In the absence of federal climate change initiatives, Texas cities have been free to pursue their own local energy and environmental policy objectives. However, recent trends in federal climate change politics have made it clear that the era of federal inaction on climate change is nearing an end. This report argues that these trends will eventually culminate in a comprehensive regulatory structure with serious implications for the entire energy landscape of Texas. Texas cities that adapt quickly to these new conditions will experience greater success in the new low-carbon economy. Determining which adaptation strategy is appropriate for each city, however, is largely a function of the policy priorities of the city in question. This report identifies four, often conflicting, policy perspectives that influence the development of climate change policy priorities: Environmental Protection, Economic Stability, Peak Oil Production, and Energy Security. It then analyzes these perspectives in order to develop criteria for the proper selection of future energy and environmental policies. Finally, this report examines a variety of proposed policy initiatives to identify strategic options for each perspective and opportunities for mutual gain. / text

Die Klimakonferenz in Cancún hat zwar die Scherben von Kopenhagen zusammengekratzt. Als Erfolg gefeiert wurde, dass überhaupt ein gemeinsames Dokument zustande kam mit Aussagen zum Schutz der Regenwälder und Geldversprechen für die armen Länder. Aber nichts davon ist finanziert oder gar völkerrechtlich verbindlich. Ist also alles verloren? Keineswegs! Es gibt sogar gute Gründe für Optimismus.

Owners of exhaustible resources will respond to climate policies, and these policies have to take such responses into account. This thesis considers three separate instances in which market power and exhaustible resources interact with climate policy. Chapter 2 considers research and development (R&D) into green substitutes to oil as a climate policy instrument. Oil exporters will respond to such R&D efforts in ways which reduce the effectiveness of the policy. Making substitute technologies competitive against current oil prices is not sufficient. R&D efforts will only force higher oil supplies, aggravating short-term pollution. Eventually, the oil age will end as the substitutes become competitive against the marginal cost of producing oil. This motive encourages an R&D push to leave more oil underground. Strategic gaming between the importers and exporters may reduce both oil supply and R&D efforts. Chapter 3 considers fixed costs into opening a deposit of an exhaustible resource. Counterintuitively, a monopolist may invest too early, into too much capacity. I then apply this model to an unconventional exhaustible resource: empty space underground, in which to store captured carbon emissions. I focus on the case of storing European emissions under the North Sea. Monopolistic storage is only a concern if storage space is sufficiently abundant. In this case, the monopolist will not invest enough, to cut back the cumulative storage capacity. Duopolistic storage may involve tacit collusion. Chapter 4 considers an unconventional climate policy instrument: capital income taxes imposed on oil exporters. Such taxes can motivate conservation of polluting resources and allow oil importers to appropriate some oil wealth. These benefits come at the cost of inducing productive distortions, which diminish overall economic output.

We build a two-stage stochastic R&D portfolio model for climate policy analysis. This model can help policy makers allocate a limited R&D budget to minimize the total social cost. We develop several methods, including genetic programming and a greedy algorithm, to deal with the computational challenges of the model that arise due to the inclusion of uncertainties. From the R&D model, we have several key results. First, the optimal portfolios are robust against the climate risks. Second, policy makers should put most of their investment into Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects when the R&D budget is relatively low. We further show Fast Reactor (FR) and 3rd generation PV are the two most unattractive technologies in the portfolio. Finally, more sophisticated expert elicitations on climate change energy technologies should be done in the future, because the potential benefit can be up to 11 billion dollars.

Klimapolitik ist Interessenpolitik, sehr harte sogar. Das zeigte der Gipfel in Kopenhagen. Als es zu konkreten Abmachungen kommen sollte, wurde gefeilscht, blockiert und schließlich ein nichts sagendes Papier verlesen. Im Schwerpunkt dieses Heftes analysieren Experten die Ursachen für das Scheitern in Kopenhagen und die Konsequenzen für die künftige Klimapolitik. Sie fragen nach der Rolle solcher Akteure wie China und Indien und der NGO, sie diskutieren den Faktor Klima in der Entwicklungspolitik und machen Vorschläge zur Finanzierung der Klimapolitik. Zudem setzen wir in diesem Heft den Streitplatz über die nationalen Interessen Deutschlands fort. In der Analyse wird die Frage nach der Zukunft der deutschen Wehrpflicht gestellt; in den WeltBlick nehmen wir die krisengeschüttelte EU, Ungarn nach den Wahlen und die Friedensproblematik in Kolumbien.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) is a global agreement between 194 countries to stabilize greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere to avoid dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Through this Convention, developed countries have also agreed to provide developing countries with funds to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mitigate) and build resilience to the current and anticipated changes in average climate conditions (adaptation). This thesis is centered on financing for adaptation to climate change. While there are several funds administered by a UNFCCC-appointed institute, the World Bank recently launched Climate Investment Funds as an interim mechanism (set to expire in 2012, when the existing UNFCCC financial architecture is to be revised) for providing, among other things, adaptation finance in selected developing countries. This thesis will explore the opportunities and challenges for adaptation financing under the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), as compared to the UNFCCC. Document analysis and two rounds of interviews were done to generate information to assess the ability of the CIF to respond to the needs of adaptation financing and to fetch the institutional and governance issues that arise from the involvement of a World Bank-administered fund, namely CIF, in the climate finance regime. It was concluded that while there are some achievements with the CIF exercise, there are also significant institutional, governance and funding challenges for the CIF.

Two areas of sustainable development were investigated to test the importance of economic development and the planning process on energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions outcomes between 2000 and 2010 across all sectors in the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the United States. Following this, a model was developed to evaluate the social benefits and costs of solar photovoltaic programs in the City of Atlanta. Results indicated that some econometric models relating emissions to GDP per-capita are poor descriptors over this decade. Planning process and growth in GDP per-capita are shown to be better indicators of performance, although these are also subject to specific contextual differences between regions, notably through adversarial polycentrism. Existing solar photovoltaic programs are also estimated to provide tens to hundreds of millions in cumulative net benefits to the City of Atlanta, although this is likely only a fraction of the potential. These findings suggest that the management of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions could be improved through increased participatory planning approaches and through the removal of barriers to realizing cost-effective improvements in energy and carbon performance.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) is a global agreement between 194 countries to stabilize greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere to avoid dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Through this Convention, developed countries have also agreed to provide developing countries with funds to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mitigate) and build resilience to the current and anticipated changes in average climate conditions (adaptation). This thesis is centered on financing for adaptation to climate change. While there are several funds administered by a UNFCCC-appointed institute, the World Bank recently launched Climate Investment Funds as an interim mechanism (set to expire in 2012, when the existing UNFCCC financial architecture is to be revised) for providing, among other things, adaptation finance in selected developing countries. This thesis will explore the opportunities and challenges for adaptation financing under the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), as compared to the UNFCCC. Document analysis and two rounds of interviews were done to generate information to assess the ability of the CIF to respond to the needs of adaptation financing and to fetch the institutional and governance issues that arise from the involvement of a World Bank-administered fund, namely CIF, in the climate finance regime. It was concluded that while there are some achievements with the CIF exercise, there are also significant institutional, governance and funding challenges for the CIF.

No description available.

An increasing number of countries worldwide have made commitments in recent years to reduce emissions with the goal of limiting global temperature increases to 1.5-2 °C. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is capable of significantly reducing anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and is an important tool in the effort to mitigate climate change. The ability of CCS to sequester emissions at a large scale makes it suitable to particularly emission-intensive sectors, such as the oil and gas sector in Canada. Many factors must be considered holistically to ensure the long-term success of large-scale CCS, such as the availability of emission sources, the design of a CO2 transportation network, the availability and capacity of suitable storage sites, the long-term fate of the injected CO2, the economic viability of the system, and the overall policy environment. Previous studies have considered these factors in demonstrating the viability of CCS in Alberta but have not done so holistically. We take a holistic approach in designing a large-scale integrated CCS system which includes CO2 capture from a hub of 10 large oil sands emitters, transport via a pipeline network, and permanent sequestration in the Nisku and Wabamun saline formations. We use a logistic model to forecast long-term oil sands hydrocarbon production and annual emissions, and ensure that all of the capturable emissions can be stored safely without exceeding pressure limits by modeling the long-term pressure evolution. The injected CO2 will be fully trapped in 6100-11000 years without migrating past the minimum storage depth. We calculate the capital expenditures for the pipeline and injection well components of the system and show that the amount of funding required is reasonable under the umbrella of federal infrastructure funding. This provides a comprehensive framework to ensure the long-term success of future CCS projects. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc) / The global community has increasingly recognized the importance of greenhouse gas emission reductions in the effort to mitigate climate change. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a technology that, with widespread use at a large scale, has the potential to significantly reduce emissions. However, due to the high cost and lengthy time commitment required, many factors ranging from emission sources to storage capacity to financial considerations must be accounted for to ensure the success of a CCS system. Here, we show that a large-scale CCS system in Alberta is viable and the captured CO2 can be safely stored in the long term. This framework can be used to ensure the success of future CCS projects.