Topic Climate Policy

Do Wind Turbines Have Adverse Health Impacts?

While wind power is considered key in the transition towards net zero, there are concerns about adverse health impacts on nearby residents. Based on precise geographical coordinates, we link a representative longitudinal household panel to all wind turbines in Germany and exploit their staggered rollout over two decades for identification. We do not find evidence of negative effects on general, mental, ...

Energy and Climate Scenarios Paradoxically Assume Considerable Nuclear Energy Growth

Most climate and energy scenarios created by international organizations and researchers include a considerable expansion of nuclear energy. In the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, for example, nuclear energy increases from a current 3,000 terawatt hours on average to over 6,000 terawatt hours in 2050 and to over 12,000 terawatt hours in 2100. This doubling and quadrupling of nuclear energy production ...

Policy Complementarity and the Paradox of Carbon Pricing

We present an economics framework appropriate to the exceptionally broad scope of the climate change problem. This considers that economic and social processes, particularly those involved in purposive transitions of energy technologies and systems, involve the interplay between three distinct domains of decision-making and associated actors. The first concerns small-scale and often short-term decision-making, ...

National Hydrogen Strategy: Clear Focus and Consistent Implementation Necessary

Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources is one cornerstone of the energy transition. In certain sectors, green hydrogen will play an important role in the future, as is envisioned in the revised National Hydrogen Strategy recently presented by the German Federal Government. This Weekly Report discusses important changes in this strategy compared to the first National Hydrogen Strategy ...

Why Investing in New Nuclear Plants Is Bad for the Climate: Commentary

On the Way to Climate Neutrality: Scenarios Can Facilitate the Transition of Companies and the Financial Sector

In its Federal Climate Change Act, Germany has committed to achieving climate neutrality by 2045. To do so, companies from both the industrial and the service sectors must adjust their production and business practices, and financial institutions must adjust their evaluation criteria. In many cases, this requires a new strategic direction and investments in climate-neutral products, business models, ...

Measuring Total Carbon Pricing

While countries increasingly commit to pricing greenhouse gases directly through carbon taxes or emissions trading systems, indirect forms of carbon pricing—such as fuel excise taxes and fuel subsidy reforms—remain important factors affecting the mitigation incentives in an economy. Taken together, how can policy makers think about the overall price signal for carbon emissions and the incentive it ...

Geographical Balancing of Wind Power Decreases Storage Needs in a 100% Renewable European Power Sector

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, many countries plan to massively expand wind power and solar photovoltaic capacities. These variable renewable energy sources require additional flexibility in the power sector. Both geographical balancing enabled by interconnection and electricity storage can provide such flexibility. In a 100% renewable energy scenario of twelve central European countries, we investigate ...

De-Fueling Externalities: How Tax Salience and Fuel Substitution Mediate Climate and Health Benefits

This paper provides a comprehensive evaluation of the world’s largest environmental tax reform. We compare carbon and air pollutant emissions of the German transport sector and synthetic counterfactuals following the 1999 eco-tax reform, and find average re- ductions in external damages of around 80 billion Euros. We further show that the eco-tax induced low-carbon innovation and document much stronger ...

Facilitating the Transport and Heating Transition: Strengthen Carbon Pricing, Introduce a Climate Dividend, and Reduce Adaptation Costs

Despite the easing of prices on the energy markets, private households continue to be burdened by elevated prices. The planned increase the planned increase in the carbon price for transport and heating will raise the burden on private households even further. These additional costs are unequally distributed and have a regressive effect, as poor households must spend much more relative to their net ...