IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v310y2022ics0306261922000642.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing the effects of emissions trading systems on energy consumption and energy mix

Author

Listed:
  • Tan, Xiujie
  • Sun, Qian
  • Wang, Meiji
  • Se Cheong, Tsun
  • Yan Shum, Wai
  • Huang, Jinpeng

Abstract

The carbon emissions trading system (ETS) is expected to achieve energy transition and carbon-neutrality goals by theoretically reducing energy consumption and adjusting the energy mix. This study aims to provide firm-level evidence on these effects by adopting the distribution dynamics approach, which could reveal historical transition probabilities and predict long-term evolutions. By using the unique dataset from the Hubei ETS pilot in China, this study can serve as an example for promoting ETS. The results indicate that: (1) Most firms converge to a lower relative energy consumption under ETS, resulting in reduced total energy consumption. However, it would take a long time to achieve energy transition. (2) The primary peak of the relative coal consumption distribution reduces from 0.07 to 0.02 under ETS, implying a decline in coal use. Meanwhile, the share of electricity consumption increases, indicating a switch from coal to electricity. (3) ETS would place a limit on fossil energy, and an even stricter limit on coal for firms with high energy consumption. (4) Both the total and share of energy-induced carbon emissions also decrease, implying that ETS might realize the decoupling of economic growth from fossil energy and carbon emissions.

Suggested Citation

  • Tan, Xiujie & Sun, Qian & Wang, Meiji & Se Cheong, Tsun & Yan Shum, Wai & Huang, Jinpeng, 2022. "Assessing the effects of emissions trading systems on energy consumption and energy mix," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 310(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:310:y:2022:i:c:s0306261922000642
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.118583
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261922000642
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.118583?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anke, Carl-Philipp & Hobbie, Hannes & Schreiber, Steffi & Möst, Dominik, 2020. "Coal phase-outs and carbon prices: Interactions between EU emission trading and national carbon mitigation policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    2. Daron Acemoglu & Philippe Aghion & Leonardo Bursztyn & David Hemous, 2012. "The Environment and Directed Technical Change," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 131-166, February.
    3. Meng, Sam & Siriwardana, Mahinda & McNeill, Judith & Nelson, Tim, 2018. "The impact of an ETS on the Australian energy sector: An integrated CGE and electricity modelling approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 213-224.
    4. Tvinnereim, Endre & Mehling, Michael, 2018. "Carbon pricing and deep decarbonisation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 185-189.
    5. Huang, Hai & Roland-Holst, David & Springer, Cecilia & Lin, Jiang & Cai, Wenjia & Wang, Can, 2019. "Emissions trading systems and social equity: A CGE assessment for China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C), pages 1254-1265.
    6. Liu, Yu & Tan, Xiu-Jie & Yu, Yang & Qi, Shao-Zhou, 2017. "Assessment of impacts of Hubei Pilot emission trading schemes in China – A CGE-analysis using TermCO2 model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 762-769.
    7. Alexeeva-Talebi, Victoria & Böhringer, Christoph & Löschel, Andreas & Voigt, Sebastian, 2012. "The value-added of sectoral disaggregation: Implications on competitive consequences of climate change policies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(S2), pages 127-142.
    8. Lin, Boqiang & Jia, Zhijie, 2018. "The energy, environmental and economic impacts of carbon tax rate and taxation industry: A CGE based study in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 558-568.
    9. Shi, Xunpeng & Yu, Jian & Cheong, Tsun Se, 2020. "Convergence and distribution dynamics of energy consumption among China's households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    10. Zaklan, Aleksandar & Wachsmuth, Jakob & Duscha, Vicki, 2021. "The EU ETS to 2030 and beyond: adjusting the cap in light of the 1.5°C target and current energy policies," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 21(6), pages 778-791.
    11. aus dem Moore, Nils & Großkurth, Philipp & Themann, Michael, 2019. "Multinational corporations and the EU Emissions Trading System: The specter of asset erosion and creeping deindustrialization," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 1-26.
    12. Ren, Shenggang & Hu, Yucai & Zheng, Jingjing & Wang, Yangjie, 2020. "Emissions trading and firm innovation: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    13. Koch, Nicolas & Basse Mama, Houdou, 2019. "Does the EU Emissions Trading System induce investment leakage? Evidence from German multinational firms," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 479-492.
    14. Li, Guangyao & Yang, Jin & Chen, Dingjiang & Hu, Shanying, 2017. "Impacts of the coming emission trading scheme on China’s coal-to-materials industry in 2020," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 837-849.
    15. Zhang, Hongwu & Shi, Xunpeng & Cheong, Tsun Se & Wang, Keying, 2020. "Convergence of carbon emissions at the household level in China: A distribution dynamics approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    16. Mardones, Cristian & Ortega, José, 2021. "Are the emissions trading systems’ simulations generated with a computable general equilibrium model sensitive to the nested production structure?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    17. Pye, Steve & Usher, Will & Strachan, Neil, 2014. "The uncertain but critical role of demand reduction in meeting long-term energy decarbonisation targets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 575-586.
    18. James B. Bushnell & Erin T. Mansur, 2011. "Vertical Targeting and Leakage in Carbon Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 263-267, May.
    19. Daniel Rosenbloom & Jochen Markard & Frank W. Geels & Lea Fuenfschilling, 2020. "Reply to van den Bergh and Botzen: A clash of paradigms over the role of carbon pricing," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117(38), pages 23221-23222, September.
    20. Kim, Man-Keun & Kim, Taehoo, 2016. "Estimating impact of regional greenhouse gas initiative on coal to gas switching using synthetic control methods," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 328-335.
    21. Cenjie Liu & Chunbo Ma & Rui Xie, 2020. "Structural, Innovation and Efficiency Effects of Environmental Regulation: Evidence from China’s Carbon Emissions Trading Pilot," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 75(4), pages 741-768, April.
    22. Pietzcker, Robert C. & Osorio, Sebastian & Rodrigues, Renato, 2021. "Tightening EU ETS targets in line with the European Green Deal: Impacts on the decarbonization of the EU power sector," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    23. Jianhuan Huang & Yantuan Yu & Chunbo Ma, 2018. "Energy Efficiency Convergence in China: Catch-Up, Lock-In and Regulatory Uniformity," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 70(1), pages 107-130, May.
    24. Tsun Se Cheong & Yanrui Wu & Jianxin Wu, 2016. "Evolution of carbon dioxide emissions in Chinese cities: trends and transitional dynamics," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 357-377, July.
    25. Pearse, Rebecca, 2016. "The coal question that emissions trading has not answered," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 319-328.
    26. Yu, Yang & Li, Shuangqi & Sun, Huaping & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad, 2021. "Energy carbon emission reduction of China’s transportation sector: An input–output approach," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 378-393.
    27. Wietze Lise & Jos Sijm & Benjamin Hobbs, 2010. "The Impact of the EU ETS on Prices, Profits and Emissions in the Power Sector: Simulation Results with the COMPETES EU20 Model," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 47(1), pages 23-44, September.
    28. Quah, Danny, 1993. "Empirical cross-section dynamics in economic growth," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 426-434, April.
    29. Wang, Peng & Dai, Han-cheng & Ren, Song-yan & Zhao, Dai-qing & Masui, Toshihiko, 2015. "Achieving Copenhagen target through carbon emission trading: Economic impacts assessment in Guangdong Province of China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 212-227.
    30. Kara, M. & Syri, S. & Lehtila, A. & Helynen, S. & Kekkonen, V. & Ruska, M. & Forsstrom, J., 2008. "The impacts of EU CO2 emissions trading on electricity markets and electricity consumers in Finland," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 193-211, March.
    31. Nguyen, Dinh Hoa & Chapman, Andrew & Farabi-Asl, Hadi, 2019. "Nation-wide emission trading model for economically feasible carbon reduction in Japan," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    32. Zeng, Chen & Stringer, Lindsay C. & Lv, Tianyu, 2021. "The spatial spillover effect of fossil fuel energy trade on CO2 emissions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    33. Junming Zhu & Yichun Fan & Xinghua Deng & Lan Xue, 2019. "Low-carbon innovation induced by emissions trading in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-8, December.
    34. Yu, Xianyu & Wu, Zemin & Wang, Qunwei & Sang, Xiuzhi & Zhou, Dequn, 2020. "Exploring the investment strategy of power enterprises under the nationwide carbon emissions trading mechanism: A scenario-based system dynamics approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    35. I. A. Grant Wilson & Iain Staffell, 2018. "Rapid fuel switching from coal to natural gas through effective carbon pricing," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(5), pages 365-372, May.
    36. Rogge, Karoline S. & Hoffmann, Volker H., 2010. "The impact of the EU ETS on the sectoral innovation system for power generation technologies - Findings for Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 7639-7652, December.
    37. Cheong, Tsun Se & Wu, Yanrui, 2018. "Convergence and transitional dynamics of China's industrial output: A county-level study using a new framework of distribution dynamics analysis," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 125-138.
    38. Li, Wei & Jia, Zhijie, 2016. "The impact of emission trading scheme and the ratio of free quota: A dynamic recursive CGE model in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 1-14.
    39. Lin, Boqiang & Jia, Zhijie, 2019. "Impacts of carbon price level in carbon emission trading market," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C), pages 157-170.
    40. Cao, Jing & Ho, Mun S. & Ma, Rong & Teng, Fei, 2021. "When carbon emission trading meets a regulated industry: Evidence from the electricity sector of China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    41. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Peng, Yu-Lu & Ma, Chao-Qun & Shen, Bo, 2017. "Can environmental innovation facilitate carbon emissions reduction? Evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 18-28.
    42. Lee, Kangil & Melstrom, Richard T., 2018. "Evidence of increased electricity influx following the regional greenhouse gas initiative," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 127-135.
    43. Steve Pye & Francis G. N. Li & James Price & Birgit Fais, 2017. "Erratum: Achieving net-zero emissions through the reframing of UK national targets in the post-Paris Agreement era," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 2(6), pages 1-1, June.
    44. Cagno, Enrico & Trianni, Andrea, 2013. "Exploring drivers for energy efficiency within small- and medium-sized enterprises: First evidences from Italian manufacturing enterprises," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 276-285.
    45. Qi, Shaozhou & Wang, Banban & Zhang, Jihong, 2014. "Policy design of the Hubei ETS pilot in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 31-38.
    46. Steve Pye & Francis G. N. Li & James Price & Birgit Fais, 2017. "Achieving net-zero emissions through the reframing of UK national targets in the post-Paris Agreement era," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 2(3), pages 1-7, March.
    47. Nayyar, Zeeshan Alam & Zaigham, Nayyer Alam & Qadeer, Abdul, 2014. "Assessment of present conventional and non-conventional energy scenario of Pakistan," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 543-553.
    48. Zhou, Yishu & Huang, Ling, 2021. "How regional policies reduce carbon emissions in electricity markets: Fuel switching or emission leakage," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    49. Delarue, Erik & Lamberts, Hans & D’haeseleer, William, 2007. "Simulating greenhouse gas (GHG) allowance cost and GHG emission reduction in Western Europe," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1299-1309.
    50. Hu, Yucai & Ren, Shenggang & Wang, Yangjie & Chen, Xiaohong, 2020. "Can carbon emission trading scheme achieve energy conservation and emission reduction? Evidence from the industrial sector in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    51. Gambhir, Ajay & Napp, Tamaryn A. & Emmott, Christopher J.M. & Anandarajah, Gabrial, 2014. "India's CO2 emissions pathways to 2050: Energy system, economic and fossil fuel impacts with and without carbon permit trading," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 791-801.
    52. Xian, Yujiao & Wang, Ke & Wei, Yi-Ming & Huang, Zhimin, 2019. "Would China’s power industry benefit from nationwide carbon emission permit trading? An optimization model-based ex post analysis on abatement cost savings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C), pages 978-986.
    53. Pietzcker, Robert & Osorio, Sebastian & Rodrigues, Renato, 2021. "Tightening EU ETS targets in line with the European Green Deal: Impacts on the decarbonization of the EU power sector," EconStor Preprints 222579, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, revised 2021.
    54. Cheong, Tsun Se & Li, Victor Jing & Shi, Xunpeng, 2019. "Regional disparity and convergence of electricity consumption in China: A distribution dynamics approach," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Madurai Elavarasan, Rajvikram & Nadarajah, Mithulananthan & Pugazhendhi, Rishi & Sinha, Avik & Gangatharan, Sivasankar & Chiaramonti, David & Abou Houran, Mohamad, 2023. "The untold subtlety of energy consumption and its influence on policy drive towards Sustainable Development Goal 7," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    2. Yan, Peiliang & Fan, Weijun & Han, Yu & Ding, Hongbing & Wen, Chuang & Elbarghthi, Anas F.A. & Yang, Yan, 2023. "Leaf-vein bionic fin configurations for enhanced thermal energy storage performance of phase change materials in smart heating and cooling systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 346(C).
    3. Yan, Lei & Tian, Wei & Wang, Hong & Hao, Xing & Li, Zuyi, 2023. "Robust event detection for residential load disaggregation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    4. Yanmei Li & Xin Sun & Xiushan Bai, 2022. "Differences of Carbon Emission Efficiency in the Belt and Road Initiative Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-17, February.
    5. Marek Guzek & Jerzy Jackowski & Rafał S. Jurecki & Emilia M. Szumska & Piotr Zdanowicz & Marcin Żmuda, 2024. "Electric Vehicles—An Overview of Current Issues—Part 1—Environmental Impact, Source of Energy, Recycling, and Second Life of Battery," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-25, January.
    6. Wu, Qingyang & Tan, Chang & Wang, Daoping & Wu, Yongtao & Meng, Jing & Zheng, Heran, 2023. "How carbon emission prices accelerate net zero: Evidence from China's coal-fired power plants," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    7. Geeta Duppati & Aviral Tiwari & Neha Matlani, 2023. "Effects of CO2, Renewables and Fuel Prices on the Economic Growth in New Zealand," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(4), pages 555-562, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tan, Xiujie & Wang, Banban & Wei, Jie & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad, 2023. "The role of carbon pricing in achieving energy transition in the Post-COP26 era: Evidence from China's industrial energy conservation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    2. Yidan Chen & Jiang Lin & David Roland-Holst & Xu Liu & Can Wang, 2023. "Declining Renewable Costs, Emissions Trading, and Economic Growth: China’s Power System at the Crossroads," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-14, January.
    3. Lin, Boqiang & Jia, Zhijie, 2019. "Impacts of carbon price level in carbon emission trading market," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C), pages 157-170.
    4. Du, Mengfan & Zhang, Yue-Jun, 2023. "The impact of producer services agglomeration on green economic development: Evidence from 278 Chinese cities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    5. Lin, Boqiang & Wesseh, Presley K., 2020. "On the economics of carbon pricing: Insights from econometric modeling with industry-level data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    6. Zhou, Bo & Zhang, Cheng & Wang, Qunwei & Zhou, Dequn, 2020. "Does emission trading lead to carbon leakage in China? Direction and channel identifications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    7. Cenjie Liu & Chunbo Ma & Rui Xie, 2020. "Structural, Innovation and Efficiency Effects of Environmental Regulation: Evidence from China’s Carbon Emissions Trading Pilot," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 75(4), pages 741-768, April.
    8. Lin, Boqiang & Jia, Zhijie, 2018. "Impact of quota decline scheme of emission trading in China: A dynamic recursive CGE model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 190-203.
    9. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Cheng, Hao-Sen, 2021. "The impact mechanism of the ETS on CO2 emissions from the service sector: Evidence from Beijing and Shanghai," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    10. Chao Li & Xiangyou Li & Deyong Song & Meng Tian, 2022. "Does a carbon emissions trading scheme spur urban green innovation? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Energy & Environment, , vol. 33(4), pages 640-662, June.
    11. Andrianesis, Panagiotis & Biskas, Pandelis & Liberopoulos, George, 2021. "Evaluating the cost of emissions in a pool-based electricity market," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    12. Mardones, Cristian & Ortega, José, 2021. "Are the emissions trading systems’ simulations generated with a computable general equilibrium model sensitive to the nested production structure?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    13. Wu, Rongxin & Tan, Zhizhou & Lin, Boqiang, 2023. "Does carbon emission trading scheme really improve the CO2 emission efficiency? Evidence from China's iron and steel industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    14. Ruhnau, O. & Bucksteeg, M. & Ritter, D. & Schmitz, R. & Böttger, D. & Koch, M. & Pöstges, A. & Wiedmann, M. & Hirth, L., 2022. "Why electricity market models yield different results: Carbon pricing in a model-comparison experiment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    15. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Wang, Wei, 2021. "How does China's carbon emissions trading (CET) policy affect the investment of CET-covered enterprises?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    16. Yu, Jian & Shi, Xunpeng & Cheong, Tsun Se, 2021. "Distribution dynamics of China's household consumption upgrading," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 193-203.
    17. Hu, Yucai & Ren, Shenggang & Wang, Yangjie & Chen, Xiaohong, 2020. "Can carbon emission trading scheme achieve energy conservation and emission reduction? Evidence from the industrial sector in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    18. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Liang, Ting & Jin, Yan-Lin & Shen, Bo, 2020. "The impact of carbon trading on economic output and carbon emissions reduction in China’s industrial sectors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    19. Yu, Pei & Cai, Zhengfang & Sun, Yongping, 2021. "Does the emissions trading system in developing countries accelerate carbon leakage through OFDI? Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    20. Liangpeng Wu & Qingyuan Zhu, 2021. "Impacts of the carbon emission trading system on China’s carbon emission peak: a new data-driven approach," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 107(3), pages 2487-2515, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:310:y:2022:i:c:s0306261922000642. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.