The energy transition is one of the largest challenges our global society is facing. In 2015, the United Nations acknowledged the Paris Agreement, where the world’s nations were united to limit the global warming well below 2 °C in comparison with pre-historic levels. One of the measures to tackle this challenge that have been proposed by both the International Energy Agency and the European Union is carbon capture and storage or utilisation (CCUS). The concept of CCUS is relatively old but has in light of climate mitigation measures been identified as vital since carbon dioxide (CO2) either can be permanently stored or sequestered into products and materials. Previous research has shown a large potential in CCUS, and that it has a key role in enabling and achieving net-zero climate scenarios. However, large-scale and widely distributed CCUS facilities has not yet been deployed, and it is not fully clear which aspects that are the most important affecting the deployment and how this can be facilitated. This study aims to investigate the current and future market of captured CO2 in Europe during the next decade. The study aims to fill the knowledge gap on how policies affect the development of CCUS, the drivers and barriers that current actors have identified within the field, and lastly, possible pathways in which CO2 can be used. This study was performed using a literature scoping review and interviews with relevant CCUS actors in different parts of the value-chain. The results show CCUS is recognised as an important tool within the European Union to reach the climate goals set out by the European Commission. The development and further deployment of CCUS are however prevented due to economic and legislative barriers, of which low carbon pricing, such as the EU ETS, is identified as the main barrier against making CCUS commercially competitive. Additional legislative barriers are connected to the cross-national trade and export of CO2, as well as a lacking framework on verification and monitoring of captured CO2 and the trade with carbon removal credits. The results also show that CCUS initially will be developed at industrial clusters in the North-West Europe, where shared infrastructure is recognised as an enabler due to sharing risks of investments. The main focus within Europe is on offshore storage rather than CCU due to its large sequestering potential, although CCU can be relevant in regions lacking infrastructure for the transportation of CO2. Regarding the investigated utilisation options, synthetic fuels, building materials, and polymers have been identified to have high potential even if they are not believed to have a high influence as a climate mitigation measure in comparison with CCS. It is concluded that viable business models and cost-effective infrastructure solutions are essential for the European CCUS industry. Much of the deployment is however dependent on clear, beneficial frameworks and policies stating the rules and facilitating the economics of CCUS. Nevertheless, it is expected that especially the European CCS sector will grow in Europe in the upcoming decade, although the role of CCU should not be neglected.

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L'analyse statistique des données a été effectuée avec le logiciel R. / Au cours de la dernière décennie, l'Union Européenne a instauré une réglementation environnementale afin de limiter les émissions de Gaz à Effet de Serre sur son territoire. Ceci a contribué à la mise en place d'un marché du carbone européen (EU ETS) où s'échangent des certificats d'émission de CO2 (les EUA et les CER) ainsi que des produits dérivés reliés à ceux-ci. Ce mémoire aura pour objectif d'évaluer et de comparer différents modèles afin de représenter le prix des certificats d'émission et de tarifer les produits dérivés des marchés du carbone. / During the last decade, the European Union has regulated emissions of Greenhouse Gases on its own territory. Consequently, a European Carbon Market (EU ETS) is currently emerging where CO2 emission certificates (EUA and CER) and derivatives are traded on Exchanges. The objectif of this research is to evaluate and compare different models to represent the emission certificates' price and to price derivatives of the carbon markets.

We compare the effectiveness of different climate policies in terms of emissions abatement and costs in the British and German electricity markets. The two countries follow different climate policies, allowing us to compare the effectiveness of a relatively low EU ETS carbon price in Germany with a significantly higher carbon price due to a unilateral top-up tax (the Carbon Price Support) in the UK. We first estimate the emissions offsetting effects of carbon pricing and of subsidized wind and solar feed-in, and then derive the abatement costs of one tonne of CO2 for the different policies. We find that a reasonably high price for emissions is the most cost-effective climate policy, while subsidizing wind is preferable to subsidizing solar power. A carbon price of around EURO 35 is enough in the UK to induce vast short-run fuel switching between coal- and gas-fired power plants, leading to significant emissions abatement at low costs. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

L'objet de cette thèse est l'analyse des règles de fonctionnement du marché européen du carbone (EU ETS) sur la période 2005-2007. Nous menons une analyse théorique et empirique sur le rôle du stockage et de l'emprunt de quotas, les fondamentaux du prix et les stratégies de gestion des risques, en lien avec l'introduction de quotas échangeables pour couvrir les émissions de CO2 d'environ 10,600 installations en Europe.<br /><br />Un premier Chapitre détaille les effets économiques et environnementaux attendus des mécanismes de stockage et d'emprunt de quotas sur un marché de permis d'émissions négociables. Plus spécifiquement, vis-à-vis des provisions adoptées dans l'EU ETS, nous étudions les effets de la restriction du transfert de quotas stockés ou empruntés entre les Phases I et II sur les changements de prix du CO2. Nous montrons statistiquement que les bas niveaux de prix du CO2 enregistrés jusqu'à la fin de la Phase I sont expliqués par la restriction du transfert de quotas inter-périodes, au-delà des principales explications proposées par les observateurs de marché.<br /><br />Un deuxième Chapitre développe une étude originale des fondamentaux du prix du carbone, introduit depuis le 1er Janvier 2005 en Europe. Nous soulignons le role central joué par l'évènement annuel de conformité 2005 imposé par la Commission Européenne, qui sert de révélateur des positions nettes courtes/longues des installations en quotas par rapport à leurs émissions vérifiées. Le résultat principal de cette étude met en évidence le fait que les fondamentaux du prix du CO2 liés aux marchés des énergies et aux évènements climatiques non-anticipés varient en fonction des évènements institutionnels. Par ailleurs, nous montrons l'influence de la variation de la production industrielle dans trois secteurs couverts par l'EU ETS sur les changements de prix du CO2 en menant une analyse par décomposition, étendue par pays.<br /><br />Un troisième Chapitre s'intéresse aux stratégies de gestion des risques liés à la détention de quotas de CO2. Nous proposons une méthode utilisée sur les marchés d'action pour recouvrer les changements dans l'aversion au risque moyenne des investisseurs. Cette étude indique que, sur la période considérée, l'aversion au risque est plus élevée sur le marché du carbone que sur les marchés d'action, et que le risque est lié à une structure de prix strictements croissants après l'évènement de conformité 2006. En lien avec le Chapitre 1, nous évaluons enfin comment le stockage de quotas peut être utilisé comme un outil de gestion des risques, pour faire face à l'incertitude politique sur un marché de quotas. Nous détaillons une règle optimale de partage des risques, et discutons du principe de mutualisation du risque lié à l'échange de quotas quotas entre agents.<br /><br />Nos travaux témoignent des difficultés rencontrées suite à la création du marché européen du carbone pour atteindre un signal prix cohérent avec des réductions d'émissions effectives par les industriels. Cependant, dans un contexte institutionnel mouvant, ces inefficiences ne semblent pas avoir été reportées vers la période 2008-2012.

In this research, several improvements to the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) were analysed. The EU ETS is a market for emission allowances and the European Union's main instrument for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (of which CO2 is the main component). However, the CO2 allowance price in this market has been highly volatile and generally too low to stimulate significant long-term reductions in CO2 emissions. National and system-wide price floors and ceilings were investigated, prompted by the UK’s implementation of a CO2 price floor through a supplementary CO2 tax. The effects of the "backloading" of CO2 allowances and the proposed Market Stability Reserve were also investigated. While the latter measures may increase dynamic efficiency, this research showed that a well-designed price corridor is even more efficient, while still achieving the long-term abatement targets and stabilising prices. Furthermore, different methods for adjusting the CO2 emissions cap in response to changes in renewable energy policies were investigated. Finally, the impact of investors' risk aversion on the functioning of the CO2 market was evaluated. The analyses were conducted with the use of EMLab-Generation, an agent-based model that simulates two interconnected electricity markets with a joint CO2 emissions trading system. In this model, the companies have limited knowledge about the future, which makes it possible to investigate the impact of public policy instruments on long-term investment dynamics. / <p>The Doctoral Degrees issued upon completion of the programme are issued by Comillas Pontifical University, Delft University of Technology and KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The invested degrees are official in Spain, the Netherlands and Sweden, respectively.</p><p>copyright notice:(c) 2015 Richstein, J.C. · Creative Commons Attribution-Non- Commercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</p><p>QC 20151109</p>

This thesis investigates relationships between the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) and energy markets. A special focus is given to fuel switching, the main shortterm abatement measure within the EU ETS. This consists in substituting Combined Cycle Gas Turbines (CCGTs) for hard-coal plants in off-peak power generation. Thereby coal plants run for shorter periods, which allows power producers to reduce their CO2 emissions. In Chapter 1, we outline different approaches explaining relationships between carbon and energy markets. We also review the literature relating to these issues. Next, we further describe the fuel switching process and, in particular, we analyze the influence of energy and environmental efficiency of thermal power plants (coal and gas) on fuel switching. In Chapter 2, we provide a theoretical analysis that shows how differences in the efficiency of CCGTs can rule interactions between gas and carbon prices. The main result shows that the allowance price becomes more sensitive to the gas price when the level of CO2 emissions increases. In Chapter 3, we examine interactions between carbon, coal, gas and electricity prices in an empirical study. Among the main results, we find that there is a significant link between carbon and gas prices in the long-run equilibrium.In Chapter 4, we analyze the cross-market price discovery process between gas and CO2 markets. We identified in previous chapters that there is a robust significant link between gas and CO2 markets. They are linked commodities, and their prices are affected by the same information. In an empirical analysis, we find that the carbon market is the leader in cross-market price discovery process.

Au cours de la dernière décennie, l'Union Européenne a instauré une réglementation environnementale afin de limiter les émissions de Gaz à Effet de Serre sur son territoire. Ceci a contribué à la mise en place d'un marché du carbone européen (EU ETS) où s'échangent des certificats d'émission de CO2 (les EUA et les CER) ainsi que des produits dérivés reliés à ceux-ci. Ce mémoire aura pour objectif d'évaluer et de comparer différents modèles afin de représenter le prix des certificats d'émission et de tarifer les produits dérivés des marchés du carbone. / During the last decade, the European Union has regulated emissions of Greenhouse Gases on its own territory. Consequently, a European Carbon Market (EU ETS) is currently emerging where CO2 emission certificates (EUA and CER) and derivatives are traded on Exchanges. The objectif of this research is to evaluate and compare different models to represent the emission certificates' price and to price derivatives of the carbon markets. / L'analyse statistique des données a été effectuée avec le logiciel R.

Climate change has become an increasingly important strategic issue for businesses to deal with. The stake is high particularly for those in energy-intensive industries as governments are implementing legislations that limit the carbon emission coming from these industries. Not only are such companies’ carbon emission confronted by regulatory bodies, but also various stakeholders such as customers and investors. Such pressures increased the business relevance of the issue and have provided various strategic contexts and drives. Businesses have responded in different ways to the changes that are coming with climate change. The purpose of this study was to provide insight into the dynamics and characteristics of carbon strategies. The case study companies were three pulp and paper companies located in Sweden, all subjected to the EU ETS regulation. In order to fulfill the purpose we have developed an analytical framework which we applied to the empirical findings. Based on our analysis we concluded that there are several factors that determine and drive the development of carbon strategies: sustainability, energy efficiency, market competition, and owners. The findings also revealed that the most prevalent response type was an optimization strategy, which is enhancing the carbon productivity from operational activities. The findings also confirmed the usefulness and comprehensiveness of the analytical framework employed to the understanding of carbon strategies and development factors.

Policymakers' action of mitigating and slowing down the continued increase of carbon emission is a significant global priority. One way to internalise the negative externality of pollution is to put a price on greenhouse gases and use the market-based approach of emission trading systems. On the other hand, according to economic reasoning, pollution is an essential tool for economic development. This paper aims to investigate the economic effects of introducing the first international emission trading system of greenhouse gases, the EU emission trading system, by observing the economic growth and gross fixed capital formation. Mankiw, Romer, and Wiel's (1992) theory is utilised in this study and based on cross-country and cross-state panel data between 1999-2012, an empirical analysis using the fixed effects model was followed. The finding shows that the EU emission trading system has a negative effect on the growth of real gross domestic product per capita compared to states and countries not participating in an emission trading system. In addition, the first phase results having a positive effect and the second phase has a negative effect on the economic growth compared to states and countries not participating in an emission trading system. There is no statistical evidence of the effect on gross fixed capital formation as a percentage share of GDP. Organisations can use the findings to decide whether developing countries can afford the consequence of an implemented emission trading system since it tends to slow down growth. However, further research needs to consider the effect of the financial crisis of 2008 and the interpretation of the EU emission trading scheme.