aus fluktuierender Wind- und Solarenergie betrieben. Der Ausgleich zwischen Stromnachfrage und wetterabhängiger, variabler Erzeugung ...

Trade Effects of Direct and Indirect Carbon Pricing Policies

This study examines how policies affecting the cost of using fossil fuels in production influence comparative advantage in the industrial sector. Firstly, we use a fixed-effects gravity model to estimate the export capabilities that determine comparative advantage. Subsequently, using data on direct (carbon taxes, ETS permit prices) and indirect (fossil fuel excise taxes and subsidies) carbon pricing ...

Ensuring Low-Emission Electricity Purchasing Requires a Broader Systems Perspective

Introducing electricity purchase conditions in renewable fuel regulations and carbon accounting is a controversial issue in the US and Europe. We argue that their impact must be assessed considering demand flexibility, local grid conditions, and overlapping policy instruments such as emissions trading schemes and renewable portfolio standards. The introduction of more stringent requirements has a significant ...

Effectiveness and Heterogeneous Effects of Purchase Grants for Electric Vehicles

We evaluate German purchase subsidies for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) using data on new vehicle registrations in Germany dur¬ing 2015-2022. We account for confounding time trends and interacting EU-level CO2 standards using neighboring countries as a control group. We find that 40% of BEV and 25% of PHEV registrations were subsidy-induced. The program ...

Nobody Decides for All — Modeling Incentives and Policies for Closing the Material Loop

External Costs of Water Pollution in the Drinking Water Supply Sector

Nitrate pollution from agricultural production is a major threat to water resources worldwide. This study quantifies the consequences of groundwater nitrate pollution for the drinking water supply sector by estimating the effect of groundwater nitrate pollution on the costs of water utilities. In doing so, we contribute to the estimation of the external costs of agricultural nonpoint pollution associated ...

Taxonomy Disclosure in the EU: A Useful Framework, Despite Current Challenges

The EU Taxonomy is a classification system for sustainable economic activities and a framework for various regulatory initiatives. Its primary objectives are to enhance transparency, to reduce greenwashing and ultimately to redirect capital toward more sustainable activities. However, since its introduction, market participants have raised concerns about whether the benefits justify the costs. This ...

Environmentally-Responsible Households: Irresponsible Corporate Lobbying

How do firms respond to greener household preferences? We construct a novel index of environmental willingness to act on the state-quarter level based on Google Trends search data. Relating the index to firm-level information on the U.S. auto- motive sector from 2006 to 2019, we find ambiguous results. On average, firms innovate more in electric, hydrogen, and hybrid (clean) technologies and reduce ...

A regionally differentiated climate dividend in Germany

Experiences with the regionally differentiated climate dividend in Austria in terms of effectiveness, acceptance and feasibility in the administration. Contribution of a regionally differentiated climate dividend to the acceptance of climate policy (social compatibility and efficiency) Transferability of the Austrian concept and experiences with implementation to Germany.