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

The broad objective of this thesis involves investigation of the role agriculture might play in a society wide greenhouse gas emissions reduction effort. Specifically, the breakeven price for carbon emission offsets is calculated for agriculturally based emission reducing practices. The practices investigated in the Texas High Plains involve reduced tillage use, reduced fallow use, reduced crop fertilization, cropland conversion to grassland, feedlot enteric fermentation management and digester based dairy manure handling. Costs of emission reductions were calculated at the producer level. The calculated offset prices are classified into four cost categories. They are: negative cost, low cost (less than $20 per ton of carbon saved), moderate cost ($20 through $100 per ton of carbon saved), and high cost (over $100 for tons of carbon saved). Negative cost implies that farmers could make money and reduce emissions by moving to alternative practices even without any carbon payments. Alternatives in the positive cost categories need compensation to induce farmers to switch to practices that sequester more carbon. All fallow dryland crop practices, dryland and irrigated cotton zero tillage, dryland and irrigated wheat zero tillage, irrigated corn zero tillage, cotton irrigated nitrogen use reduction under minimum tillage and dryland pasture for all systems, and anaerobic lagoon complete mix and plug flow systems fall in the negative cost category. Dryland and irrigated wheat under minimum tillage are found to be in the low cost category. Cotton dryland under minimum tillage and cotton irrigated with nitrogen use reduction under zero tillage fell into the moderate cost class. Both corn and cotton irrigated minimum tillage are found to be in the high cost category. This study only considers the producer foregone net income less fixed costs as the only cost incurred in switching to an alternative sequestering practice. More costs such as learning and risk should probably be included. This limitation along with other constraints such as use of short run budget data, lack of availability and reliability of local budgets, overlooking any market effects, and lack of treatment of costs incurred in selling carbon offsets to buyers are limitations and portend future work.

Yes / This study examines the effect of carbon price uncertainty on stock price crash risk. Utilizing the dynamic panel model on the data of Chinese listed firms from 2011 to 2018, we find that high carbon price uncertainty increases stock price crash risk. The impact of carbon price uncertainty is more prominent in the heavily polluting industries and during the post-period of the Paris agreement. The two underlying channels through which carbon price uncertainty induces stock price crashes are managers' hoarding of bad news and investors' heterogeneity. Furthermore, reducing information asymmetry inside and outside the firms can mitigate the influence of carbon price uncertainty on stock price crash risk. Our findings demonstrate that carbon price uncertainty as a newly underexplored factor induced by the prevailing curb of catastrophe risks has unintended but important implications on stock prices. / This study was supported by the Project of Social Science Achievement Evaluation Committee of Hunan Province (Grant No. XSP22YBZ160), Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2022JJ40644 and No. 2022JJ40647). / The full-text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 24th Oct 2024.

Determining the social cost of carbon emissions (SCC) is a crucial step in the economic analysis of climate change policy as the US government's recent decision to use a range of estimates of the SCC centered at $77/tC (or, equivalently, $21/tCO2) in cost-benefit analyses of proposed emission-control legislation underlines. This note reviews the welfare economics theory fundamental to the estimation of the SCC in both static and intertemporal contexts, examining the effects of assumptions about the typical agent's pure rate of time preference and elasticity of marginal felicity of consumption, production and mitigation technology, and the magnitude of climate-change damage on estimates of the SCC. We high-light three key conclusions: (i) an estimate of the SCC is conditional on a specific policy scenario, the details of which must be made explicit for the estimate to be meaningful; (ii) the social discount rate relevant to intertemporal allocation decisions also depends on the policy scenario; and (iii) the SCC is uniquely defined only for policy scenarios that lead to an efficient growth path because marginal costs and benefits of emission mitigation diverge on inefficient growth paths. We illustrate these analytical conclusions with simulations of a growth model calibrated to the world economy. (authors' abstract)

近年來，電動車與電動機車發展及應用儼然已成為世界潮流，在機車密度極高且擁有「機車王國」稱號的台灣，電動機車技術日新月異，也發展出多樣化商業模式，其中最著名莫過於電動機車電池租賃商業模式，以及共享商業模式。 本研究旨在利用成本效益分析中的淨現值法及益本比法，模擬分析機車使用者以電動機車代替傳統燃油機車，為使用者自己及整體社會帶來之淨現值。在電動機車方面，本研究分析兩種電動機車商業模式，分別為「電動機車電池租賃商業模式」及「共享電動機車商業模式」。 本研究結果顯示，在使用者立場下，目前電動機車成本依舊大於傳統125C.C.燃油機車之成本，且「電動機車電池租賃商業模式」較適合每個月騎乘里程較長之使用者，而「共享電動機車商業模式」較適合每個月騎乘里程較短之使用者。此外，敏感度分析顯示出，在「電動機車電池租賃商業模式」下，騎乘里程長度與NPV及BCR均呈現正相關。在「共享電動機車商業模式」下，每個月騎乘里程為100公里之使用者，在共享電動機車計價方式為每分鐘2.25元之方案下，使用者之NPV>0及BCR>1，並且騎乘里程越短之使用者，其對共享電動機車計價變動的益本比敏感程度越高(當價格下降時，益本比上升較高)。 最後，在整體社會立場下，利用「電動機車電池租賃商業模式」替換傳統燃油機車且騎乘里程越高之使用者，對整體社會帶來之淨現值越高。而利用「共享電動機車商業模式」替換傳統燃油機車且騎乘里程越低之使用者，越具有經濟效益。 / In recent years, the development and application of electric vehicles and electric scooters have become popuplar. In Taiwan, where scooter density is very high and is also called a "scooter kingdom", electric scooter technology is not only improving, but also developing a diversified business model. Particularly, two of the most famous business models are “Electric scooter battery rental business model” and “Sharing electric scooter business model”. The purpose of this study is to use the net present value method and the benefit ratio method in the cost-benefit analysis. We analysis the user's own benefits and the overall social net benefits which are generated from the scooter users replacing traditional fuel scooter with electric scooter. In the field of electric scooters, this study analyzes two business models of electric scooters, “Electric scooter battery rental business model” and “Sharing electric scooter business model”. According to the simulation result of empirical analysis, for the users, the current cost of electric scooters is still higher than the cost of traditional 125C.C. fuel scooters. “Electric scooter battery rental business model” is more suitable for people who have higher accumulated distance per month, and “Sharing electric scooter business model” is more suitable for people who have lower accumulated distance per month . On the other hand, according to the result of sensitivity analysis, the accumulated distance is positively correlated with NPV and BCR in the “Electric scooter battery rental business model”. In the “Sharing electric scooter business model”, those who ride 100 km per month have NPV> 0 and BCR> 1 in the pricing of NT$2.25 per minute. Besides, those who ride 100 km per month have higher sensitivity of pricing. For the overall society, those who use the "Electric scooter battery rental business model" to replace the traditional fuel scooter and have higher accumulated distance per month can generate higher net benefits to the whole society. Those who use the "Sharing electric scooter business model" to replace the traditional fuel scooter and have lower accumulated distance per month can generate higher net benefits to the whole society.

L'Union Européenne a un programme ambitieux pour faire face aux effets du changement climatique, les institutions européennes devant désormais prendre en compte l'environnement dans le cadre de ses politiques. L'objectif de ma thèse consiste à évaluer les impacts des politiques publiques européennes sur l'agriculture et l’environnement, de mesurer leurs effets croisés et d'évaluer l'intérêt d'une meilleure coordination de ces politiques. La thèse vise à enrichir l'analyse économique sur des problématiques importantes recentrées sur la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre (GES) agricoles dans l'UE et le niveau de la production agricole, sous un angle quantitatif. La méthodologie repose sur un modèle de programmation mathématique qui simule l’offre agricole européenne (AROPAj), utilisant les données du Réseau d'Information Comptable Agricole. L'analyse est réalisée à plusieurs niveaux, européen, national, régional et infra-régional, tenant compte de la variabilité du contexte économique qui caractérise l'agriculture européenne sur les six années 2007-2012. Nous évaluons tout d'abord comment l'agriculture peut contribuer à l'atténuation des émissions de GES dans l'UE et nous offrons une analyse détaillée des courbes de coûts marginaux d'abattement. Les résultats indiquent qu’en moyenne, sur la période 2007-2012, l’agriculture européenne peut réduire ses émissions d’environ 10%, 20% et 30% respectivement, pour les prix des émissions de 38, 112.5 et 205 Euros/tCO2eq. Nous montrons que l’agriculture peut offrir une atténuation substantielle et que le potentiel et les coûts d’atténuation varient substantiellement dans le temps et dans l’espace. La deuxième problématique étudiée porte sur la compatibilité entre l’augmentation de la production agricole et la diminution de l’impact de l’agriculture sur l’environnement. En introduisant une approche primale (via un prix du carbone) et une approche duale (via un objectif calorique), nous montrons qu’on peut réduire les émissions de GES et modifier l’offre agricole tout en augmentant la quantité en calories alimentaires. On étend la problématique des émissions de GES, en dissociant les prix des deux gaz (CH4 et N2O). Un système de prix différenciés permet de mieux adapter la politique de régulation climatique en fonction de l'horizon de temps sur lequel on se projette, offrant une flexibilité dans la réduction des coûts d’abattement des émissions. / The European Union has an ambitious agenda to deal with the effects of climate change, the European institutions must now take environment into account within the framework of its policies. The objective of my thesis is to evaluate the impacts of European public policies on agriculture and environment, to measure their crossed effects and to assess the potential for a better coordination of these policies. The thesis aims to enrich the economic analysis on important issues refocused on the reduction of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in the EU and the level of agricultural production, from a quantitative perspective. The methodology is based on a mathematical programming model that simulates the European agricultural supply (AROPAj), using data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network. The analysis is carried out at several levels, European, national, regional and sub-regional, taking into account the variability of the economic context that characterizes the European agriculture over the six years 2007-2012. We first assess how agriculture may contribute to the mitigation of EU GHG emissions and provide a detailed analysis of marginal abatement cost curves. The results show that, on average, over the period 2007-2012, EU agriculture may reduce its emissions by around 10%, 20% and 30%, respectively for emission prices of 38, 112.5 and 205 EUR/tCO2eq. We show that agriculture may offer substantial mitigation and that mitigation costs and potential vary in time and in space. The second issue studied concerns the compatibility between the increase in agricultural production and the reduction of the impact of agriculture on the environment. By introducing a primal approach (via a carbon price) and a dual approach (via a calorie target), we show that we can reduce GHG emissions and change agricultural supply while increasing the quantity of food calories. We extend the issue of GHG emissions by separating the prices of the two gases (CH4 et N2O). A differentiated price system allows to better adapt the climate regulation policy according to the time horizon on which we are projected, offering flexibility in reducing the emission abatement costs.

Die Bepreisung von Treibhausgasemissionen ist eine der am intensivsten diskutierten Strategien zur Mitigation des menschengemachten Klimawandels. Eine CO2-Steuer oder ein Emissionshandel nach dem „Cap and Trade“-Prinzip sind die prominentesten Vorschläge und stehen auch im Zentrum dieser Dissertation. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, näher zu beleuchten, was aus moralischer Sicht für und gegen die Bepreisung von Treibhausgasen spricht. Zu diesem Zweck werden in drei Kapiteln Argumente für die Bepreisung von Treibhausgasen untersucht und in drei weiteren Kapiteln Argumente gegen die Bepreisung von Treibhausgasen diskutiert. Hierbei baue ich auf der existierenden philosophischen Literatur zum Thema auf; bringe jedoch auch neue Argumente in die Debatte ein. Ich komme zu einem gemischten Fazit. Manche Argumente für die Bepreisung von Treibhausgasemissionen halten einer genaueren philosophischen Betrachtung nicht stand (Effizienz, Ausmaß der Freiheitseinschränkungen), aber auch nicht alle Argumente gegen die Bepreisung überzeugen (Kommodifizierung). Auf der anderen Seite ist festzuhalten, dass ein Argument für die Bepreisung schlüssig scheint (Effektivität) und zwei kritische Argumente zumindest in Teilen überzeugen (mangelnde Fairness, Auswirkung auf intrinsische Motivation). Die Dissertation soll wichtige Erkenntnisse für das aus moralischer Sicht optimale Design eines Preises auf Treibhausgasemissionen liefern. Eine endgültige Antwort auf die Frage, ob wir den Weg der Bepreisung von Treibhausgasemissionen relevanten Alternativen vorziehen sollten, kann nur nach einer interdisziplinären Debatte gegeben werden. Zu dieser soll die vorliegende Dissertation ein Beitrag sein. / Pricing greenhouse gas emissions is one of the most intensely discussed strategies to mitigate climate change. Implementing a carbon tax or a ‚cap and trade‘ emissions trading scheme are the two most prominent proposals and the ones that this doctoral thesis focuses upon. Its goal is to contribute to a better understanding of the moral reasons that speak for or against carbon pricing. The first three chapters deal with moral arguments in favor of carbon pricing and the last three chapters with moral arguments against carbon pricing. In doing so, I build on the existing literature, but also develop new arguments. Some of the arguments in favor of carbon pricing turn out to be unconvincing (Least Cost Argument, Liberty Argument), but the same is true for one argument against carbon pricing (Commodification Argument). One of the arguments in favor of carbon pricing proves to be sound (Effectiveness Argument), while two of the arguments against it have at least some credibility (Solidarity Objection, Carbon Pricing and Motivation). This doctoral thesis aims to provide some insights into how to price carbon, but a final answer to the question of whether we should price carbon can only be given after an interdisciplinary debate to which this work of moral philosophy is but one contribution.