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Carbon leakages: a general equilibrium view

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  • Jean-Marc Burniaux
  • Joaquim Oliveira Martins

Abstract

The effectiveness of unilateral action to curb carbon emissions has been dismissed because of possible “carbon leakages”, this referring to the rise of emissions in non-participating countries. This paper offers a general equilibrium (GE) exploration of the key mechanisms and factors underlying the size of carbon leakages. We developed a two-region, two-goods simplified GE framework, incorporating three types of fossil fuels (coal, oil and low-carbon energy), international trade and capital mobility. The model was designed to make tractable extensive multidimensional sensitivity analysis. The results suggest that the coal supply elasticity plays a critical role, while substitution elasticities between traded goods and international capital mobility appear relatively less influential. The shape of the production function also matters for the size of the leakages. Confirming the results obtained with large computable GE models, for a wide range of parameters’ values carbon leakages appear to be small. Therefore, the argument that unilateral carbon abatement action taken by a large group of countries (such as the Annex 1 group) is flawed by significant carbon leakages is not supported by our sensitivity analysis. The likelihood of small leakages favours in fact the formation of a worldwide coalition to stabilise climate change.
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Suggested Citation

  • Jean-Marc Burniaux & Joaquim Oliveira Martins, 2012. "Carbon leakages: a general equilibrium view," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 49(2), pages 473-495, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joecth:v:49:y:2012:i:2:p:473-495
    DOI: 10.1007/s00199-010-0598-y
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Carbon leakages; Climate change; Computable and applied general equilibrium models; Energy supply and demand; D58; Q32; Q43;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D58 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Computable and Other Applied General Equilibrium Models
    • Q32 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Exhaustible Resources and Economic Development
    • Q43 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy and the Macroeconomy

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