Växthuseffekten är idag ett välkänt fenomen. För inte så länge sedan skrev 195 länder på klimatavtalet i Paris, ett avtal som slår fast att länderna tillsammans ska arbeta mot målet att hålla den globala uppvärmningen under 2 grader Celsius. Redan före ingåendet av detta avtal fanns åtgärder som syftade till att minska den globala uppvärmningen. Införandet av utsläppsmarknaden är en sådan åtgärd. Denna marknad bygger på att man med hjälp av ekonomiska incitament påverkar företag att minska sina utsläpp. Om företag inte kan minska sina utsläpp står de inför stora kostnader. Hela idén med utsläppsmarknader hotas dock av det faktum att det inte finns någon vägledning kring hur företag ska redovisa utsläppsrätter i de finansiella rapporterna. Som ett resultat av avsaknaden av vägledning på området är det upp till företag själva att avgöra hur och om de ska redovisa utsläppsrätter. En ytterligare konsekvens av detta är det väldigt många företag som inte redovisar utsläppsrätter överhuvudtaget. Även bland de företag som valt att redovisa utsläppsrätter finns det en stor variation.I denna studie undersöks variationen ur ett annat perspektiv. Syftet med denna studie är att söka förklara varför företag tillämpar olika redovisningsmetoder gällande redovisning av utsläppsrätter utifrån ett anglosaxiskt och kontinentalt perspektiv. Den genomförda metoden i studien är en kvantitativ innehållsanalys med kvalitativa inslag som behandlade 32 anglosaxiska respektive 32 kontinentala börsnoterade företags årsredovisningar. Samtliga företag är deltagare på en utsläppsmarknad och följer IFRS.Studien visar att det finns skillnader mellan anglosaxiska och kontinentala företags redovisning av utsläppsrätter. Studien visar även att dessa kan förklaras utifrån de egenskaper som är typiska för respektive redovisningstradition. Anglosaxiska företag redovisar överlag mycket mindre om utsläppsrätter än vad kontinentala företag gör. Detta faktum kan troligen förklaras genom den starka position som revisionsprofessionen har i den anglosaxiska redovisningstraditionen. Bland de anglosaxiska företag som väl valt att upplysa visar studien att deras redovisningsval styrs av syftet med deras finansiella rapporter. Vidare visar studien att kontinentala företag använder varierande värderingsmetoder vilket kan kopplas till skattelagstiftningens påverkan på redovisningspraxis i dessa länder. En annan skillnad är att kontinentala företag i högre grad erkänner hela förpliktelsen i balansräkningen vilket har sin förklaring i att de anses redovisa mer försiktigt.Studien belyser hur företags redovisningsval påverkas av redovisningstraditionerna i ett land och bekräftar att de fortfarande existerar. Dessa slutsatser kan bidra med ett nytt perspektiv i det pågående arbetet att ta fram vägledning gällande redovisning av utsläppsrätter. Vi anser att vägledning är nödvändig för att utsläppsmarknaden ska leva upp till sitt syfte, vilket den inte gör idag. / Today, the effect of greenhouse gases is a well-known phenomenon. Not so long ago 195 countries signed the Paris agreement, a document which states that the countries will work together to achieve the goal of keeping the global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. Even before the entrance of this agreement measures were taken to reduce global warming. The introduction of an emission trading scheme is one such measure. The scheme tries to create economic incentives for companies to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. If no efforts are made in order to reduce their emissions, the companies will face extensive costs. However, the whole idea of an emission trading scheme is threatened by the fact that there is no guidance on how companies should report emission allowances in their financial reports. As a result of the lack of guidance companies will have to decide on their own if and how they should account for emission allowances. A further consequence of this is that many companies do not account for emission allowances at all. It is also a big variation among the companies that have chosen to account for emission allowances.In this study we investigate the variety through a different perspective. The purpose of this study is to explain why companies use different accounting methods when they account for emission allowances from an Anglo-Saxon and Continental view. The applied method of this study is a quantitative content analysis with qualitative elements on 32 Anglo-Saxon and 32 Continental companies´ annual reports. All of the companies are participants on an emission trading scheme and comply with IFRS.The study shows that there is a difference between Anglo-Saxon and Continental accounting for emission allowances. The study also shows that this difference can be explained by the characteristics that are typical for each accounting tradition. In general, Anglo-Saxon companies disclose less about their emission allowances than the Continental companies do. This fact can probably be explained by the audit profession’s strong position in the Anglo-Saxon accounting tradition. The study also shows that the Anglo-Saxon companies that have chosen to disclose are guided by the objective of their financial statements. Furthermore, the study shows that Continental companies use several different valuation methods, which can be explained by the strong connection between tax and accounting practice in the Continental countries. Another difference is that Continental companies more frequently gross the liability in the balance sheet, which is explained by the fact that Continental companies are considered more prudent. This study highlights how corporate accounting choices are influenced by the countries’ accounting traditions and confirm that these traditions still exist. These conclusions can provide a new perspective in the current effort to develop guidance regarding the accounting of emission allowances. We believe that guidance is necessary if the emission trading scheme shall fulfil its purpose, which it currently does not.

This dissertation is concerned with tax rates for the use of commodities in general, and energy in particular. Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models are used to analyze the normative question of whether the tax rate for intermediate use by firms should be the same as the tax rate for final consumption by households. To answer this question, a distinction needs to be made between fiscal taxes for the purpose of raising revenue for the government, and Pigovian taxes for the purpose of changing behaviour. Concerning fiscal taxes, firms should not pay taxes on their use of inputs if the tax rates in final consumption are at their optimal level. If the tax rate for households is above the optimal level, intermediate use in firms should be taxed in order to increase the price of other commodities and reduce the distortion of relative prices. Essay 1 ascertains what factors determine the optimal relation between the tax rate for final consumption by households and intermediate use by firms. Essay 2 analyses Swedish energy taxes from the perspective of reducing global emission of CO2. It is found that the welfare maximizing tax rates are equal for households and firms not participating in emission trading, while firms that participate in emission trading should have a zero tax rate. Essays 3 and 4 deal with methodological issues. Essay 3 derives a new method for estimation of symmetric input-output tables from supply and use tables. This method solves the problem of negative coefficients, makes it possible to use both the industry and commodity technology assumptions simultaneously and enables the commodity technology assumption to be used even when the number of commodities is larger than the number of industries. Essay 4 describes the model used in the first two essays. The price structure developed here makes it possible to take into account price differences between different purchasers other than differences in tax rates. This essay also makes a comparison between the Swedish implementation of this model and other Swedish CGE-models used to analyse climate policy and energy taxation.

Protection of the Earth's climate system from the legal point of view This thesis aims to provide a broad view of legal protection of the Earth's climate within its six chapters. The first three chapters explain drivers of climate change law. Protection of the climate system has stemmed not only from science, but also to a large extent from the political situation and the performance of the world economy. Therefore, after introduction the second chapter examines the scientific basis of climate change and its evolution in time. The third chapter outlines the history of international negotiations which led to the conclusion of the three most important international instruments regulating climate change - the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, and the EU ETS Directive. The fourth chapter discusses economic approaches to internalization of global warming costs. The core of the thesis analyzes the legal framework addressing climate change. The analysis is devoted to the backbone of international instruments laid down in the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, and to one of the most significant regional instruments - European emission allowances trading. Therefore, the fourth chapter on the Framework Convention on Climate Change examines the Convention...

This dissertation contains three essays on environmental economics and on credit market imperfections. The literature on carbon tax incidence generally finds that carbon taxes have a regressive impact on the distribution of income. The main reason for that finding stems from the fact that poor households spend a larger share of their total expenditure on energy products than the rich households do. This literature, however, has ignored the impact of carbon taxes on income stemming from changes in relative factor prices. Yet, changes in household welfare depend not only on variations in commodity prices, but also on changes in income. Chapter 1 provides a comprehensive analysis of the distributional impact of carbon taxes on inequality by considering both demand-side and supply-side channels. We use a multi-sector, multi-household general equilibrium model to analyze the distributional impact of carbon taxes on inequality. Using equivalent income as the household welfare metric, we apply the Shapley value and concentration index approaches to decomposing household inequality. Our simulation results suggest that carbon taxes exert a larger negative impact on the income of the rich than that of the poor, and are thereby progressive. On the other hand, when assessed from the use side alone (i.e., commodity prices alone), our results confirm previous findings, whereas carbon taxes are regressive. However, due to the stronger incidence of carbon taxes on inequality from the income side, our results suggest that the carbon tax tends to reduce inequality. These findings further suggest that the traditional approach of assessing the impact of carbon taxes on inequality through changes in commodity prices alone may be misleading. Chapter 2 investigates the economic impacts of creating an emissions bubble between Canada and the US in a context of subglobal participation in efforts to reduce pollution with market based-instruments. One of the advantages of an emissions bubble is that it can be beneficial to countries that differ in their production and consumption patterns. To address the competitiveness issue that arises from the free-rider problem in the area of climate-change mitigation, we consider the imposition of a border tax adjustment (BTA) - a commonly suggested solution in the literature. We develop a detailed multisector and multi-regional general equilibrium model to analyze the welfare, aggregate, sectoral and trade impacts of the formation of an emissions bubble between Canada and the US with and without BTA. Our simulation results suggest that, in the absence of BTA, the creation of the bubble would make both countries better off through a positive terms-of-trade effect, and more importantly, through a significant reduction in Canada’s marginal abatement cost. The benefits of these positive effects would spill over to the non-participating countries, leading them to increase their trade shares in non-emissions-intensive goods. Moreover, the simulation results also indicate that a unilateral implementation of a BTA by any one of the two countries is welfare deteriorating in the imposing country and welfare improving in the other. In contrast, a joint implementation of a BTA by the two countries would make Canada better off and the US worse off. Chapter 3 shows that learning by lending is a potential channel of understanding the business cycle fluctuation under an imperfect credit market. An endogenous link among the learning parameter, lending rates, and the size of investment makes it possible to generate an internal propagation even due to a temporary shock. The main finding of this chapter is the explanation of how ex post non-financial factors such as information losses by individual agents in a credit market may account for a persistence in real indicators such as capital stock and output.

This dissertation contains three essays on environmental economics and on credit market imperfections. The literature on carbon tax incidence generally finds that carbon taxes have a regressive impact on the distribution of income. The main reason for that finding stems from the fact that poor households spend a larger share of their total expenditure on energy products than the rich households do. This literature, however, has ignored the impact of carbon taxes on income stemming from changes in relative factor prices. Yet, changes in household welfare depend not only on variations in commodity prices, but also on changes in income. Chapter 1 provides a comprehensive analysis of the distributional impact of carbon taxes on inequality by considering both demand-side and supply-side channels. We use a multi-sector, multi-household general equilibrium model to analyze the distributional impact of carbon taxes on inequality. Using equivalent income as the household welfare metric, we apply the Shapley value and concentration index approaches to decomposing household inequality. Our simulation results suggest that carbon taxes exert a larger negative impact on the income of the rich than that of the poor, and are thereby progressive. On the other hand, when assessed from the use side alone (i.e., commodity prices alone), our results confirm previous findings, whereas carbon taxes are regressive. However, due to the stronger incidence of carbon taxes on inequality from the income side, our results suggest that the carbon tax tends to reduce inequality. These findings further suggest that the traditional approach of assessing the impact of carbon taxes on inequality through changes in commodity prices alone may be misleading. Chapter 2 investigates the economic impacts of creating an emissions bubble between Canada and the US in a context of subglobal participation in efforts to reduce pollution with market based-instruments. One of the advantages of an emissions bubble is that it can be beneficial to countries that differ in their production and consumption patterns. To address the competitiveness issue that arises from the free-rider problem in the area of climate-change mitigation, we consider the imposition of a border tax adjustment (BTA) - a commonly suggested solution in the literature. We develop a detailed multisector and multi-regional general equilibrium model to analyze the welfare, aggregate, sectoral and trade impacts of the formation of an emissions bubble between Canada and the US with and without BTA. Our simulation results suggest that, in the absence of BTA, the creation of the bubble would make both countries better off through a positive terms-of-trade effect, and more importantly, through a significant reduction in Canada’s marginal abatement cost. The benefits of these positive effects would spill over to the non-participating countries, leading them to increase their trade shares in non-emissions-intensive goods. Moreover, the simulation results also indicate that a unilateral implementation of a BTA by any one of the two countries is welfare deteriorating in the imposing country and welfare improving in the other. In contrast, a joint implementation of a BTA by the two countries would make Canada better off and the US worse off. Chapter 3 shows that learning by lending is a potential channel of understanding the business cycle fluctuation under an imperfect credit market. An endogenous link among the learning parameter, lending rates, and the size of investment makes it possible to generate an internal propagation even due to a temporary shock. The main finding of this chapter is the explanation of how ex post non-financial factors such as information losses by individual agents in a credit market may account for a persistence in real indicators such as capital stock and output.

This dissertation contains three essays on environmental economics and on credit market imperfections. The literature on carbon tax incidence generally finds that carbon taxes have a regressive impact on the distribution of income. The main reason for that finding stems from the fact that poor households spend a larger share of their total expenditure on energy products than the rich households do. This literature, however, has ignored the impact of carbon taxes on income stemming from changes in relative factor prices. Yet, changes in household welfare depend not only on variations in commodity prices, but also on changes in income. Chapter 1 provides a comprehensive analysis of the distributional impact of carbon taxes on inequality by considering both demand-side and supply-side channels. We use a multi-sector, multi-household general equilibrium model to analyze the distributional impact of carbon taxes on inequality. Using equivalent income as the household welfare metric, we apply the Shapley value and concentration index approaches to decomposing household inequality. Our simulation results suggest that carbon taxes exert a larger negative impact on the income of the rich than that of the poor, and are thereby progressive. On the other hand, when assessed from the use side alone (i.e., commodity prices alone), our results confirm previous findings, whereas carbon taxes are regressive. However, due to the stronger incidence of carbon taxes on inequality from the income side, our results suggest that the carbon tax tends to reduce inequality. These findings further suggest that the traditional approach of assessing the impact of carbon taxes on inequality through changes in commodity prices alone may be misleading. Chapter 2 investigates the economic impacts of creating an emissions bubble between Canada and the US in a context of subglobal participation in efforts to reduce pollution with market based-instruments. One of the advantages of an emissions bubble is that it can be beneficial to countries that differ in their production and consumption patterns. To address the competitiveness issue that arises from the free-rider problem in the area of climate-change mitigation, we consider the imposition of a border tax adjustment (BTA) - a commonly suggested solution in the literature. We develop a detailed multisector and multi-regional general equilibrium model to analyze the welfare, aggregate, sectoral and trade impacts of the formation of an emissions bubble between Canada and the US with and without BTA. Our simulation results suggest that, in the absence of BTA, the creation of the bubble would make both countries better off through a positive terms-of-trade effect, and more importantly, through a significant reduction in Canada’s marginal abatement cost. The benefits of these positive effects would spill over to the non-participating countries, leading them to increase their trade shares in non-emissions-intensive goods. Moreover, the simulation results also indicate that a unilateral implementation of a BTA by any one of the two countries is welfare deteriorating in the imposing country and welfare improving in the other. In contrast, a joint implementation of a BTA by the two countries would make Canada better off and the US worse off. Chapter 3 shows that learning by lending is a potential channel of understanding the business cycle fluctuation under an imperfect credit market. An endogenous link among the learning parameter, lending rates, and the size of investment makes it possible to generate an internal propagation even due to a temporary shock. The main finding of this chapter is the explanation of how ex post non-financial factors such as information losses by individual agents in a credit market may account for a persistence in real indicators such as capital stock and output.

The aim of this study is to clarify the Swedish government’s purpose of participating in the European Union Emission Trading Scheme. Taking as its departure point state-centric international political economy this study presents three plausible hypotheses on what the purpose might be. Either it is to promote consumers interests, or to promote the Swedish national climate goal “Reduced impact on climate”, or to promote the profit of Swedish companies. The study sets out to test the hypotheses through four different methods in order to disprove them. Through a text analysis of four different government proposals, through a questionnaire sent out to 98 companies included in the Swedish National Allocation Plan, through an interview with a ministerial civil servant and through a game theoretical matrix based on the government’s own preferences. The conclusion should be of interest to industry, environmentalists, politicians as well as to journalists and scientists. From a theoretical point of view the conclusion explains the reason for priorities and setting of rules by the government within energy politics as well as within climate politics. The study concludes that the climate is priority number one and industry is priority number two and this explains why, according to an industrial spokesperson, industrial interests are not being met to a full extent. However the tide may turn in the future if the government decides to include carbon dioxide sinks in the Emission Trading Scheme. The government believes that storing carbon dioxide for a limited amount of time is worse than reducing actual emissions.

This paper explores the conflicts of interest present in science policy and how claims being made for evidence based science can be used to suppress critical social science research. The specific case presented concerns the attempts to ban and censor my work criticising the economics of carbon emissions trading while I was working for the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia. The role of management and the Science Minister are documented through their own public statements. The case raises general issues about the role of epistemic communities in the production of knowledge, the potential for manipulation of information under the guise of quality control and the problems created by claiming a fact-value dichotomy in the science-policy interface. The implications go well beyond just climate change research and challenge how public policy is being formulated in modern industrial societies where scientific knowledge and corporate interests are closely intertwined. (author's abstract) / Series: SRE - Discussion Papers

This dissertation contains three essays on environmental economics and on credit market imperfections. The literature on carbon tax incidence generally finds that carbon taxes have a regressive impact on the distribution of income. The main reason for that finding stems from the fact that poor households spend a larger share of their total expenditure on energy products than the rich households do. This literature, however, has ignored the impact of carbon taxes on income stemming from changes in relative factor prices. Yet, changes in household welfare depend not only on variations in commodity prices, but also on changes in income. Chapter 1 provides a comprehensive analysis of the distributional impact of carbon taxes on inequality by considering both demand-side and supply-side channels. We use a multi-sector, multi-household general equilibrium model to analyze the distributional impact of carbon taxes on inequality. Using equivalent income as the household welfare metric, we apply the Shapley value and concentration index approaches to decomposing household inequality. Our simulation results suggest that carbon taxes exert a larger negative impact on the income of the rich than that of the poor, and are thereby progressive. On the other hand, when assessed from the use side alone (i.e., commodity prices alone), our results confirm previous findings, whereas carbon taxes are regressive. However, due to the stronger incidence of carbon taxes on inequality from the income side, our results suggest that the carbon tax tends to reduce inequality. These findings further suggest that the traditional approach of assessing the impact of carbon taxes on inequality through changes in commodity prices alone may be misleading. Chapter 2 investigates the economic impacts of creating an emissions bubble between Canada and the US in a context of subglobal participation in efforts to reduce pollution with market based-instruments. One of the advantages of an emissions bubble is that it can be beneficial to countries that differ in their production and consumption patterns. To address the competitiveness issue that arises from the free-rider problem in the area of climate-change mitigation, we consider the imposition of a border tax adjustment (BTA) - a commonly suggested solution in the literature. We develop a detailed multisector and multi-regional general equilibrium model to analyze the welfare, aggregate, sectoral and trade impacts of the formation of an emissions bubble between Canada and the US with and without BTA. Our simulation results suggest that, in the absence of BTA, the creation of the bubble would make both countries better off through a positive terms-of-trade effect, and more importantly, through a significant reduction in Canada’s marginal abatement cost. The benefits of these positive effects would spill over to the non-participating countries, leading them to increase their trade shares in non-emissions-intensive goods. Moreover, the simulation results also indicate that a unilateral implementation of a BTA by any one of the two countries is welfare deteriorating in the imposing country and welfare improving in the other. In contrast, a joint implementation of a BTA by the two countries would make Canada better off and the US worse off. Chapter 3 shows that learning by lending is a potential channel of understanding the business cycle fluctuation under an imperfect credit market. An endogenous link among the learning parameter, lending rates, and the size of investment makes it possible to generate an internal propagation even due to a temporary shock. The main finding of this chapter is the explanation of how ex post non-financial factors such as information losses by individual agents in a credit market may account for a persistence in real indicators such as capital stock and output.

Carbon leakage occurs when globally exposed industries face increased costs, for instance due to stricter climatic policies, while other industries on the global market are not. Although the intention of stricter climate requirements is good, they risk having the opposite effect, as emissions are moved from one country to another. Since the consequences of emissions are the same regardless of where they are caused, the total amount of emissions will remain unchanged, or increase due to transportation or less ambitious climate policies in the new country. In the European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS), carbon leakage is a present issue, thus there are methods to identify and compensate industries at risk. The main approach of compensation has been to allocate allowances for free. However, the first two trading periods have resulted in a large surplus of allowances, which have caused low prices on carbon emissions. Since the system is now becoming more ambitious, an accurate analysis on carbon leakage is essential. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze in what ways these methods can be improved to enable the system to become more ambitious, without risking leakage. The result shows that the procedures used are not specific enough. Numerous reports and studies presented in my study, show that some industries are over compensated, whereas others are under compensated. Today, carbon intensity is one of the main measurements used to identify industries at risk. However, the EU must pay closer attention to the industries that have invested in renewable energy sources (as a result of the EU ETS incentive structure) and consequently have significantly lower carbon dioxide content in their emissions. These industries are also at risk of leakage due to increased total expense. In conclusion, this study shows that the methods used to identify industries at risk can be improved to prevent leakage. When altering them, not only will the analysis be more accurate, but it will also render a more precise allocation of allowances for free for those at true risk.