Publications

Can the European Council Impose Consensus on EU Climate Policies?

Since 2007, the European Council has played an increasingly active role in shaping the details of future EU climate policies. This involvement raises important questions about potential interference by the European Council regarding the decision-making process for and content of the implementation of the 2030 climate framework. In a broader perspective, concerns have been raised about the establishment of a constitutional practice, which could in fact circumvent the possibility of adopting implementing acts by qualified majority vote.

Carbon dioxide reducing environmental innovations, sector upstream/downstream integration and policy: evidence from the EU

Eco innovations (EI) that address climate change mitigation require pressures and knowledge from outside the firm’s and sector’s boundaries, due to the radicalness and variety of techno-organisational knowledge the economy needs to curb emissions by 90 % in the long run and 40 % in the medium run, at least according to EU targets. The role of policy as a tool that potentially tackles two externalities—innovation and environmental market failures—has been studied over the past decade.

Emissions Trading in the Climate Policy Mix - Understanding and Managing Interactions with Other Policy Instruments

Emissions trading promises the achievement of a pre-defined environmental outcome at least cost. If the system works and key assumptions hold, it would seem to be an "optimal" climate policy instrument. On closer inspection, however, it is less clear what constitutes an "optimal" climate policy. This paper argues that optimality involves a range of criteria beyond short-term economic efficiency, but also has to consider the longer-term dynamic efficiency, as well as the political, administrative and legal feasibility of policy instruments.

Spill or leak? Carbon leakage with international technology spillovers: A CGE analysis

This paper studies the effect of endogenous technical change and international technology spillovers on carbon leakage. It is well known that a unilateral CO₂ abatement policy in one region may cause CO₂ emissions to increase in non-abating regions because of the relocation of CO₂-intensive firms and because of energy market effects.

Reaping the carbon rent: Abatement and overallocation profits in the European cement industry, insights from an LMDI decomposition analysis

We analyse variations of carbon emissions in the European cement industry from 1990 to 2012, at the European level (EU 27), and at the national level for six major producers (Germany, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy and Poland). We apply a Log-Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method, cross-referencing data from three databases: the Getting the Numbers Right (GNR) database developed by the Cement Sustainability Initiative, the European Union Transaction Log (EUTL), and the Eurostat International Trade database.

Analysing the interactions of energy and climate policies in a broad policy ‘optimality’ framework: the Italian case study

The paper investigates the effectiveness and efficiency of energy-environmental policy interactions in Italy, adopting a broad optimality perspective that includes policy feasibility and dynamic efficiency. The analysis highlights that though some complementarity among different policies exists, climate policies have been often undermined by energy and renewables policy.