Implementation Of Climate Policies Research Articles

Accounting for the Greenhouse Gas Emission Intensity of Regional Electricity Transfers.

Accurately quantifying greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is essential for climate policy implementation but challenging in the case of electricity transfers across regulatory jurisdictions. Regulating emissions associated with delivered electricity is further complicated by contractual arrangements for dynamic electricity transfers that confound emission accounting approaches rooted in the physics of grid operations. Here, we propose a novel consumption-based accounting methodology to reconcile the nominal and the physical flows of electricity from generators to consumers. We also compare capacity factor-based and regression-based approaches for estimating default emission factors, in the absence of fully specified nominal electricity flows. As a case study, we apply this approach to assess the methods by which California regulators quantify specified and unspecified electricity imports and their associated GHG emissions. Collectively, these efforts illustrate principles for a comprehensive, empirical accounting framework that could inform efforts to improve the accuracy and consistency of policies regulating regional electricity transfers.

A Patchwork of Climate Policies that Reflect Subnational Jurisdiction

The United Nations introduced the Paris Agreement in 2015 aimed at reducing emissions globally. Signatories to the Agreement are responsible for amending their domestic climate policies and implementing binding emission targets. Federations confront several challenges when adopting such policies since jurisdiction is shared between orders of government. This paper explores why Canadian and American federal governance structures constrain the implementation of national climate policies following the Paris Agreement. Despite both countries having ratified the Agreement, climate action in Canada and the US is enacted in a patchwork fashion that reflects subnational jurisdiction. The paper begins by assessing the Paris Agreement and the challenges federations confront when adopting climate legislation. The following section examines the Canadian and American federations separately to identify the factors that inhibit a coordinated response to reducing national emissions post-2015. The paper concludes by exploring strategies to advance climate action on a subnational basis.

How can the WTO and its Ministerial Conference in 2021 be used to support climate action?

Achieving the Paris Agreement's climate goals requires massive, rapid economic transformation across the globe. As governments implement climate policies, trade tensions are on the rise. Governments can use the 2021 World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference to bolster the multilateral cooperation on trade policy needed to support ambitious action on climate mitigation and adaptation.

Potential carbon leakage under the Paris Agreement

Carbon leakage is the effect of emissions transferring to certain countries due to others having a stricter climate policy. This phenomenon is shown to have undercut the effectiveness of the Kyoto Protocol. Considering the increasingly globalised nature of the world economy, carbon leakage may have an even greater potential under the Paris Agreement some 15 years later. Although a more global approach to combatting climate change, the Paris Agreement is susceptible to leakage because of its lack of policy harmonization and enforcement mechanisms. Here, we perform the first quantitative analysis of the potential for carbon leakage under Paris, using the GTAP-E general equilibrium model of the world economy with energy and carbon emissions to analyse leakage effects under six scenarios. Two of these scenarios analyse regions implementing climate policy in isolation, two greater participation, but still not harmonized, global Paris Agreement policy, and a further two analyse the effect of a US withdrawal from the agreement. Both cases are considered with and without the US withdrawal. Our analysis demonstrates that there is potential for significant carbon leakage effects, in line with the rates produced from studies on the Kyoto Protocol. Depending on model elasticities, we find medium carbon leakage in the range of 1–9% (with a central estimate of 3–4%) under co-ordinated Paris Agreement policy across countries, compared to high leakage of 8–31% when countries operate in isolation. However, scenarios where the USA withdraws from the agreement result in roughly doubling of leakage rates, in the range of 3–16% (central estimate 7%), which demonstrates the vulnerability of the Paris Agreement in its current form. To limit leakage effects, greater policy co-ordination to achieve consistent implicit carbon prices is needed across countries.

Barriers to Implementing Climate Policies in Agriculture: A Case Study From Viet Nam

Agriculture is both highly sensitive to climate change and a major global emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG). With growing international pressure to curb global emissions through the 2015 Paris Agreement and mounting climate change-related losses in agriculture, countries are in need of an increasingly robust agricultural policy framework. This paper takes an in-depth look at the agricultural sector in Viet Nam, contributing to a better understanding of the main bottlenecks in implementing the Paris Agreement, evaluating the relevance and impact of selected barriers for the implementation of current climate policies and their implications for nationally determined contribution (NDC) design. To address these questions, an exploratory mixed method approach was employed: (i) identifying and mapping key policies, (ii) reviewing global literature sources on barriers, (iii) conducting stakeholder interviews (n= 25), and (iv) follow-up quantitative surveys (n= 16). The interviews revealed numerous barriers within Viet Nam's institutional setting that acted to impede the creation and implementation of climate policy. As seen in other countries, insufficient inter-ministry collaboration and information sharing restricted the overall success of climate policy, with poor representation of non-lead ministries in drafting and inadequate channels for bottom-up engagement also considered major constraints. These coupled with gaps in financing make for fragmented policies that often lack clear implementation guidelines, particularly at a local level. The NDC process presents an opportunity for Viet Nam to coordinate their cross-sector climate response around a single international agreement, facilitating greater inter-ministry information and data sharing, while utilizing the technical and financial support provided through international partners to build capacity in this vital area.

Discounting Climate Change Mitigating Projects: A Production-Based Model with Disasters

This paper proposes a model that sheds light on the appropriate discount rate on projects that mitigate climate change. In addition, it helps determine the best time to start implementing climate policy. The model is production-based and features endogenous climate-related disasters. It suggests (1) that the discount rate on climate change mitigation projects is lower than that on the stock market but higher than the risk-free rate and (2) that it is optimal to start investing into climate change mitigation projects as soon as possible.

Different Countries, Common Support for Climate Change Mitigation: The Case of Germany and Poland

There are numerous studies assessing the influence of individual sociological, political, and demographic factors on attitudes towards climate change. However, there is still a need for a deeper understanding of the reasons behind these attitudes and for research based on results from more than one country. This study empirically examines a range of psychosocial and demographic determinants of support for climate policy (renewable energy, energy efficiency and carbon tax) in Germany and Poland (n = 1969). The results show that the societies of both countries, despite significant differences in income, culture and political stance on climate change, similarly support implementation of climate policies. For both countries valid predictors of support are: awareness, emotional response to climate crisis, sense of control, and belief in effectiveness of solutions; the study also shows predictors relevant in only one country. Factor analysis identified similar dimensions of attitudes toward climate change in both countries. The main findings show that support for climate policy is high in both countries and that the public is ready to accept more ambitious climate goals. Despite the differences between the countries, a coherent climate policy seems justified. The study also shows differences between the countries and provides recommendations for policymakers.

Reducing the Decarbonisation Cost Burden for EU Energy-Intensive Industries

Carbon leakage features prominently in the climate policy debate in economies implementing climate policies, especially in the EU. The imposition of carbon pricing impacts negatively the competitiveness of energy-intensive industries, inducing their relocation to countries with weaker environmental regulation. Unilateral climate policy may complement domestic emissions pricing with border carbon adjustment to reduce leakage and protect the competitiveness of domestic manufacturing. Here, we use an enhanced version of GEM-E3-FIT model to assess the macro-economic impacts when the EU unilaterally implements the EU Green Deal goals, leading to a leakage of 25% over 2020–2050. The size and composition, in terms of GHG and energy intensities, of the countries undertaking emission reductions matter for carbon leakage, which is significantly reduced when China joins the mitigation effort, as a result of its large market size and the high carbon intensity of its production. Chemicals and metals face the stronger risks for relocation to non-abating countries. The Border Carbon Adjustment can largely reduce leakage and the negative activity impacts on energy-intensive and trade-exposed industries of regulating countries, by shifting the emission reduction to non-abating countries through implicit changes in product prices.

Presidential leadership styles and institutional capacity for climate policy integration in the European Commission

ABSTRACT Climate policy integration (CPI) is a key strategy for implementing climate policy action, spanning policy sectors and levels of governance. As a central agenda-setting actor in the EU, we argue that understanding the institutional capacity for CPI inside the European Commission is especially important for understanding the advancement of CPI in the EU overall. We focus on the inner workings of the Commission, and we ask: what role does the leadership style of the Commission President play in advancing institutional capacity for implementing CPI? We assess the institutional capacity for CPI in the Commission during the Barroso and Juncker Presidencies, which display characteristics of bottom-up and top-down leadership styles, respectively. While we do not find that one presidential leadership style is necessarily ‘better’ than the other at enhancing institutional capacities for CPI, we highlight important differences along four key factors, namely: (1) political commitment to overarching climate objectives and to the necessity of implementing CPI; (2) recognition of functional overlaps between policy objectives and compatible beliefs for implementing CPI among policymakers; (3) an opportunity structure for innovative policy development and policy entrepreneurship; (4) and meaningful coordination and consultation mechanisms.

With a Little Help from My Friends: Debt Renegotiation and Climate Change

The economic crisis from the Covid-19 pandemic has generated a fall in tax revenues and an increase in the need for public spending in most economies throughout the world. This situation has led to a substantial increase in the sovereign debt levels and has dramatically reduced the fiscal space of governments. For upper- middle-income countries (UMICs), current access to financing is limited and this can potentially limit the space for climate action in the short and medium run. However, delaying climate action can generate a negative signal on fiscal sustainability due to the physical and transition risks of climate change. Unsustainable production practices will result in a deterioration of the productive capacity of natural assets reducing potential tax income. Simultaneously there will be a stronger need for public spending to face the future damages associated to greenhouse gases emissions. Therefore, in order to address the current crisis, we need an integral approach that considers the climate crisis as a challenge with a high degree of urgency. For this approach to be feasible, sufficient international climate finance needs to be available, and it should help to steer relief and recovery efforts into a direction in which these are also compatible with climate targets. In this document, we propose a sovereign debt negotiation scheme in which the conditions of the debt depend on the climate policies undertaken by the debtor countries. Likewise, we point out that the feasibility of beneficial agreements for debtors and the implementation of good climate policies depend positively on the size of the debt and each country's potential to affect the current trend of climate change. For these reasons, the formation of coalitions of debtor countries can be a key factor for debt relief and the implementation of climate policies.

Benefit-Cost Analysis for Climate Action

AbstractAlthough a carbon value has often been integrated in the frameworks established to guide public decision-making, benefit-cost analysis (BCA) has played no more than a minor role in the design of climate policies. It is urgently necessary to promote BCA in this area, and there is currently a unique opportunity for doing so. Major countries are designing new packages in order to meet their commitments, as illustrated by the European Green Deal, recent decisions on the part of the Biden Administration, and the creation of a Chinese national carbon market. These constructive processes must be based on BCA. BCA is absolutely necessary in order to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 at a reasonable cost. Indeed, abatement costs across and within sectors, and across and within countries, are extremely heterogeneous, and many of the policy instruments in use (subsidies, feed-in tariffs, technical standards, etc.) overlap inefficiently. The instrumental debate between carbon pricing and other instruments is sterile if it merely remains at the level of stating principles. BCA can help on this point too, by specifying comparisons between alternatives, identifying complementarities, and selecting the most relevant combinations of instruments. Its scope should therefore range from setting benchmarks for carbon pricing to assessing, e.g., green investments or measures to enhance carbon sinks. When applied to decarbonization policies, BCA requires firstly the selection of a carbon value, in order to monetize the climate benefits of investments and policies. However, the whole assessment framework must be updated, including the time horizon, the discount rate, the cobenefits of climate mitigation actions, and the pricing of climate risks. We show that such an updated framework leads to an upward revision in the assessment of the climate benefits of mitigation actions, and that combining the valuation of damages and cost-effectiveness approaches is necessary in order to meet the needs of policy assessment. Finally, there is a need to extend analysis beyond the efficiency criterion in order to deal with other dimensions of climate policies, particularly their distributive impacts. This requires specific analyses, which should be articulated with BCA and carried out at an early stage for a better implementation of climate policies than we have seen to date.

Potential Impact of Corporate Climate Action in India

Many large Indian businesses have committed to ambitious climate initiatives. However, there exists little understanding of the aggregate impact of these initiatives and how they relate to emissions at the national level. This working paper estimates the collective impact of voluntary climate actions by Indian companies. As climate commitments and initiatives by non-state and subnational actors increase globally, a better understanding of their potential impacts can help draw better projections to support better climate policy planning and implementation.

Национальная климатическая политика: концептуальные основы и проблемы адаптации

Global climate change threatens the continued existence of mankind. The rate of warming in Russia, which is 2.5 times higher than the rate of growth of the global average temperature, can lead to huge environmental and financial losses. Thus, it is increasingly necessary to modernise and develop methods and tools for adaptive regulation of national climate policy to increase its efficiency at the regional and federal levels. To this end, the methods of content analysis, grouping, modelling, comparative and correlation analysis, as well as an information asymmetry approach were used in the research. The paper substantiates the necessity of a transition from autarky and directionality to the integration of regions and the federation based on adaptation and preventive measures. The periodic assessment of climate change and relevant contributing factors should be replaced by the continuous management and regional monitoring of climate risks. Stressing the importance of transparency and comparability of information on climate risks, the research distinguished anthropogenic risks, risks of reducing the quality of life and moral climate risks. In order to promote climate preservation, an organisational and economic mechanism for the implementation of climate policy was developed, whose main function is the regional environmental management. Assessment of the decoupling effect and ranking of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in terms of the relationship between energy intensity and climate intensity proved the feasibility of using the proposed indicators to increase the efficiency of the organisational and economic mechanism. Regulatory and financial support for the mechanism can be provided by introducing a quota market, green certificates and bonds, insurance and risk hedging strategies based on a scenario approach and online-management models. The research results can be used for the digitalisation of national climate policy, as well as for the development of regional and municipal climate strategies, programmes, projects.

Актуальные направления повышения энергетической безопасности теплоснабжения в РФ

Strengthening international efforts to implement climate policy and accelerate the transition to a “green economy” is a modern challenge to the energy security of the Russian Federation. The enterprises of the fuel and energy complex (FEC) play a key role in the economy of the Russian Federation, but they have a continuous negative impact on the environment. The subject of the research is a set of theoretical, methodological and practical aspects of increasing the energy security of heat supply in the Russian Federation by replacing coal with more environmentally friendly fuels. The purpose of the study is to propose a way to improve the energy security of heat supply in the Russian Federation by replacing coal with more environmentally friendly fuels. The study has been carried out using a set of methods: comparative analysis, analysis of structure, financial analysis. Coal makes up about 80 % of the total amount of raw materials used to generate heat in the Irkutsk region. This has a significant impact on the degree of environmental pollution. There is a possibility of using part of production and consumption waste as an alternative fuel (RDF) for thermal power facilities in the Russian Federation to improve the energy security of heat supply. Fuel for the production of thermal energy can be obtained as a result of processing production and consumption waste. This will lead to a solution to the problem of garbage disposal. The problem in the field of municipal solid waste (MSW) in the Irkutsk region is aggravated by the fact that the waste processing complex, waste handling and waste sorting complexes are absent on the territory of the region. An analysis of the financial indicators of the incineration plant operating in the Russian Federation shows that the financial results of operations are negative for 2019, 2020. It is necessary to create state-owned enterprises for the production of steam and hot water in the Russian Federation using a combination of two types of fuel: biofuel and RDF to accelerate the modernization of heat supply sources

The importance of socioeconomic conditions in mitigating climate change impacts and achieving Sustainable Development Goals

Actions tackling with climate change can cause co-benefits and trade-offs with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) concerned with air pollution, water scarcity, food security, land use, and sustainable energy. Such interactions can be greatly influenced by socioeconomic conditions. The impacts of socioeconomic conditions on multiple SDGs have not been evaluated separately from climate policies. This paper employs a Representative Concentration Pathways–Shared Socio-economic Pathways (RCP-SSP) framework and the Asia-Pacific Integrated Model/computable general equilibrium (AIM/CGE) integrated assessment model to identify the global multi-sectoral consequences of socioeconomic conditions through 2050 under future SSP scenarios. Results show that changes of socioeconomic conditions consistent with the SSP1 pathway could always improve SDG indicators, with or without climate policies. In many respects, socioeconomic conditions are more important than climate policies in achieving SDGs, particularly SDGs concerned with food security and energy affordability, as well as in simultaneously achieving multiple SDGs. We conclude that the advantages of a joint effort to implement climate policies and promulgate socioeconomic changes should be recognized by policy makers.

Beyond shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) and representative concentration pathways (RCPs): climate policy implementation scenarios for Europe, the US and China

ABSTRACT The 2015 Paris Agreement is falling short of its aspirations, as signatory countries are struggling to implement the policies required to meet the targets. The global scenario framework formed by the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) places little emphasis on the dynamics of climate policy implementation. Social science approaches to understanding these dynamics are not well-integrated into climate scenario research. We apply an implementation research approach to analyse the transition to clean energy in the US and China, as well as two examples from Europe – Germany and Spain – which have shown markedly diverging implementation trajectories. We propose four implementation scenarios (ISs) for clean energy worldwide which relate to different configurations of actors in the policy system. These are: (1) Civil Society Takes Control (IS1) – where ideologically opposed governments are marginalised by citizens and forward-thinking investors; (2) Strong-arm Transition (IS2) – where a single party state drives the transition without the involvement of civil society; (3) Systemic Limits (IS3) – which highlights the need to focus on the whole energy system, not just renewables; and (4) Renewable Austerity (IS4) – where an economic downturn offers powerful anti-transition actors the opportunity to advocate removal of support for climate mitigation, as they did after the 2007–2008 financial crisis. This scenario could be repeated as countries seek to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. Our study offers a framework for structured analysis of real-world constraints faced by implementing actors, which we argue is urgently needed to help national and international policy makers achieve climate goals. Key policy insights The world is struggling to implement the Paris Agreement, partly because the complex dynamics of climate policy implementation are poorly understood. Social science approaches to understanding these dynamics are not well-integrated into climate scenario research. Implementation research focussing on the actors and context provides a useful framework for analysis of implementation efforts from major global carbon emitters. The approach offers new and distinctive scenario narratives that go beyond Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) and Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). These new scenarios can help policy makers evaluate likely outcomes of climate policy implementation based on information about actors and context.

The Economic Effects of New Patterns of Energy Efficiency and Heat Sources in Rural Single-Family Houses in Poland

In the face of severe air pollution and implementation of energy and climate policy, it remains a challenge to develop effective strategies addressing the problem of solid fuels use in single-family houses (SFH) in rural areas in Poland. This study investigated the correlations between thermal modernization of SFH, the changes of heat sources from coal to clean energy, including heat pumps driven by prosumers’ photovoltaic (PV) installation, and the disposable income of households in Polish rural areas. It also provided an analysis of the current support mechanisms promoting energy efficiency and PV development. The application of simulation modelling of energy consumption and costs in the research has proved that comprehensive thermal modernization of rural SFH constructed in the period of 1945–1970 and investments supporting PV/heat pump systems would enable the most cost-effective way of heating to be implemented. Considering that, today, spending on energy for heat puts a burden on the budget of rural households, especially those living in the SFH aged 50 years and more that dominate rural areas in Poland, the changes in energy supply–demand patterns would be an enhancement of their economic, energy and environmental security. The research argued that, in the wider process of energy transformation and solving air pollution problems, the role of rural households should not be neglected in public policy.

Assumptions and Implementation of Climate and Energy Policy under the Europe 2020 Strategy

Purpose: The essence of the initiative, that is, the strategy for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth, is an attempt at creating conditions fostering long-term sustainable economic growth in the European Union. To this end, economies based on knowledge, promoting environment-friendly technologies must be built in the member states of the Community, at the same time taking care to maintain social and territorial cohesion. Design/Methodology/Approach: This paper contains a long-term analysis of selected indicators concerning climate policy in the period 2000-2018 and an assessment of their accomplishment. This paper aims at verifying the hypothesis that prolonged problems in accomplishing “20/20/20” targets related to climate and energy, that is, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% in comparison to 1990, increasing the share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption to 20% and increasing the energy efficiency by 20%, undermine the success and timely accomplishment of certain priorities of the Strategy. Findings: Due to the relatively high level of greenhouse gas emissions and a high consumption of conventional energy in comparison to renewable energy, the Strategy requires a longer time horizon to be implemented successfully. In the European Community one can see a division into western countries of the Community and countries of the former Eastern bloc. Delayed technological, social, and financial development in the countries of the former Eastern bloc and insufficient awareness of the European and global climate policy may postpone the common efforts to accomplish the objectives of Europe 2020 Strategy beyond the projected time horizon. Originality/Value: It has boosted the process of building a knowledge-based economy and attempting to create conditions to reduce the share of greenhouse gases, reduce energy consumption and improve climate and energy indicators.

Prisoners of the Wrong Dilemma: Why Distributive Conflict, Not Collective Action, Characterizes the Politics of Climate Change

AbstractClimate change policy is generally modeled as a global collective action problem structured by free-riding concerns. Drawing on quantitative data, archival work, and elite interviews, we review empirical support for this model and find that the evidence for its claims is weak relative to the theory’s pervasive influence. We find, first, that the strongest collective action claims appear empirically unsubstantiated in many important climate politics cases. Second, collective action claims—whether in their strongest or in more nuanced versions—appear observationally equivalent to alternative theories focused on distributive conflict within countries. We argue that extant patterns of climate policy making can be explained without invoking free-riding. Governments implement climate policies regardless of what other countries do, and they do so whether a climate treaty dealing with free-riding has been in place or not. Without an empirically grounded model for global climate policy making, institutional and political responses to climate change may ineffectively target the wrong policy-making dilemma. We urge scholars to redouble their efforts to analyze the empirical linkages between domestic and international factors shaping climate policy making in an effort to empirically ground theories of global climate politics. Such analysis is, in turn, the topic of this issue’s special section.

Vulnerability patterns to heat and cold across Europe: a spatial two stage analysis of temperature-mortality risks in 800 urban areas

Background: Despite efforts of previous multi-location studies to characterize temperature vulnerability patterns across large regions, evidence on spatial variation of risks and its drivers remains patchy, as geographical coverage was limited to locations with available observed health data. This study offers a comprehensive geographical assessment of the differences in vulnerability to non-optimal temperature across a representative sample of 800 European cities. Methods: We firstly estimated the exposure-response associations in 150 cities of 14 European countries for whichobserved daily temperature-mortality data was collected in the MCC Collaborative Research Network. Second, we developed a novel spatial multivariate meta-regression model that characterizes risk in terms measurable meta-predictors and residual spatial structures. The meta-predictors were represented by city-level factors available in the European Union (EU) database Urban Data Platform (UDP), including environmental, socio-economic, and infrastructural characteristics. We then used the selected meta-regression model to predict temperature-mortality associations in the 800 cities, with a full coverage of the EU region.Results: The predicted mortality risks showed large geographical heterogeneity across Europe, with relative risks in the range 1.00-2.30 for heat and 1.22-2.07 for cold, respectively. Heat-related mortality displayed a clear geographical distribution, with an increasing North-South gradient and a high-risk area in Central Europe, while a more diffuse pattern was observed for cold. The geographical variation is largely explained by a set of meta-predictors, specifically gross domestic product, annual levels of particulate matter, and access to green areas.Conclusions: This first EU-wide analysis on temperature-related mortality provided a comprehensive picture of the geographical distribution of vulnerability to heat and cold. We found clear geographical differences in risks associated with non-optimal temperature, with the identification of areas of high vulnerability. These differences seem partly explained by measurable urban characteristics. These findings can contribute to the design and implementation of EU-wide public health and climate policies.