scholarly journals Carbon Pricing: Transaction Costs of Emissions Trading vs. Carbon Taxes

Author(s):  
Jessica Coria ◽  
Jurate Jaraite
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Goran DOMINIONI

Analysts agree that public opposition is one of the main factors that hinder ambition in many countries’ carbon pricing policy agenda. This article argues that motivated reasoning contributes to this opposition by inducing the public to underestimate the effectiveness of carbon pricing to mitigate climate change and yield co-benefits. This article also argues that measures of implicit carbon pricing can help overcome public opposition to carbon taxes and emissions trading schemes due to motivated reasoning. These measures are becoming increasingly available thanks to recent work by the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and private-sector actors, and therefore they offer a potential instrument for reducing public opposition to carbon taxes and emissions trading schemes in various countries. A strength of the approach proposed in this article – compared to some of the mainstream approaches to risk regulation – is that it tries is to keep the regulation of climate risks in line with public attitudes towards these risks.


2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-456
Author(s):  
Claudio Franzius

Der motorisierte Individualverkehr ist in den Blick der Klimapolitik geraten. Von allen klimarelevanten Sektoren sind im Verkehrssektor die wenigsten CO2-Einsparungen festzustellen. Mit dem neuen Brennstoffemissionshandelsgesetz ist eine CO2-Bepreisung des Verkehrs auf den Weg gebracht worden, aber es wird bezweifelt, ob der nationale Emissionshandel hinreichende Lenkungswirkungen entfaltet und finanzverfassungsrechtlich zulässig ist. Es ist verfehlt, den Emissionshandel als Alternative zu ordnungsrechtlichen Instrumenten zu begreifen. Außerdem mahnt der Beitrag im Hinblick auf die verfassungsrechtliche Bewertung zur Vorsicht. Sinn macht der CO2-Preis für den Verkehr, wenn nachgeschärft wird. Dazu gehört eine beherzte Reform der Energiesteuern, aber auch die Einführung einer streckenbezogenen Pkw-Maut sowie eine übergreifende Verkehrsplanung. Im Ergebnis ist zu begrüßen, dass die CO2-Emissionen des Verkehrs einen Preis erhalten, aber naiv anzunehmen, allein darüber würde die Verkehrswende gelingen. Individual motorized transport has become the focus of climate policy. Of all the climate-relevant sectors, the transport sector has seen the fewest reductions in CO2 emissions. The new Fuel Emissions Trading Act (“Brennstoffemissionshandelsgesetz”) initiates carbon pricing for the transport sector. Nonetheless, it remains doubtful whether national emissions trading has sufficient steering effects and if it complies with the constitutional finance law. It would be erroneous to understand emissions trading as an alternative to regulatory instruments. In addition, the article urges caution with regard to the constitutional assessment. Moreover, carbon pricing for the traffic sector only makes sense if it is increased. This includes a courageous reform of energy taxes, but also the introduction of a route-based car toll and comprehensive traffic planning. As a result, carbon pricing of the transport sector is appreciated, however it would be naïve to assume that it alone would lead to a sustainable transport policy (“Verkehrswende”).


Author(s):  
Erick Lachapelle

In debates surrounding policy options for mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, economists of various political stripes are near unanimous in their advocacy of putting a price on carbon, whether through a tax or emissions trading program. Due to the visible costs imposed on industry and consumers, however, these policies have been resisted by carbon-intensive industries and by an ideologically divided public, producing incentives for vote-seeking politicians to avoid implementing comprehensive and stringent carbon prices within their own borders. In this highly politicized environment, and considering the more recent diffusion of market-based instruments across political jurisdictions around the world, researchers have sought to identify the conditions most favorable to implementing carbon taxes and cap-and-trade programs, the correlates of public support for these policies, and the extent to which different communication strategies may help build public support. How do experts, political leaders, and members of the public understand these policy instruments, and what specific approaches have been most successful in persuading policy makers and the public to support a price on carbon? In places that have yet to implement a carbon price, what can communication strategists learn from existing research and the experience of other jurisdictions where such policies have been successfully implemented? In places where carbon taxes or carbon cap-and-trade programs exist, how are the benefits of these policies best communicated to ensure the durability of carbon pricing policies over time?


Author(s):  
David Newbery

Concerns over future oil scarcity might not be so worrying but for the high carbon content of substitutes, and the limited capacity of the atmosphere to absorb additional CO 2 from burning fuel. The paper argues that the tools of economics are helpful in understanding some of the key issues in pricing fossil fuels, the extent to which pricing can be left to markets, the need for, and design of, international agreements on corrective carbon pricing, and the potential Prisoners’ Dilemma in reaching such agreements, partly mitigated in the case of oil by current taxes and the probable incidence of carbon taxes on the oil price. The ‘Green Paradox’, in which carbon pricing exacerbates climate change, is theoretically possible, but empirically unlikely.


2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (02) ◽  
pp. 1550018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doron Lavee ◽  
Hadas Joseph-Ezra

Recently, Israel has undergone several changes in its environmental policy. This paper reviews the shift in environmental policy, from regulatory-based instruments to more flexible economic instruments in Israel. A substantial change has taken place in this respect over the last few decades in many OECD countries. In recent years, environmental policy in Israel has been going through a similar change, in part due to the recent accession to the OECD. Yet, Israel still lacks the use of certain main economic tools, such as greenhouse gas emissions trading and carbon taxes, which are available in many OECD countries.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Goran Dominioni

Scholarly and policy interest in carbon pricing coalitions is growing. Existing research analyzes design features that can increase the environmental effectiveness and political resilience of coalitions centered around carbon taxes and carbon markets (i.e. explicit carbon pricing). This article is the first that analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of building carbon pricing coalitions around effective carbon pricing compared to the standard design that focuses on explicit carbon pricing. In this article, measures of effective carbon prices include carbon prices implemented via carbon taxes, carbon markets, fuel taxes, and fossil fuel subsidies reforms. The article describes four design options to build carbon pricing coalitions - three built on measures of effective carbon pricing and one that focuses exclusively on explicit carbon pricing - and benchmarks them against six criteria. The key results are that building carbon pricing coalitions around effective carbon prices has various advantages over the most common alternative discussed in the literature. These advantages include higher transparency, broader participation, higher legitimacy of the coalition, and more substantial involvement of Finance Ministries in climate change mitigation. These advantages might translate in comparable or even higher environmental effectiveness than coalitions that focuses exclusively on explicit carbon pricing.


2018 ◽  
pp. 205-246
Author(s):  
Barry G. Rabe

This chapter considers the future political viability of carbon pricing, given national and international developments since 2015. This includes a range of developments, including the Paris climate accord and major new initiatives in the United States and Canada on carbon taxes and cap-and-trade. It also revisits severance taxes and a mix of other efforts such as electricity fees and methane taxes that have emerged as possible counterparts to these carbon pricing mainstays, given their greater political feasibility.


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