Many states have adopted policies aimed at promoting the growth of renewable electricity within their state. The most salient of these policies is a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) which mandates that retail electricity providers purchase a predetermined fraction of their electricity from renewable sources. Renewable portfolio standards are a policy tool likely to persist for many decades du...

SUMMARY This paper presents an estimate of the costs of reducing CO2 emissions as agreed in Kyoto by Annex 1 countries. Unlike most of the existing literature, this paper uses an Almost Ideal Demand System model for energy products to estimate the role of each country within the Annex 1 market. A major result is the provision of marginal (and total) abatement costs for each. The recent position...

Abstract Sectoral coverage that plays a critical role in operationalizing the emission trading scheme (ETS), has gained substantive attention. Despite insightful views on sectoral from reduction potential or carbon leakage, previous studies overlook cost-effectiveness of ETS sense varying marginal contributions each sector to reducing abatement costs (EACs) (which is defined as cost savings, MC...

This study utilises data collected from Costa Rican dairy farmers to conduct a cradle farm gate Life Cycle Assessment and the first Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC) for production in Latin America. Ninety farms across five typologies were assessed, reflecting Rica's diverse agroclimatic zones varying degrees of dairy/beef specialisation. The efficacy cost-effectiveness specific mitigation m...

Current policies in the road transport sector fail to deliver consistent and efficient incentives for greenhouse gas abatement (see companion article by Creutzig et al., in press). Market-based instruments such as cap-and-trade systems close this policy gap and complement traditional policies that are required where specific market failures arise. Even in presence of strong existing non-market ...

China is launching what is expected to become the world’s largest carbon dioxide emissions trading system (ETS). A key feature of this new system – and one that distinguishes it from other ETSs around the world – is its rate-based structure. This structure governs the way emissions allowances are allocated and the conditions for compliance. Relative to the more common, mass-based ETSs, it gener...