Empirical studies for greenhouse gas abatement

Completed

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

Basic and strategic applied research

SOCIAL SCIENCES (Economics and Econometrics)

Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Other sociological economical and environmental impact of energy)

Miss R Clarke
School of Social Sciences - Economics
University of Birmingham

Standard

ESRC

01 January 1992

30 January 1996

49 months

£75,555

No relevance to Underpinning Sectors

West Midlands

ESRC Energy

Miss R Clarke, School of Social Sciences - Economics, University of Birmingham

Objectives not supplied

This study explores two neglected but important aspects of estimating the welfare costs of greenhouse gas abatement policies. First, existing studies of the costs of abatement generally ignore the extent to which the demand for and supply of different fuels are affected by subsidies and taxes. In many countries, and especially in the former centrally planned economies, taxes and subsidies make the prices paid by consumers for various fuels different from those received by producers. As a resultthe value of a unit of a particular fuel to consumers differs from its costs of production and the true cost (to consumers) of cutting consumption differs from the accounting cost. Unless such differences are taken into account, estimates of abatement costs will be inaccurate and governments may seek to control the wrong fuels. The second study will look at how national demand patterns for energy- intensive goods vary depending whether the country is poor or rich. Controlling carbon dioxide emissions ultimately entails reducing the consumption of energy-intensive goods. It is important to know whether this will impinge heavily on the poor. For example, tax rates may have to differ across countries in order to achieve particular abatement targets and schemes for compensating the hardest hit consumers may need to developed.

23/12/09