A Firm-level evaluation of the European Union Emissions Trading System

Completed

Energy Efficiency(Residential and commercial)
Energy Efficiency(Industry)
Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Environmental, social and economic impacts)

Basic and strategic applied research

SOCIAL SCIENCES (Business and Management Studies)
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES (Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences)

Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Environmental dimensions)

Dr M Muuls
Grantham Institute for Climate Change
Imperial College London

Standard

ESRC

29 June 2012

28 December 2014

30 months

£79,761

London

Grants

Dr M Muuls, Grantham Institute for Climate Change, Imperial College London

Dr A Dechezlepretre, Grantham Research Inst on Climate Change, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Dr R Martin, Business School, Imperial College London
Dr UJ Wagner, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

The project will provide the first ex-post quantitative assessment of the effects of the EU Emissions Trading System on the energy efficiency and performance of individual businesses. Using longitudinal data on energy use, output and employment in a large sample of business establishments in the United Kingdom and France, we shall study how the introduction of the EU ETS in January 2005 has affected business energy use, in particular whether the EU ETS has resulted in additional energy savings. We will also estimate the impact that the policy has had on participating firms' performance and their competitiveness.In order to do so, we plan to gather comprehensive data from various sources, i.e. EUETS installations data, financial databases and official government microdata on plants and firms. While financial data is relatively easily accessible from a number of sources, data on energy consumption - a major driver of GHG emissions - is typically only available in official microdata sets. As this data comes mostly with severe access restrictions (e.g. in the UK data work can only be carried out on sites of the Office of National Statistics) collecting and analysing this information for all companies covered by the EUETS is a formidable task. For the sake of feasibility of our project, we will focus on two major European countries: France and the UK. With its focus on the short-run effects of the trading scheme and on two countries, this project is the first of a larger research agenda that will lead us to study other European countries as well as the longer-term implications of a carbon market on firms' behaviour and performance

21/01/15