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.

The determination of long-term goals for climate policy, or of near-term mitigation effort, requires a shared conception among nations of what is at stake. Unfortunately, because of different attitudes to risk, problems of valuing non-market effects, and disagreements about aggregation across rich and poor nations, no single benefit measure is possible that can provide commonly accepted basis for judgment. In response to this circumstance, a portfolio of estimates is recommended, including global variables that can be represented in probabilistic terms, regional impacts expressed in natural units, and integrated monetary valuation. Development of such a portfolio is a research task, and the needed program of work suggested. / Abstract in HTML and technical report in PDF available on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change website (http://mit.edu/globalchange/www/). / Results cited from the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change were developed with the support of the US Department of Energy, Office of Biological and Environmental Research [BER] (DE-FG02-94ER61937) the US Environmental Protection Agency (X-827703-01-0), the Electric Power Research Institute, and by a consortium of industry and foundation sponsors.

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.

This report investigates inconsistencies in climate policy engagement of 16 major corporations in five industrial sectors and analyses which problem areas are significant in the inconsistency of their engagement. The purpose of this report was to scope the area of inconsistent climate policy engagement on behalf of the company GES International – Global Engagement Services, who offers advisory services in responsible investment. This report has been performed through a literature review and is partly based on a report on corporate carbon policy footprint by the independent organisation InfluenceMap.   All companies investigated in this report are to some extent supporting the climate agenda of the Paris Agreement, including limiting global warming to below two degrees. Nevertheless, 14 of the 16 companies are at the same time showing a negative climate policy engagement. The problem areas leading up to this inconsistency that have been detected in this report are; when companies are taking part in organisational relationships that are unsupportive of climate change mitigation strategies, when companies are against climate legislation, the unwillingness of companies to change their own industrial sector and companies showing mixed signals on the same policy topic.   The conclusions that can be drawn from this report is that there are substantial inconsistencies in the climate policy engagement of companies and it can be difficult to assess what the company’s true stance on climate engagement is. Some measures to improve on consistency is for companies to review their policy engagement and be transparent on what their actual stance climate engagement is, however this transition can take time. / Den här rapporten undersöker inkonsekvenser inom klimatpolicy engagemang hos 16 av världens största företag, inom fem olika sektorer, och analyser vilka problemområden som är betydande inom motsägande klimatengagemang hos företagen. Syftet med rapporten är att granska området kring inkonsekvent klimatpolicy engagemang på uppdrag av företaget GES International – Global Engagement Services, som erbjuder rådgivning inom hållbara investeringar. Rapporten har utförts genom en litteraturstudie som delvis är baserad på en rapport om företags påverkan på klimatet genom policys som är utgiven av den oberoende organisationen InfluenceMap.   Samtliga företag som undersöks i den här rapporten visar sig till viss del stödja klimatagendan i enlighet med Parisavtalet, vilket inkluderar en höjd global temperatur på max två grader. Trots detta visar sig 14 av de 16 företagen ha en distinkt negativ klimatpolicy engagemang som strider mot deras erkännande av Parisavtalet. De identifierade problem i den här rapporten som leder till motsägande klimatengagemang hos företagen är; när företagens organisatoriska relationer som arbetar strategiskt mot att förbättra klimatförändringar, när företagen strategiskt arbetar för att motverka lagstiftande om klimat, när företag är emot att inkludera sin egen sektor i klimatarbetet och när företagen visar olika åsikter inom samma ämne.   Slutsatsen som kan dras från den här rapporten är att det finns substantiella motsägelser i företagens klimatpolicy engagemang och det kan vara svårt att avgöra vilken som är den sanna inställningen hos företagen. För att för att göra företagens klimatengagemang mer konsekvent kan företagen till exempel granska sina egna engagemang och vara transparenta med vad deras egentliga inställning till klimatet är. Omställning till ett mer konsekvent klimatengagemang hos företagen kan ta lång tid.

The purpose of this dissertation is to assess the current state of climate policy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission trends in the state Florida and its local governments. The research is guided by three research questions 1) What has been the policy response from state and local governments to the threat of climate change; 2) What were the GHG emission trends from 2000 to 2010 in Florida and its local governments and what were the drivers of change?; and, 3) what were the issues related to the data and methodologies to quantify GHG emissions at the local government level? Policymakers need accurate data and a framework by which to measure progress towards reduction targets and mitigation strategies aimed at reducing GHG emissions. To date, there has not been a comprehensive assessment in Florida despite the proliferation of reduction targets and action planning in state and local governments. Research was conducted to systematically catalogue climate policy at the state and specific actions at the local government level. Actions taken at the local government level included participation in one or more of eight climate networks and completion of a GHG inventory and/or climate action plan. A comprehensive GHG inventory was completed for the state (2000 through 2010) and for all 477 local governments (2000 and 2010). GHG emissions were summarized for total GHG emissions, per capita GHG emissions, per land area GHG emissions, and by sector (i.e., energy, transportation, industrial processes, agriculture, waste, carbon sequestration, and miscellaneous other categories). The ambitious 2007 policies of Governor Crist to curb state GHG emissions floundered once he left office and was replace by the new Governor Rick Scott. It was then left to local governments to respond to the threat of global warming with 117 of 477 local governments pledging to take action (as evidenced through participation in climate action networks). However, only a small minority actually tried to go beyond to complete a GHG inventory and develop a climate action plan. Of these, only two have conducted a follow-up GHG inventory with resultant increases of over 30 percent which falls far short of county-wide reduction targets of 20 percent. GHG emissions from the 39 local governments who undertook GHG inventories found increases in GHG emissions of 10 percent. GHG emissions in the state have increased by 14 percent from 2000 to 2010. In both 2000 and 2010, transportation and electricity consumption were the largest contributors of GHG emissions in both the state and its local governments. Industrial and agricultural emissions were also contributors but these emissions not equally distributed throughout local governments in Florida due to the location of these industries across the state. The rates of change from 2000 to 2010 were not equal in all categories. GHG emission increases were observed in the majority of categories but at different rates; however, reductions were observed in industrial sources and livestock and other agricultural sources. The research identifies drivers of GHG emission change in the state to include population size, Florida gross domestic product (FGDP), land use change, and national energy policies (i.e., natural gas over coal and increased fuel efficiency standards). When assessing methodologies for states and local governments, nine separate GHG methodologies were identified all of which used different approaches and categorical coverage. In addition, the procedures that are used may not be appropriate for the scale of a local jurisdiction due to problems associated with generalizing or averaging emissions data. Data availability at the state level is robust; however, readily-available data at the local government level for certain categories were deemed to be insufficient to avoid highly uncertain assumptions. Review of the completed GHG inventories indicates the use of different approaches makes comparisons between the published GHG emissions impossible. It is recommended that a standardized methodology and data collection framework be used for all local governments for more accurate comparisons and to assess the impacts of policy at a local government scale. While the local government GHG inventory required the use of some uncertain assumptions due to data limitations, such a framework was developed for this dissertation. The framework could be refined with more accurate data for future inventories and could also be adapted for other states.

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 research question animating this project is ‘what is the nature of neoliberalism’s influence on recent and contemporary US climate change policy?’ Situating itself against several growing bodies of literature which have sought to underscore the fetishism of markets in recent environmental and climate policy agendas under neoliberalism – e.g., the work of Heynen et al (2007) on ‘neoliberal environments’; Paterson and Newell’s (2010) work on neoliberalism and carbon markets; and the work of Dryzek et al (2003) on state forms and ecological modernization – this project argues that any such analysis must be predicated on a considerably more nuanced conception of (a) ‘neoliberalism’, (b) the historic role of states in fostering accumulation, and (c) the nature of policy development within any specific neoliberal context. Applying these theoretical re-conceptualizations to the American context, the project argues that a central tension informing contemporary US climate policy under neoliberalism can be understood a stand-off between two prevailing logics in the federal policy process: on the one hand, Washington’s attempt to build on its tradition of using state power to foster high-tech market development by cultivating the alternative energy realm as a developmental state project, and on the other, the anti-regulationist bent of neoliberalism which seeks to delegitimize the ‘pull’ policies required to ‘creatively destroy’ conventional energy and animate domestic alternative energy markets. Against the general conception of the US as a ‘climate laggard’ whose policy options are restricted market mechanisms and generally anathema to progressive ecological modernization, this body of work shows how the US has managed to develop a robust set of interventionist ‘push’ and ‘pull’ climate policies along ‘alternative policy pathways’, despite the prevailing anti-state rhetoric of neoliberalism.

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.