Resource and Energy Economics最新文献

To shed light on the recent debate about climate change in this post-pandemic scenario, we take advantage of a unique dataset that combines geo-tagged social media data from Twitter in Spain from 2017 to 2022. Twitter conversations have been analyzed with natural language processing techniques to obtain sentiment scores related to climate change. These were merged with additional relevant control variables, aiming to understand the role of the contributing factors on the evolution of the hedonic scores, including external temperatures, the occurrence of heat waves, and deaths related to climate. We find a strong negative effect of external temperatures on sentiment, aggravated by recent increases in the frequency of heat waves and deaths related to climate. Further, this negative sentiment is accentuated after experiencing the recent COVID-19.

This paper uses a stochastic optimal control model to show how standard loan contracts create incentives for farmers to focus on short-term financial performance at the expense of farms’ long-term natural capital. These incentives are a manifestation of the debt overhang problem. Extending this model shows how sustainability-linked loans can be used to weaken these incentives in a way that potentially benefits farmers and their bankers. The magnitude of the economic benefits generated by these loans depends on farm characteristics. The paper investigates the optimal design of sustainability-linked loans.

We employ the footloose capital model to examine and compare how two countries decide on their emission permits non-cooperatively under domestic and international emissions trading in the presence of capital mobility. We find that even if two countries are symmetric and have the same carbon prices under domestic emissions trading, they can benefit from international emissions trading. This finding holds regardless of capital mobility. We also find that allowing footloose capital increases each country’s and global emissions under domestic emissions trading; however, it does not affect emissions under international emissions trading. Additionally, we show that the cooperative choices of emission permits are the same regardless of international mobility of emission permits and capital and are always lower than the non-cooperative ones.

Trade reduces the effectiveness of climate policies such as carbon pricing when domestic products are replaced by more carbon-intensive imports. We investigate the impact of unilateral carbon pricing on electricity generation in a country open to trade through interconnection lines. We characterize the energy mix with intermittent renewable sources of energy (wind or solar power). Electricity trade limits the penetration of renewables due to trade-induced competition. A carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) removes this limit by increasing the cost of imported power, or by deterring imports. The CBAM must be complemented by a subsidy on renewables to increase renewable generation above domestic consumption. The interconnection line is then used to export power rather than importing it when renewables are producing. We also examine network pricing and investment into interconnection capacity. A higher carbon price increases interconnection investment which further reduces the effectiveness of carbon pricing. In contrast, when renewable electricity is exported, a higher subsidy on renewables reduces further carbon emissions by expanding interconnection capacity.

Over-exploitation of natural resources is a major problem, and transitions to sustainable harvest are taking place worldwide. To determine the optimal harvesting strategy, including the optimal speed and approach to transition toward sustainable harvest, policymakers need to estimate the net present values of natural resources. Previous studies have shown that discounting reduces the future value of natural resources, but the long-term increase in their price may partially compensate for discounting. However, the price and future values of natural resources may also be affected by the transition from over-harvesting to sustainable harvest. Here we present a model that endogenizes the effect of non-sustainable harvest on the price of a renewable natural resource. We show that the transition to sustainable harvest is expected to increase the resource’s price significantly, at a rate that is greater than its long-term increase. Incorporating this effect increases the estimated net present value of ecosystems providing renewable natural resources.

As the need for drastic reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions becomes increasingly urgent, governments and policymakers are developing proposals for climate change policies that aim to achieve net-zero emissions. However, the challenge lies in determining the most effective way to operationalize this transformation. While cost efficiency is often emphasized as a desirable property, experience shows that it is neither necessary nor sufficient to achieve a desirable policy portfolio. Instead, we advocate for a broader definition of economic efficiency: policies must also be feasible, fair, effective, and credible. Trade-offs between these criteria are common, and must be balanced to create a successful policy portfolio. The European experience provides interesting case studies with which to illustrate these efficiency dimensions and their implications.

This paper develops a two-region New Economic Geography model with polluting firms subject to regional abatement policies. Pollution accumulates in the local environment and decreases the welfare of the population. We show that environmental policies have two opposing effects on welfare: they reduce nominal wages and increase environmental quality. If environmental regulations are equally strict in the two regions then population, pollution and wages tend to converge as trade becomes more open. If the two regions have different but unambitious environmental regulations, firms agglomerate in the laxer region, which becomes a pollution haven. However, a sufficiently far-reaching environmental policy in one of the regions raises its environmental quality, increasing its attractiveness for population and firms, and the emergence of a pollution haven is avoided. We also show that if the natural absorption rate of pollution is low, the environment recovers slowly, population and firms move between regions in a pollute-and-flee cycle and no static equilibrium is reached.

The paper integrates the characteristics of regenerative energies into a dynamic macroeconomic model with climate change. Learning and economies of scale in new energy moderate the cost of emissions reductions and increase the speed of decarbonization. I provide closed-form analytical solutions for the development of regenerative energies, emissions, consumption, and population. The elasticity of substitution between clean and dirty energy inputs, stringency of climate policy, and potential raw material scarcity constitute critical conditions for reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. I find that a timely carbon phase-out requires sufficient substitution in the energy sector, continued learning and scale effects in regenerative energies, and active climate policy, which is indispensable even with enormous cost degression of regenerative energies. Raw material scarcity induced by regenerative energy use slows down the transition but can be overcompensated by more stringent climate policy at a moderate economic cost.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are likely to emerge as the main means of zero-emission road transport. China has used a variety of policy approaches to encourage EV adoption, including vehicle purchase subsidies. This study uses a three-dimensional dataset to estimate the effect of purchase subsidies for domestic EVs on adoption in 316 cities in China over January 2016–December 2019. An instrumental variable approach that utilizes the timing of the cancellation of local subsidies by the central government is pursued. The findings suggest that purchase subsidies for domestic EVs have led to a sizeable increase in uptake, but have discouraged uptake of imported EVs. Higher consumer awareness of the subsidies is associated with a larger proportional effect on uptake of domestically-produced vehicles. We estimate that increases in the per-vehicle subsidy rate have on average reduced carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions at a marginal subsidy cost of about 4453 CNY (US$712) per tonne, which is high. However other benefits, including long-run benefits from the emergence of a new clean technology sector, may be substantial.

Exclusion zones, like protected areas or setback distances, are the most common policy instrument to mitigate environmental impacts of human land-use, including the deployment of renewable energy sources (RES). However, exclusion zones may also increase generation and environmental costs of RES deployment. This paper aims to understand and quantify these trade-offs. Using a simple analytical model, we propose that cost effects of exclusion zones can be decomposed into a substitution effect (because RES generation is shifted to sites with higher or lower marginal costs) and an output effect (because more sites may be needed to attain a given RES generation target). We provide a numerical illustration for two examples of exclusion zones – setback distances to settlements and forest bans – which are implemented for wind power deployment in Germany. We find that moderate setback distances reduce disamenity costs but also lead to increases in generation and other environmental costs. This trade-off is primarily due to the output effect. Importantly, the output effect also implies that very restrictive setback distances may fail to reduce, and even increase, aggregate disamenity costs of wind power deployment. For forest bans, our analysis reveals substantial increases in disamenity costs. This trade-off mainly results from the substitution effect. Our analytical insights can be transferred to other fields of environmental policy, for example, exclusion zones regulating agricultural land-use or urban development.