Strutturata in 3 articoli, la tesi analizza il ruolo delle foreste all’interno delle politiche climatiche. Il Capitolo 1 valuta diversi tentativi di rappresentazione della mitigazione land-based - di cui il carbonio forestale rappresenta un importante componente - e offre spunti per migliorare la ricerca in quest’ambito. I Capitoli 2 e 3 presentano due diversi approcci modellistici sul ruolo delle foreste nella mitigazione climatica, all’interno di un modello di equilibrio generale computazionale. Entrambi i metodi assumono un impegno unilaterale Europeo nel ridurre del 20% e 30% le emissioni di CO2 entro il 2020. Il primo approccio, sviluppato nel Capitolo 2, viene rifinito nel Capitolo 3, dove le scelte di allocazione della terra risultano pienamente endogene e il carbonio derivante dall’intensificazione e l’estensificazione forestale è modellizzato separatamente. L’attribuzione di un ruolo alle foreste riduce costi della politica climatica, corrispondenti prezzi del carbonio, e l’effetto leakage. I risultati si presentano qualitativamente simili per entrambe le analisi. Nonostante le foreste europee possano alleviare lo sforzo di mitigazione dei settori energy-intensive, la loro contribuzione come unica strategia di abbattimento risulta insufficiente per il raggiungimento dei targets di riduzione delle emissioni. Un miglior risultato si otterrebbe se altre regioni prendessero parte agli accordi di stabilizzazione climatica. / This thesis, structured in 3 Chapters, analyses the role of forests within a climate policy framework. Chapter 1 critically assesses main existing approaches attempting to represent land-based mitigation, of which forest carbon is a prominent component. It offers important insights on aspects to be improved when modelling land-using activity and forestry. Chapters 2 and 3 present two different methods to model the role of forests in climate mitigation within a global computable-general-equilibrium-model (CGE). Both approaches assume Europe independently committed to reduce CO2 emissions of 20% or 30% by 2020. The first methodology, presented in Chapter 2, is further refined in Chapter 3, to render landowners’ choices on land allocation fully endogenous, and to model carbon from forestry intensification and extensification separately. Envisioning a role for forests reduces climate policy costs, the corresponding carbon price, as well as the leakage effect. These outcomes result qualitatively similar in sign for both analysis. Although European forests can alleviate the burden on energy-intensive sectors, their contribution as a stand-alone abatement strategy results insufficient to comply with the emissions reduction targets. A better result would have been reached if other regions were allowed to take part in climate stabilization agreement.

This thesis analysis the impact of private road transport under emission trading using two different Computable General Equilibrium models. A static multi-region model with special emphasis on the European Union, addresses the welfare impact of road transport under the European Emission Trading System. Including terms-of-trade effects, this model does not account for congestion which is the main externality of road transport. Furthermore, technological details of electricity generation which are an important factor in evaluating climate policies are not included. Therefore, the second model is a static Small Open Economy model of the German economy including congestion effects and detailed technological characteristics of electricity generation. The results of both models highlight the important role of already existing taxes on transport fuels for the evaluation of carbon mitigation measures in road transportation.

Les problématiques de l’énergie et de l’environnement sont un des principaux défis pour l’humanité au XXIème siècle. La croissance mondiale de la demande d’énergie est confrontée aux préoccupations environnementales (y compris la pollution, le réchauffement climatique et la réduction des émissions de CO2), en particulier dans les régions en croissance économique rapide comme l’Asie. Le transfert de l’utilisation des sources d’énergies traditionnelles comme le charbon, le pétrole, vers les sources d’énergie plus propres et des énergies renouvelables est une tendance inévitable à l’avenir. Dans le contexte actuel, le gaz naturel est considéré comme une source d’énergie propre qui jouera un rôle important dans le processus de transition énergétique vers une économie bas-carbone. Les conséquences pour les marchés de gaz naturel peuvent être considérables. La condition d’une telle évolution est de disposer d’une offre en gaz naturel importante. Le développement du gaz non conventionnel, en particulier le gaz de schiste, fournit une opportunité d’expansion de l’approvisionnement gazier mondial comme le montre la « révolution du gaz de schiste » aux États- Unis. Celle-ci a profondément modifié les marchés gaziers régionaux. Toutefois, cette « révolution » n’est guère reproductible à d’autres régions du monde. Cette thèse démontre en particulier qu’en dehors des facteurs géologiques, des conditions institutionnelles (fiscalité, droits de propriété), économiques (prix, technologies) et organisationnelles (libéralisation des marchés) sont nécessaires pour assurer un développement à grande échelle des ressources non conventionnelles. Cette thèse montre que ces conditions ne sont pour la plupart pas réunies ni en Europe ni en Asie (notamment en Chine). Dès lors, une transition par le gaz pour répondre aux enjeux climatiques en Asie se fera par la voie des importations et non par une production propre à la région. A partir de trois scénarios du modèle POLES basés sur des hypothèses de politique climatique, de développement du gaz de schiste et d’augmentation rapide de la demande de gaz dans le mix énergétique, en particulier en Asie, deux principales conclusions émergent. Tout d’abord, l’importance du développement des gaz de schistes aux USA, leur bas coût de production induisent au niveau mondial une offre de gaz abondante et compétitive par rapport à d’autres énergies notamment par rapport au charbon. Par conséquent, même sans politique climatique, les conditions sont réunies pour que la part du gaz naturel puisse croître dans le mix énergétique. Deuxièmement, une politique climatique affirmée a des effets contradictoires quant à l’importance du gaz naturel dans les mix énergétiques des pays asiatiques. D’un côté elle permet une pénétration plus importante du gaz naturel dans leur mix énergétique. Mais dans le même temps, limitant la demande d’énergie, les volumes de gaz naturel demandés ne sont que légèrement plus importants que dans des scénarios sans politique climatique. / Energy and environmental issues are one of the main challenges for humanity in the 21st century. Global growth in energy demand links to environmental concerns including pollution, global warming and reduction of CO2 emissions. In particular, it is an urgent request in rapidly growing developing regions such as Asian countries. Using cleaner energy sources, renewable energy instead of traditional energy sources like coal and oil is an inevitable option in the future. In the current context, natural gas is seen as a clean energy source which plays a major role in the energy transition process towards a low-carbon economy. The consequences for natural gas markets are significant and the condition of this change is an abundant supply of natural gas. The development of unconventional gas, particularly shale gas, provides an opportunity to expand the global gas supply. This is illustrated by the “shale gas revolution” in US which has profoundly changed the regional gas markets. However, this "revolution" is hardly reproducible in other regions of the world. This thesis demonstrates particularly that apart from geological, institutional conditions (taxation, property rights), economic (prices, technologies) and organizational (free markets) are necessary for a large scale development of unconventional resources. This research also shows that most of these conditions are not met in Europe or Asia (especially in China). Therefore, an energy transition by natural gas to meet climate challenges in Asia will be solved through imports, rather than through regional production. From three scenarios of the POLES model based on assumptions about climate policy, shale gas development and rapid increase of demand for gas in the energy mix (particularly in Asia), two main conclusions emerge. The developments of shale gas with low cost in the USA make the global gas supply abundant and more competitive than other energies, particularly coal. Therefore, even without climate policy, the conditions are ripe for the increaseof natural gas proportion in the energy mix. Secondly, a strong climate policy has contradictory effects on the relative share of natural gas in the Asian energy mix. On the one hand, it allows natural gas larger penetration into the energy mix of Asia. But at the same time, with limitation of energy demand, requested natural gas volumes are only slightly higher than in scenarios without climate policy.

La question de la réduction des émissions de CO2 est aujourd’hui clairement posée dans le monde entier et la COP21 a mis en évidence les nouvelles exigences internationales auxquelles les pays pourraient ou devraient être confrontées à court terme. L’objectif fondamental de la thèse consiste à contribuer à l’identification des solutions possibles dans le domaine de la production croissante d’électricité dans un pays en développement, le Vietnam, en tenant compte de la nécessaire réduction des sources d’énergie carbonées. Dans ce but, plusieurs scénarios concernant le développement du secteur électrique au Vietnam sont construits en vue de mesurer les effets des choix relatifs à la production d’électricité sur les émissions de CO2.Après avoir présenté un panorama de la situation énergétique du Vietnam et mis en évidence l’augmentation rapide de la consommation d’électricité du fait de la pression démographique et de l’expression de nouveaux besoins, la question des importations de charbon et de gaz et celle de la production de nouvelles forme d’énergie sont posées, au regard des contraintes économiques, mais aussi environnementales. Les réflexions théoriques, l’étude de la construction des plans directeurs d’électricité, l’analyse des outils économiques disponibles et l’application des modèles de la prévision de la demande d’énergie permettent de comprendre la complexité du « pari électrique » auquel est confronté le Vietnam. Après une présentation des instruments quantitatifs potentiels de simulation, ELECsim a été choisi pour la modélisation du secteur électrique au Vietnam. Les scénarios se basent sur plusieurs hypothèses concernant l’évolution de la croissance économique et de la démographie, le prix de l’énergie, le développement des technologies de production d’électricité, la valeur déclarée du carbone, les taux d’actualisation et les taux de change. Le Vietnam peut d’abord maîtriser la croissance de la demande par une action forte sur l’efficacité énergétique, tout en réduisant parallèlement à la fois les coûts de production de l’électricité et les émissions de CO2. Plusieurs scenarios sont alors proposés, mettant en évidence à la fois la nécessité de la recherche d’une plus grande efficacité énergétique et la promotion des énergies en bas carbone, dans le cadre d’une réorientation rapide des choix politiques face aux nécessités d’un développement économique accéléré, mais aussi durable. Six scenarios ont été construits, sur la base d’un scenario de référence, insistant successivement sur l’efficacité énergétique, le nucléaire, la technologie CCS, les énergies renouvelables et un mix électrique plus équilibré. La contrainte environnementale globale (réduction des émissions de CO2) est prioritaire dans le processus de construction des scénarios. Cette approche multicritères est très nouvelle au Vietnam, pays plutôt préoccupé, aujourd’hui, par la contrainte des coûts d’approvisionnement. Les scénarios analysés dans la thèse prennent en compte la réduction de l’intensité carbone du secteur électrique du Vietnam. Il est alors proposé, comme seuil du critère de référence, le niveau d’émission de 50 à 80 g/kWh (choisi à partir des seuils étudiés par deux économies asiatiques voisines du Vietnam telles qu’Indonésie et Inde). Les différents mix de production électrique proposés semblent offrir des solutions pertinentes. Elles permettent de relever les défis économiques et environnementaux lié à l’expansion du secteur électrique du Vietnam. L’analyse prend en compte notamment la pression croissante de la demande, la sécurité de l’approvisionnement des combustibles avec des choix alternatifs, la réduction des coûts totaux d’une production électrique élevée, le contrôle de la facture extérieure, la prise en compte de l’impact social (notamment sur la santé des citoyens) et de l’occupation des sols et, enfin, le respect des normes relatives à la protection de l’environnement régional, national et mondial. / Reduction of CO2 emissions issue is clearly a world challenge today and COP21 highlighted the international requirements for countries to address related issues in the short and long term. The fundamental objective of the thesis is to contribute to the identification of possible climate policy solutions related to growing electricity production in a developing country, namely Vietnam, taking into account the need to reduce carbon energy sources. For this purpose several scenarios for electricity sector development are constructed in order to measure effects of choices related to the electricity production on CO2 emissions.The thesis presents an overview of the energy situation in Vietnam and highlights the rapid increase in electricity consumption due to population pressure and new needs. It also considers major issues of coal and gas imports, new energy sources, in light of economic constraints but also environmental challenges. The theoretical and analytical chapter reviews the analyses of electricity master plans construction, major available economic tools for energy demand forecast models. This forms the framework to understanding the complexity of the "electric bet" which Vietnam faces. After a presentation of potential quantitative simulation instruments, ELECsim was chosen for modeling the electricity sector in Vietnam. This leads to a comprehensive scenario approach; Scenarios are based on several assumptions about the evolution of economic growth and demographics, energy prices, the power generation technology development, the declared carbon value, discount rates and change rate. As a first step in energy and climate policy Vietnam can control the demand growth by strong action on energy efficiency, while reducing parallel to both the electricity production costs and CO2 emissions. Several scenarios are then proposed, highlighting both the need to search for higher energy efficiency and the promotion of low-carbon energies. Research envisages a rapid shift in policy choices to face the needs of an accelerated but sustainable economic development. Six scenarios were constructed on the basis of a reference scenario, focusing successively on energy efficiency, nuclear, CCS, renewables and a more balanced electricity mix. Environmental constraints (CO2 emissions reduction) have priority in the scenario building process. This multi-criteria approach is very new in Vietnam, a country more familiar with supply cost-based approach. Scenarios analyzed here take into account the carbon intensity reduction of Vietnam's power sector. It is proposed as the benchmark threshold, the emission level of 50-80 g/kWh (similar to reference level studied in two of Vietnam’s neighboring Asian economies such as Indonesia and India). In our research, the different mix of electricity generation offer relevant solutions. They allow meeting the economic and environmental challenges related to the expansion of the Vietnam’s electricity sector. The analysis takes into account several dimensions such as the increasing demand pressure, fuels supply security with alternative choices, reduced high electrical production total costs, control of external bill, considered social impact (especially on health of citizens) and land use and, finally, compliance with standards related to the regional, national and global environment/climate protection.

Local authorities increased interest in climate mitigation policy has in recent years attracted interest from researchers. Compared to local authorities in most other countries, Swedish municipalities enjoy a larger portion of autonomy. This makes them particularly interesting to study from a policy mobility perspective. The aim of this study is to explore how local authorities develop climate policy, the case chosen for this inquiry is Örebro municipality and its climate strategy approved in 2016. By applying the theoretical framework of policy transfer, to some extent, but especially policy mobility the thesis discovers how local authorities develop their climate policy. It also uncovers from where they gather knowledge and inspiration, faced with the global scope of climate issues. The result show that policy mobility provides great explanatory value in understanding the assemblage that is Örebro municipality’s climate strategy. The result, however, also challenges the notion forwarded within the field of policy mobility that the national scale is not very important for local policy development. The study also show that some policy areas are more easily influenced by the global scale, while other areas are more depended on similarities in context between the ‘sending’ and the ‘receiving’ actor, that is Örebro municipality. / Lokala myndigheter har tagit allt större plats i klimatpolitken och även tilldragit sig allt mer uppmärksamhet från forskare. Tidigare har bekämpning av klimatförändringar endast funnits på den globala och nationella nivåns agendor. När fler aktörer kliver in öppnas nya områden upp för studier av olika slag. Inom policymobilitetsfältet har forskare intresserat sig för hur lokala myndigheter formar sin politik, hur policyer färdas från en kontext till en annan och vad den processen gör med policyerna. Jämfört med motsvarande myndighetsnivå i de flesta andra länder har svenska kommuner ett betydligt större mått av självbestämmande. Denna långtgående rådighet gör dem särskilt intress- anta att studera ur ett policymobilitetsperspektiv. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur lokala myndigheter utformar sin klimatpolitik, som fall används Örebro kommuns klimatarbete och då särskilt den klimatstrategi som kommunfullmäktige antog 2016. Genom användningen av teoribildningen kring dels policytransferering men främst policymobilitet studerar uppsatsen hur dessa lokala myndigheter agerar och var de hämtar kunskap och inspiration ifrån när de ställs inför den globalt omfattande frågan om klimat- förändringar. Policymobilitetslitteraturen visar sig bidra med viktiga förklaringsvärden för att förstå den assemblage som Örebro kommuns klimatstrategi utgör. I resultatet fram- går dock att den nationella skalnivån inte förlorat sin betydelse för lokala myndigheters policyutveckling till den grad som tidigare studier inom policymobilitetslitteraturen pekat ut. Den visar också på att policyer inom vissa områden lättare hämtas hem från en global kontext medan det i andra sammanhang ligger närmare till hands att inspireras av andra lokala myndigheter i samma situation och med en liknande kontext som den egna.

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Transformations of energy systems in line with the Paris Agreement demand rapid deliberate decline of fossil energy production for decarbonization. Rising in priority on national political agendas, policy change for deliberate decline meets political barriers in the form of powerful incumbent actors, path dependencies and frames of loss. Although these dynamics can impede transformations, literature remains unclear in how to engage with these barriers. Therefore, this study focused on discourse and policy process theories in a qualitative analysis based on a broad selection of documents and expert-based interviews to explore and illustrate the “Commission on Growth, Structural Change and Employment” in Germany (2018/19). In this multi-stakeholder committee, a phase-out plan for coal-fired power generation was negotiated alongside claims of just transitions. Findings indicate that policy change was reached through consensual agreement but was reduced in ambition through path dependent discourse and expert-based information. The selection and evaluation of expert-based information was closely tied to expert members, while political debate on necessary assumptions as a basis for this information remained scarce. Lastly, insights from discourse and expert-based information can enrich the understanding of sustainability transformations and further research on the case could investigate the narrative subscriptions of stakeholders.

Climate change is a critical threat to all the countries of the world today, not least because of the severe human rights infringements it may well lead to. However, although climate change is a collective, global challenge, there are considerable inequalities regarding contribution to cause and burden of the effects. Those suffering the most from the effects of climate change tend to be least responsible for the emissions causing it. The theoretical concept of climate justice aims to address these injustices, between different countries as well as societal groups and generations. To contribute to the understanding of how this concept is present in the global climate debate today, this thesis examines a selection of the Paris Agreement parties’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) from a perspective of climate justice. The analysis is based on a theoretical framework developed by Andrea Schapper, focusing on three dimensions of climate justice – international, intra-societal and intergenerational. Through this framework, a total of 36 NDCs are studied, the top and bottom three countries for each world region based on levels of cumulative CO2-emissions. The aim of the case selection has been to obtain a variation regarding development status, vulnerability to the effects of climate change, levels of greenhouse gas emissions and geographical location of the studied countries. The results of the study show that all the dimensions are present in at least some of the studied NDCs, but to a very different extent. Primarily, the parties discuss the issue of international justice. Intra-societal justice is touched upon quite frequently but very few bring up the matter of intergenerational justice. Moreover, all three dimensions are predominantly handled by countries classified as ”developing” (according to the UN statistics division).  This implies that climate justice is a higher priority for the most vulnerable to and least responsible for climate change, which is problematic for many reasons. Above all, it indicates that rich, industrialized countries are reluctant to take responsibility for their current and historical emissions, as well as the effect those emissions have on others.

Les systèmes d’échange de quotas d’émission (SEQEs) sont un instrument de régulation environnementale important et ont un rôle clef à jouer dans la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre pour l’atténuation du changement climatique. Cette thèse a une double orientation : les liaisons spatiales entre SEQEs d'une part et les échanges inter-temporels au sein d’un SEQE d'autre part.Les liaisons entre SEQEs peuvent aider à établir un futur cadre de politique climatique mondiale coût-efficient. Cependant, ces liaisons sont difficiles à mettre en place et à ce jour, peu nombreuses. Dans un premier temps, à l’aide d’un modèle simple et unifié et en se basant sur des expériences réelles de SEQEs, nous comparons différentes restrictions à l’échange comme éléments facilitants une transition vers le libre échange de quotas. Dans un deuxième temps, nous construisons un modèle qui décrit et caractérise analytiquement les effets et gains associés à des liaisons multilatérales sous incertitude. Ensuite, le modèle est calibré sur émissions historiques de différentes juridictions pour illustrer les déterminants des préférences de liaison.Les SEQEs sont sujets à de l’incertitude réglementaire, ce qui peut affaiblir leurs efficience coût dynamique et signal prix de long terme. La prévalence d’une telle incertitude peut être assimilée à une situation d’ambiguïté. Nous analysons alors les décisions inter-temporelles d’entités couvertes par un SEQE et averses à l’ambiguïté puis caractérisons les distorsions induites sur le fonctionnement du système. Nous discutons enfin de l’éclairage apportés par ces résultats en rapport aux observations faites dans les SEQEs existants. / Emissions Trading Systems (ETSs) are an important instsrument in regulating pollution and have a key role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change. This dissertation has a twin focus: spatial linkages between ETSs at a point in time and intertemporal trading within an ETS.Linkages between ETSs are crucial for cost-effectiveness of the future climate policy architecture. Complete linkages, however, are difficult to agree and to date, few and far between. Here, our contribution is twofold. First, using a simple and unified model and drawing on experiences with real-world ETSs, we compare alternative trade restrictions on bilateral linkages in facilitating the transition to an unrestricted link. Second, we provide a general model to describe and analytically characterize the effects and gains from multilateral linkages under uncertainty. The model is then calibrated to historical emissions of real-world jurisdictions to illustrate the determinants of linkage preferences.ETSs are subject to regulatory uncertainty, which can disrupt dynamic cost-effectiveness and undermine their long-term price signal. The prevalence of regulatory uncertainty can be assimilated to a situation of ambiguity. Here, our contribution is to analyze regulated entities’ intertemporal decisions under ambiguity aversion, characterize the induced distortions in market functioning, and discuss how these can help explain observations from existing ETSs.

The influence of the Federal Republic of Germany in development of the European Union environmental policy is dealing with promoting of German environmental policy within the European Union in a broad context with the focus on EU institutions and national political system. The German approach to environmental policy is shaped by strategy of European countries that are influencing EU environmental policy. That chosen strategies were developed by Liefferink and Andersen. The stress is put on the analysis of embedding of environmental policy within political system, institutions and within various actors. Part of the research is climatic policy denominated as a main topic of environmental policy of the last days. Key words environmental policy, environmental politics, the European Union and Germany, climate policy, strategy of environmental pioneers, Liefferink Duncan, Andersen Mikael Skou