DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1918128117
论文题名: The European Union Emissions Trading System reduced CO2 emissions despite low prices
作者: Bayer P. ; Aklin M.
刊名: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
ISSN: 0027-8424
出版年: 2020
卷: 117, 期: 16 起始页码: 8804
结束页码: 8812
语种: 英语
英文关键词: Carbon markets
; EU ETS
; Policy evaluation
; Synthetic control
Scopus关键词: accuracy
; Article
; carbon footprint
; European Union
; government
; greenhouse gas
; market
; policy
; priority journal
英文摘要: International carbon markets are an appealing and increasingly popular tool to regulate carbon emissions. By putting a price on carbon, carbon markets reshape incentives faced by firms and reduce the value of emissions. How effective are carbon markets? Observers have tended to infer their effectiveness from market prices. The general belief is that a carbon market needs a high price in order to reduce emissions. As a result, many observers remain skeptical of initiatives such as the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), whose price remained low (compared to the social cost of carbon). In this paper, we assess whether the EU ETS reduced CO2 emissions despite low prices. We motivate our study by documenting that a carbon market can be effective if it is a credible institution that can plausibly become more stringent in the future. In such a case, firms might cut emissions even though market prices are low. In fact, low prices can be a signal that the demand for carbon permits weakens. Thus, low prices are compatible with successful carbon markets. To assess whether the EU ETS reduced carbon emissions even as permits were cheap, we estimate counterfactual carbon emissions using an original sectoral emissions dataset. We find that the EU ETS saved about 1.2 billion tons of CO2 between 2008 and 2016 (3.8%) relative to a world without carbon markets, or almost half of what EU governments promised to reduce under their Kyoto Protocol commitments. Emission reductions in sectors covered under the EU ETS were higher. © 2020 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Citation statistics:
资源类型: 期刊论文
标识符: http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/164230
Appears in Collections: 气候变化与战略
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作者单位: Bayer, P., School of Government and Public Policy, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, G1 1QX, United Kingdom; Aklin, M., Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, United States
Recommended Citation:
Bayer P.,Aklin M.. The European Union Emissions Trading System reduced CO2 emissions despite low prices[J]. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,2020-01-01,117(16)