Revisiting EU Policy Options for Tackling Climate Change: A Social Cost-Benefit Analysis of GHG Emissions Reduction Strategies. CEPS Paperbacks. November 2006

Climate change is a serious and long-term challenge with potentially irreversible consequences. The current design of both national and international climate change policies, however, tends to rest on a narrow application of social cost-benefit analysis, with an emphasis on short-term efficiency of resource allocation. In a departure from the conventional approach, this exploratory study sets out to integrate, from a societal perspective, the long-term impact of climate policy measures into the cost-benefit calculations of GHG emissions reduction strategies. This is achieved on the basis of an extensive literature review, combined with some limited calculations. The numerical application of the proposed analytical framework focuses on ten technical measures in three different sectors: energy and industry, transport and buildings.

[1]  Richard E. Just,et al.  Depletion of natural resources, technological uncertainty, and the adoption of technological substitutes , 2005 .

[2]  Vuuren Dp van,et al.  Global Assessment of acidification and eutrophicationof natural ecosystems , 1999 .

[3]  I. Little,et al.  Project Appraisal and Planning for Developing Countries , 1974 .

[4]  J. Chevalier.  Security of energy supply for the European Union , 2006 .

[5]  D. Meadows,et al.  The limits to growth. A report for the Club of Rome's project on the predicament of mankind. , 1972 .

[6]  Richard S.J. Tol,et al.  The marginal damage costs of carbon-dioxide emissions’ , 2005 .

[7]  K. Lindgren,et al.  Catastrophic Events and Stochastic Cost-benefit Analysis of Climate Change , 2003 .

[8]  Lyn Squire,et al.  Economic Analysis of Projects , 1976 .

[9]  J.J.C. Bruggink.  The next 50 years. Four European energy futures , 2005 .

[10]  Daniel M. Kammen,et al.  ENERGY MANAGEMENT AND GLOBAL HEALTH , 2004 .

[11]  Stephen H. Schneider,et al.  Are the Economic Costs of Stabilising the Atmosphere Prohibitive? , 2022 .

[12]  R. S. D. Motta.  Economics of natural resources and the environment , 1990 .

[13]  Markus Amann,et al.  Exploring the ancillary benefits of the Kyoto Protocol for air pollution in Europe , 2006 .

[14]  A. Fisher,et al.  Hotelling's "Economics of Exhaustible Resources": Fifty Years Later , 1981 .

[15]  Thomas E. Downing,et al.  The Impacts and Costs of Climate Change , 2005 .

[16]  M. Porter,et al.  Toward a New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship , 1995 .

[17]  W. G. van Arkel,et al.  Designing indicators of long-term energy supply security , 2004 .

[18]  Ari Rabl,et al.  Uncertainty of air pollution cost estimates: to what extent does it matter? , 2005, Environmental science & technology.

[19]  R. Wiser,et al.  Accounting for fuel price risk when comparing renewable to gas-fired generation: the role of forward natural gas prices , 2004 .

[20]  Bob van der Zwaan,et al.  Will coal depart or will it continue to dominate global power production during the 21st century , 2005 .

[21]  André Faaij,et al.  Bio-energy in Europe: changing technology choices , 2006 .

[22]  Joan M. Ogden,et al.  Societal lifecycle costs of cars with alternative fuels/engines , 2004 .

[23]  M. Hoogwijk.  On the global and regional potential of renewable energy sources , 2004 .

[24]  David William Keith,et al.  Carbon storage: the economic efficiency of storing CO2 in leaky reservoirs , 2003 .

[25]  Tore A. Torp,et al.  CO2 underground storage costs as experienced at Sleipner and Weyburn , 2005 .