Emission Leakage Research Articles

Whole Farm Net Greenhouse Gas Abatement from Establishing Kikuyu-Based Perennial Pastures in South-Western Australia.

Simple SummaryGreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ruminant livestock production (sheep, cattle and goats) have contributed to a common perception that a shift in the human diet from animal to plant-based products is environmentally responsible. In this study we found that the level of net emissions from livestock production systems is strongly influenced by the type of farming system that is used, and in fact GHG emission levels from some livestock production systems may be comparable with cropping systems. By introducing into farming systems ‘perennial’ pasture plants that are able to capture more atmospheric carbon, which is then stored in the soil, emission levels from livestock production can be substantially reduced.On-farm activities that reduce GHG emissions or sequester carbon from the atmosphere to compensate for anthropogenic emissions are currently being evaluated by the Australian Government as carbon offset opportunities. The aim of this study was to examine the implications of establishing and grazing Kikuyu pastures, integrated as part of a mixed Merino sheep and cropping system, as a carbon offset mechanism. For the assessment of changes in net greenhouse gas emissions, results from a combination of whole farm economic and livestock models were used (MIDAS and GrassGro). Net GHG emissions were determined by deducting increased emissions from introducing this practice change (increased methane and nitrous oxide emissions due to higher stocking rates) from the soil carbon sequestered from growing the Kikuyu pasture. Our results indicate that livestock systems using perennial pastures may have substantially lower net GHG emissions, and reduced GHG intensity of production, compared with annual plant-based production systems. Soil carbon accumulation by converting 45% of arable land within a farm enterprise to Kikuyu-based pasture was determined to be 0.80 t CO2-e farm ha−1 yr−1 and increased GHG emissions (leakage) was 0.19 t CO2-e farm ha−1 yr−1. The net benefit of this practice change was 0.61 t CO2-e farm ha−1 yr−1 while the rate of soil carbon accumulation remains constant. The use of perennial pastures improved the efficiency of animal production almost eight fold when expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per unit of animal product. The strategy of using perennial pasture to improve production levels and store additional carbon in the soil demonstrates how livestock should be considered in farming systems as both sources and sinks for GHG abatement.

Very Low Leakage Current of High Band-Gap Al2O3 Stacked on TiO2/InP Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Capacitor with Sulfur and Hydrogen Treatments

High dielectric TiO2 film on InP treated by (NH4)2S shows improved electrical characteristics due to the removal of native oxides. Post-metallization annealing (PMA) can provide hydrogen ions, which effectively passivate defects in TiO2/InP film and interface, further improve electrical characteristics but still with high thermionic emission leakage due to low band-gap TiO2. For high band-gap Al2O3 stacked on PMA-TiO2/S–InP MOS structure with equivalent oxide thickness of 1.8 nm, the leakage current densities can be decreased as low as 1.5×10-8 and 2.2×10-7 A/cm2 at ±2 V, and the interface state density is 3.1×1011 cm-2 eV-1.

Carbon Pricing with Output-Based Subsidies: Impacts on U.S. Industries Over Multiple Time Frames

The effects of a carbon price on U.S. industries are likely to change over time as firms and customers gradually adjust to new prices. The effects will also depend on offsetting policies to compensate losers and the number of countries implementing comparable policies. We examine the effects of a $15/ton CO2 price, including Waxman-Markey-type allocations, on a disaggregated set of industries, over four time horizons — the very-short-, short-, medium-, and long-runs — distinguished by the ability of firms to raise output prices, change their input mix, and reallocate capital. We find that if firms cannot pass on higher costs, the loss in profits in a number of energy-intensive trade-exposed (EITE) industries will be substantial. When output prices can rise to reflect higher energy costs, the reduction in profits is substantially smaller, and the offsetting policies in H.R. 2454 reduce output and profit losses even more. Over the medium- and long-terms, however, when more adjustments occur, the impact on output is more varied due to general equilibrium effects. We find that the use of the output-based rebates and other allocations in H.R. 2454 can substantially offset the output losses over all four time frames considered. Trade or competitiveness effects from the carbon price explain a significant portion of the fall in output for EITE sectors, but in absolute terms the trade impacts are modest and can be reduced or even reversed with the subsidies. The subsidies are less effective, however, in preventing emissions leakage to countries not adopting carbon policies. Roughly half of U.S. trade-related leakage to non-policy countries can be explained by changes in the volume of trade and the other half by higher emissions intensities induced by lower world fuel prices.

Unilateral Climate Policy and Competitiveness: Economic Implications of Differential Emission Pricing

AbstractUnilateral climate policy raises concerns about international competitiveness and emission leakage that result in preferential regulatory treatment of domestic energy‐intensive and trade‐exposed (EITE) industries. Our applied analysis of unilateral EU abatement illustrates the potential pitfalls of climate policy design which narrowly focuses on competitiveness concerns about EITE industries. The sector‐specific gains of differential emission pricing in favour of these branches must be traded off with the additional burden imposed on other industries. From the perspective of the unilaterally abating region preferential EITE emission pricing can induce non‐negligible excess cost as policy concedes (too) low emission prices to EITE industries and thereby foregoes relatively cheap abatement options in these sectors. With respect to global cost‐effectiveness of unilateral climate policy, we find that differential emission pricing in favour of EITE industries can reduce emission leakage and thereby provide global cost savings compared with uniform pricing. However, the scope for cost savings is limited and may change into substantial cost increases if unilateral reduction targets are moderate and EITE industries get close to exemptions.

Estimates of the global indirect energy-use emission impacts of USA biofuel policy

This paper evaluates the indirect energy-use emission implications of increases in the use of biofuels in the USA between 2001 and 2010 as mandates within a dynamic global computable general equilibrium model. The study incorporates explicit markets for biofuels, petroleum and other fossil fuels, and accounts for interactions among all sectors of an 18-region global economy. It considers bilateral trade, as well as the dynamics of capital allocation and investment. Simulation results show that the biofuel mandates in the USA generate an overall reduction in global energy use and emissions over the simulation period from 2001 to 2030. Consequently, the indirect energy-use emission change or emission leakage under the mandate is negative. That is, global emission reductions are larger than the direct emission savings from replacing petroleum with biofuels under the USA RFS2 over the last decade. Under our principal scenario this enhanced the direct emission reduction from biofuels by about 66%. The global change in lifecycle energy-use emissions for this scenario was estimated to be about −93million tons of CO2e in 2010, −45million tons of CO2e in 2020, and an increase of 5million tons of CO2e in 2030, relative to the baseline scenario. Sensitivity results of six alternative scenarios provided additional insights into the pattern of the regional and global effects of biofuel mandates on energy-use emissions.

Influence of the Climate Policy of the European Union on the Competitiveness of Pollution-generating Sectors of the Polish Economy in the Context of Sustainable Development

The text analyses the influence of the EU climate policy on the competitiveness pollution-generating of sectors of the Polish economy. Study of literature and the results of the questionnaire survey, carried out in 2008 in enterprises located in Poland and representing the steel, glass, aluminium and cement industries became a basis for formulating conclusions concerning the consequences of the climate policy already implemented and planned after 2012. The EU climate policy, particularly the common system of emission allowances trade, makes the enterprises face new developmental barriers. The expected increase in production costs will not only slow down the production dynamics, but may also entail lowering the competitiveness of Polish companies compared to companies from outside the EU, to which the greenhouse gasses emission limits do not apply. Adverse consequences for employment and for regional development should also be considered indisputable. If that was accompanied by an emission leakage outside the EU, achieving the global purposes of the climate policy would also become questionable. The businesses surveyed represent industries which are pollution generators by their nature and even ecologically-oriented technological progress is incapable of ensuring considerable emission reductions without general switching of the economy to renewable energy sources.

Attributing land-use change carbon emissions to exported biomass

In this study, a simple, transparent and robust method is developed in which land-use change (LUC) emissions are retrospectively attributed to exported biomass products based on the agricultural area occupied for the production. LUC emissions account for approximately one-fifth of current greenhouse gas emissions. Increasing agricultural exports are becoming an important driver of deforestation. Brazil and Indonesia are used as case studies due to their significant deforestation in recent years. According to our study, in 2007, approximately 32% and 15% of the total agricultural land harvested and LUC emissions in Brazil and Indonesia respectively were due to exports. The most important exported single items with regard to deforestation were palm oil for Indonesia and bovine meat for Brazil. To reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions effectively worldwide, leakage of emissions should be avoided. This can be done, for example, by attributing embodied LUC emissions to exported biomass products. With the approach developed in this study, controversial attribution between direct and indirect LUC and amortization of emissions over the product life cycle can be overcome, as the method operates on an average basis and annual level. The approach could be considered in the context of the UNFCCC climate policy instead of, or alongside with, other instruments aimed at reducing deforestation. However, the quality of the data should be improved and some methodological issues, such as the allocation procedure in multiproduct systems and the possible dilution effect through third parties not committed to emission reduction targets, should be considered.

Alternative Climate Policies and Intertemporal Emissions Leakage: Quantifying the Green Paradox

Efforts to limit cumulative emissions over the next century may be partially thwarted by the responses of fossil fuel suppliers. Current price-cost margins for major reserves are ample, leaving scope for significant price reductions if climate policies reduce demand for fossil fuels through conservation or substitution to clean alternatives. Most models simulating the consequences of climate policies completely disregard these supply responses. As for theoretical models, under standard assumptions they predict such strong supplier responses that climate policies may have no effect on cumulative emissions and may even leave society worse off, suffering damages from global warming sooner and with less time to adapt (the 'green paradox'). We contribute to this literature by developing a richer theoretical model that takes account of the different extraction costs and emissons rates of different fossil reserves. We use this model to compare the qualitative effects of four policy options - accelerating cost reductions in the clean backstop technologies, taxing emissions, improving energy efficiency, and a clean fuel blend mandate. We also discuss the consequences of mandating carbon capture and sequestration. All policies can reduce cumulative emissions, but the backstop policy accelerates emissions while conservation policies (energy efficiency or blend mandates) delay emissions. We then calibrate the model using data on costs, reserves, and emissions factors for five major categories of oil. Using this calibrated model, we estimate the interemporal leakage rate - the percentage error in cumulative emissions reductions that would arise if no account is taken of the supply responses of oil producers. We find that conservation policies can have higher intertemporal leakage rates and backstop policies can have lower leakage than an emissions tax. Leakage rates generally decline as the policies become more stringent.

Comparing policies to combat emissions leakage: Border carbon adjustments versus rebates

We explore conditions determining which anti-leakage policies might be more effective complements to domestic greenhouse gas emissions regulation. We consider four policies that could be combined with unilateral emissions pricing to counter effects on international competitiveness: a border charge on imports, a border rebate for exports, full border adjustment, and domestic output-based rebating. Each option faces different potential legal hurdles in international trade law; each also has different economic impacts. While all can support competitiveness, none is necessarily effective at reducing global emissions. Nor is it possible to rank order the options; effectiveness depends on the relative emissions rates, elasticities of substitution, and consumption volumes. We illustrate these results with simulations for the energy-intensive sectors of three different economies, the United States, Canada and Europe. Although most controversial, full border adjustment is usually most effective, but output-based rebating for key manufacturing sectors can achieve many of the gains.

What Have We Learnt from the European Union’s Emissions Trading System?

The EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) demonstrated the ability to design and launch a large-scale trading system in a short period of time. The path from initial reticence about emissions trading to implementation of the world's largest program is an important history. Three issues play a large role in the evaluation of the program to date and its on-going development: allocation plans, cost uncertainty, and leakage of emissions to abroad. Decisions in Phase I and II (2005-2012) were responsive to questions of political feasibility and implementation, but some of these decisions including allocation in particular will be substantially revised in Phase III (2013-2020).

CO2 emissions attributed to annual average electricity consumption in OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries

When regulating GHG emissions at the country or product level, it is critical to determine the GHG emissions from electricity consumption. In this study, we calculated production-based and consumption-based CO2 emission intensities of electricity for the OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries during 1990–2008. We examined the impact of annual development, allocation procedure in combined heat and power production, and electricity trade on CO2 emissions. The studied factors significantly, yet highly variably, influenced the results for many countries. The consumption-based CO2 emission intensity of electricity differed significantly from the production-based intensity for some European OECD countries such as Switzerland, Norway, Slovakia, and Austria. As the use of the production-based method in assessing, verifying, and monitoring the GHG performance of specific products can be highly misleading, the use of consumption-based methods are preferable. The absolute value of CO2 emissions embodied in electricity net imports accounted for more than 5% of the overall national CO2 emissions in at least some of the years studied for 13 European countries. The electricity trade and the related GHG emission leakage may increase in the future if effective emission reduction and regulation measures are not more widely implemented.

Cost-Effective Unilateral Climate Policy Design: Size Matters

Given the bleak prospects for a global agreement on coordinated policies to mitigate climate change, political pressure is increasing among industrialized countries for unilateral abatement. A major challenge thereby is the appropriate response to the threat of emissions leakage. Border carbon adjustments and output-based allocation of emissions allowances can increase effectiveness of unilateral action but introduce distortions of their own. We assess the relative attractiveness of these anti-leakage measures as a function of the abatement coalition size. We first develop a partial equilibrium analytical framework to gain generic insights on how these instruments affect emissions within and outside the coalition. We then employ a large-scale computable general equilibrium model of international trade and energy use to assess the cost-effectiveness of alternative anti-leakage strategies as the coalition evolves toward global coverage. We find that full border adjustments rank first in global cost-effectiveness, followed by import tariffs and then output-based rebates. The differences across anti-leakage measures and the overall appeal of such measures decline with the size of the abatement coalition. In terms of cost incidence, the abatement coalition prefers border carbon adjustments over output-based rebates; the opposite holds true for countries outside the coalition.

Carbon Leakage from the Clean Development Mechanism

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is an offset mechanism designed to reduce the overall cost of implementing a given target for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in industrialized Annex B countries of the Kyoto Protocol, by shifting some of the emission reductions to Non-Annex B countries. This paper analyzes how CDM projects may lead to leakage of emissions elsewhere in NonAnnex B countries. Leakage occurs because emissions reductions under a CDM project may affect market equilibrium in regional and/or global energy andprod-uct markets, and thereby increase emissions elsewhere. We also account for potential reverse or negative leakage effects in Non-Annex B from higher emissions cap in Annex B. Our conclusion is that net leakage typically is positive and sizeable, thus leading to an overall increase in global GHG emissions when CDM projects are undertaken. Leakage is greater when the different fossil fuel markets are more segregated. doi: 10.5547/ISSN0195-6574-EJ-Vol32-No4-2

Implementing W States and an Ancilla-Free 1→M Phase-Covariant Cloning via Adiabatic Evolution

A scheme is proposed for generating maximally multi-atom W states and realizing an ancilla-free 1→M phase-covariant quantum cloning. Compared to the previous scheme, our scheme is based on performing an adiabatic evolution through three separated cavities which remain in their respective vacuum states during the whole operation, the process is much more simple, and operations are reduced relatively. During the process of cloning, our scheme is not necessary to perform a measurement on atoms. And our scheme is robust for atomic spontaneous emission, cavity decay and photon leakage out of the fiber. All these convenient places make our scheme more feasible.

Four Problems with Global Carbon Markets: A Critical Review

This article offers a critique of global carbon markets and trading, with a special focus on the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. It explores problems with the use of tradable permits to address climate change revolving around four areas: Homogeneity, justice, gaming, and information. Homogeneity problems arise from the non-linear nature of climate change and sensitivity of emissions, which complicate attempts to calculate carbon offsets. Justice problems involve issues of dependency and the concentration of wealth among the rich, meaning carbon trading often counteracts attempts to reduce poverty. Gaming problems include pressures to promote high-volume, least-cost projects and the consequences of emissions leakage. Information problems encompass transaction costs related to carbon trading and market participation and the comparatively weak institutional capacity of project evaluators.

Effective, efficient or equitable: using allowance allocations to mitigate emissions leakage

The European Union (EU), the US and Australia have each adopted, or are considering, free allocations to emissions-intensive, trade-exposed industries (EITEIs) in order to minimize emissions leakage and industrial offshoring resulting from climate policy. Differences in the design of these schemes, including how a country defines eligible EITEIs, the scale of allocation and the method of distribution, all have the potential to affect the outcomes of the programmes. In crafting their EITEI allocation formulas, policymakers in each country must balance three important priorities – the economic efficiency of the cap and trade programme, an equitable distribution of the programme's allowances and the effectiveness of the allocations in addressing leakage and competitiveness concerns. These three priorities provide a useful framework for considering the tradeoffs inherent in designing allocation schemes for EITEIs. Through this lens, policy approaches taken by the EU, US and Australia are evaluated with respect to four important questions of allocation policy design: the definition of EITEIs, the costs to be covered, the methodology for distributing allowances and the duration of free allocation.

Characterization of Fluorinated-SiO2/PMA-Treated TiO2/(NH4)2S-Treated GaAs MOS Structure

The electrical characteristics of metalorganic chemical vapor deposited TiO2 films on p-type GaAs were studied. For GaAs with (NH4)2S treatment, the electrical characteristics of TiO2/GaAs are improved from native oxide removal. The electrical characteristics can be further improved by hydrogen passivation on defects, grain boundary and interface of TiO2/GaAs via post-metallization annealing, in which the active hydrogen is produced from the reaction between aluminum (Al) contact and hydroxyl groups existed on oxide surface. The stack of liquid phase deposited high band-gap SiO2 on TiO2 film can lower the thermionic emission leakage of low band-gap TiO2 and improve the quality of stacked structure by fluorination. The leakage current densities of fluorinated-SiO2/PMA-treated TiO2/(NH4)2S-treated GaAs MOS structure can reach 5.4 × 10−9 and 4.9 × 10−7 A/cm2 at ±1.5 MV/cm. The dielectric constant and the lowest interface state density are 39.7 and 4.8 × 1011 cm−2eV−1, respectively.

Global versus Low Carbon Economy: The Case of the Revised EU Emissions Trading Scheme

Europe is tightening its climate change policy and with that its pollution control legislation, supposedly to lead the way towards a low carbon economy. As the rest of the world is lagging behind in greenhouse gas emission reduction efforts, this causes increasing concern for the European carbon‐intensive industry. In order to address concerns of economic competitiveness and emission leakage, the EU is considering the extension of its recently revised EU Emission Trading Scheme on carbon‐intensive goods imported from countries not taking comparable action to reduce their emissions. This article examines the permissibility of such an extension under the law of the World Trade Organization, namely the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (1994).

Effective dynamics for two-atom entanglement and quantum information processing by coupled cavity QED systems

We propose a scheme for deterministic generation of entanglement embodied by two \(\Lambda \)-type atoms distributed in two coupled cavities. We study such a system in the dispersive atom-field interactions, where the dynamics of the system operates through the virtual population of both the atomic excited states and the photonic states in the cavities (plus the fiber). We verify the validity of the dynamics, and moreover, study the influences of the decoherence due to the spontaneous emission and photon leakage. We also apply the dynamics for realizing quantum state transfer and quantum phase gates.

Distributed qutrit–qutrit entanglement via quantum Zeno dynamics

A scheme is proposed to generate a three-dimensional entangled state for two atoms trapped in two distant cavities via quantum Zeno dynamics. We study such system in the regime of resonant atom–field interactions, which makes the scheme work very fast. We also investigate the influence of dissipation, due to atomic spontaneous emission and photon leakage, on the qutrit–qutrit entanglement.