1,721,190 research outputs found
Exploration of the interactions between mitigation and solar radiation management in cooperative and non-cooperative international governance settings
Full text linkGrowing concerns about climate change impacts on humans and eco-systems motivates exploring new strategies to complement traditional climate policies like mitigation and adaptation. Climate engineering via solar radiation management is one discussed option. However, climate engineering entails new risks, including its governance. Without sufficiently strong institutions, there is a risk that some countries will unilaterally deploy climate engineering to the detriment of other nations. This paper provides an evaluation of the risks of excess climate engineering due to lack of international cooperation. Using both an analytical and numerical model, we show how lack of cooperation leads to overprovision of climate engineering above what would be socially optimal. The regions with the highest climate change impacts deploy climate engineering at the expenses of the others. Yet, these poor countries still host the majority of the residual climate change impacts. These results suggest the importance of embedding climate engineering in the international climate policy debate
Real-time feedback on electricity consumption: evidence from a field experiment in Italy
Full text linkSmart meters can help citizens in optimizing energy consumption patterns. However, mixed evidence exists on their effectiveness in reducing energy demand and especially in levelling off the daily peaks of electricity load curves. Here, we evaluate the impact of providing real-time feedback on electricity consumption from a field trial in Italy. We combine standard regressions with machine learning techniques on high-frequency data to quantify impacts on both levels and patterns of electricity use. Results indicate that real-time feedback can moderately decrease electricity consumption (between 0.5 and 1.9% depending on model specification), but that it does not promote load shifting throughout the day by itself. Machine learning reveals evidence of significant household heterogeneity in the behavioral response
How can China help reduce climate policy costs?
No full textSee: http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/172
Internalising health-economic impacts of air pollution into climate policy: a global modelling study
No full textBackground Climate change and air pollution are two major societal problems. Their complex interplay calls for an advanced evaluation framework that can support decision making. Previous assessments have looked at the cobenefits of climate policies for air pollution, but few have optimised air pollution benefits. In our study, we lay out a modelling framework that internalises air pollution's economic impacts on human mortality, while considering climate constraints and aerosol feedback.
Methods We developed a modelling framework based on an integrated assessment model (World Induced Technical Change Hybrid [WITCH]) designed to assess optimal climate change mitigation policies. We included structural and end-of-pipe measures in a detailed process integrated assessment model, that is hard-linked to air pollution and climate models. We analysed a large set of baseline scenarios, including five shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs). SSP scenarios were also tested with three different levels of value per statistical life, and were combined with the Paris Agreement temperature targets (TM), focusing on the 2 degrees C and 1.5 degrees C TTs by the end of the century.
Findings We found that, in the baseline scenarios, where no policies are applied, the number of annual premature deaths grew before declining slightly to 4.45 (range 3.86-6.11) million annual premature deaths by 2050. Reaching the Paris Agreement TT decreases mortality by approximately 0.47 million premature deaths by 2050 (up to 1.28 million premature deaths in SSP3-1.5 degrees C) with respect to the baseline. We showed that welfare-maximising policies accounting for air pollution benefits reduces premature mortality by 1.62 million deaths annually. This is three times greater than the co-benefits of climate policies. China is the region where most of the avoided mortality is possible, whereas the reforming economies (ie, non-EU eastern European countries, including Russia) region has the greatest welfare benefits. We find that global and regional welfare increases when air pollution impacts are internalised, with no negative repercussions on global inequality.
Interpretation Air pollution control strategies are found to be an important complement to structural emission reductions. Accounting for air pollution impacts reduces climate mitigation costs and inequality and increases global and regional welfare. Results are robust to a broad set of scenarios and assumptions, including debated normative choices on how to value improved health
Climate Change Mitigation, Technological Innovation and Adaptation: A New Perspective on Climate Policy
No full textDemand-side policies for power generation in response to the energy crisis: A model analysis for Italy
No full textTo mitigate the impacts of the energy crisis, the European Union has proposed various measures. For the electricity sector a directive prescribes a shift of 5% of the demand in 10% of the peak hours, plus a voluntary 10% overall demand reduction. Here a power system model is used to quantify the implications of this policy for the Italian power sector, as it stands in 2022 and under the transformation required to meet the climate goals of the Fit-for-55. Findings show that it would be beneficial to incentivize electricity consumption in the middle of the day while discouraging it in the early morning and late afternoon. It is also noteworthy to observe the advantages of the decarbonization strategy in light of fluctuating gas prices and uncertainties: for a cost of gas at or above 50€/MWh, power generation through gas is reduced by more than one third, approaching what needed to comply with the Fit-for-55. Finally, the study assesses the potential of demand side management strategies to curb fossil resource consumption and to reduce curtailed electricity under a high renewable scenario
Bearing the Cost of Stored Carbon Leakage
Full text linkCarbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is considered a key technology for stabilizing climate change. However, leakage of CO2 from stored carbon can potentially undermine the value of carbon storage as a mitigation option. Thus, monitoring and verifiability of CO2 storage should be encouraged through policy provisions such as accounting and pricing of leaked emissions. Here we assess different institutional and economic mechanisms for accounting for carbon leakage. Using an integrated assessment model we quantify the impacts on the climate, the economy and the mitigation strategies. Results show that carbon leakage can reduce the share of fossil based CCS by up to 35%, if it is controlled and correctly priced. Biomass based CCS is less affected. Accounting for leakage leads to an increase of climate policy costs of up to 0.4 percentage points due to increased emissions
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