IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/tcpoxx/v9y2009i6p612-633.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing the value of price caps and floors

Author

Listed:
  • CÉDRIC PHILIBERT

Abstract

This article assesses the long-term economic and climatic effects of introducing price caps and price floors in hypothetical global climate change mitigation policy. Based on emission trends, abatement costs and equilibrium climate sensitivity from IPCC and IEA reports, this quantitative analysis confirms that price caps could significantly reduce economic uncertainty. This uncertainty stems primarily from unpredictable economic growth and energy prices, and ultimately unabated emission trends. In addition, the development of abatement technologies is uncertain. Furthermore, this analysis shows that rigid targets may entail greater economic risks with little or no comparative advantage for the climate. More ambitious emission objectives, combined with price caps and price floors, could still entail significantly lower expected costs while driving similar, or even slightly better, climatic outcomes in probabilistic terms.

Suggested Citation

  • Cédric Philibert, 2009. "Assessing the value of price caps and floors," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(6), pages 612-633, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:tcpoxx:v:9:y:2009:i:6:p:612-633
    DOI: 10.3763/cpol.2008.0586
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.3763/cpol.2008.0586
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.3763/cpol.2008.0586?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. Fell, Harrison & MacKenzie, Ian A. & Pizer, William A., 2012. "Prices versus quantities versus bankable quantities," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 607-623.
    2. Burtraw, Dallas & Palmer, Karen & Kahn, Danny, 2010. "A symmetric safety valve," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(9), pages 4921-4932, September.
    3. Pizer, William, 2003. "Climate Change Catastrophes," RFF Working Paper Series dp-03-31, Resources for the Future.
    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. Fankhauser, Samuel & Hepburn, Cameron, 2010. "Designing carbon markets. Part I: Carbon markets in time," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 4363-4370, August.
    2. Samuel Fankhauser & Cameron Hepburn & Jisung Park, 2010. "Combining Multiple Climate Policy Instruments: How Not To Do It," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 1(03), pages 209-225.
    3. Frank Jotzo, 2013. "Emissions Trading in China: Principles, Design Options and Lessons from International Practice," CCEP Working Papers 1303, Centre for Climate & Energy Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    4. Brauneis, Alexander & Mestel, Roland & Palan, Stefan, 2013. "Inducing low-carbon investment in the electric power industry through a price floor for emissions trading," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 190-204.
    5. Wood, Peter John & Jotzo, Frank, 2011. "Price floors for emissions trading," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1746-1753, March.
    6. Richstein, Jörn C. & Chappin, Émile J.L. & de Vries, Laurens J., 2015. "The market (in-)stability reserve for EU carbon emission trading: Why it might fail and how to improve it," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-18.
    7. Mohammad Marufuzzaman & Sandra Duni Ekşioğlu & Rafael Hernandez, 2014. "Environmentally Friendly Supply Chain Planning and Design for Biodiesel Production via Wastewater Sludge," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(4), pages 555-574, November.
    8. Nicholas Howarth, 2011. "Clean Energy Technology and the Role of Non-Carbon Price-Based Policy: An Evolutionary Economics Perspective," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(5), pages 871-891, October.
    9. Higgins, Paul A.T., 2013. "Frameworks for pricing greenhouse gas emissions and the policy objectives they promote," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1301-1308.
    10. Richstein, Jörn C. & Chappin, Émile J.L. & de Vries, Laurens J., 2015. "Adjusting the CO2 cap to subsidised RES generation: Can CO2 prices be decoupled from renewable policy?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 693-702.
    11. Claudia Kettner & Angela Köppl & Stefan Schleicher, 2012. "Carbon Authority as Price Stabilising Institution in the EU ETS," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 44536, February.
    12. Dongmei Guo & Yi Hu & Bingjie Zhang, 2014. "Carbon Market Regulation Mechanism Research Based on Carbon Accumulation Model with Jump Diffusion," Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society, Hindawi, vol. 2014, pages 1-7, May.
    13. Stocking, Andrew, 2012. "Unintended consequences of price controls: An application to allowance markets," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 120-136.
    14. Abrell, Jan & Rausch, Sebastian, 2017. "Combining price and quantity controls under partitioned environmental regulation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 226-242.
    15. Schmidt, Tobias S. & Schneider, Malte & Hoffmann, Volker H., 2012. "Decarbonising the power sector via technological change – differing contributions from heterogeneous firms," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 466-479.
    16. Tim Laing & Misato Sato & Michael Grubb & Claudia Comberti, 2013. "Assessing the effectiveness of the EU Emissions Trading System," GRI Working Papers 106, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    17. Claudia Kettner & Daniela Kletzan-Slamanig & Angela Köppl & Thomas Schinko & Andreas Türk, 2011. "ETCLIP – The Challenge of the European Carbon Market: Emission Trading, Carbon Leakage and Instruments to Stabilise the CO2 Price. Price Volatility in Carbon Markets: Why it Matters and How it Can be ," WIFO Working Papers 409, WIFO.

    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. Martin Zapf & Hermann Pengg & Christian Weindl, 2019. "How to Comply with the Paris Agreement Temperature Goal: Global Carbon Pricing According to Carbon Budgets," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-20, August.
    2. Hasegawa, Makoto & Salant, Stephen, 2014. "Cap-and-trade programs under delayed compliance: Consequences of interim injections of permits," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 24-34.
    3. Tang, Bao-Jun & Wang, Xiang-Yu & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2019. "Quantities versus prices for best social welfare in carbon reduction: A literature review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233, pages 554-564.
    4. Joseph E. Aldy & Alan J. Krupnick & Richard G. Newell & Ian W. H. Parry & William A. Pizer, 2010. "Designing Climate Mitigation Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(4), pages 903-934, December.
    5. Burtraw, Dallas & Holt, Charles & Palmer, Karen & Shobe, William M., 2020. "Quantities with Prices: Price-Responsive Allowance Supply in Environmental Markets," RFF Working Paper Series 20-17, Resources for the Future.
    6. Harrison Fell & Richard Morgenstern, 2010. "Alternative Approaches to Cost Containment in a Cap-and-Trade System," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 47(2), pages 275-297, October.
    7. Frans P. Vries & Nick Hanley, 2016. "Incentive-Based Policy Design for Pollution Control and Biodiversity Conservation: A Review," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(4), pages 687-702, April.
    8. Andrew Yates, 2012. "On a Fundamental Advantage of Permits Over Taxes for the Control of Pollution," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 51(4), pages 583-598, April.
    9. Webster, Mort & Sue Wing, Ian & Jakobovits, Lisa, 2010. "Second-best instruments for near-term climate policy: Intensity targets vs. the safety valve," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 250-259, May.
    10. William A. Pizer & Brian C. Prest, 2020. "Prices versus Quantities with Policy Updating," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 7(3), pages 483-518.
    11. Lehmann, Paul, 2010. "Combining emissions trading and emissions taxes in a multi-objective world," UFZ Discussion Papers 4/2010, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    12. Barbara Schlomann & Wolfgang Eichhammer, 2014. "Interaction between Climate, Emissions Trading and Energy Efficiency Targets," Energy & Environment, , vol. 25(3-4), pages 709-731, April.
    13. David M. Newbery & David M. Reiner & Robert A. Ritz, 2018. "When is a carbon price floor desirable?," Working Papers EPRG 1816, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    14. Wen, Wen & Zhou, P. & Zhang, Fuqiang, 2018. "Carbon emissions abatement: Emissions trading vs consumer awareness," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 34-47.
    15. Hintermayer, Martin, 2020. "A Carbon Price Floor in the Reformed EU ETS: Design matters!," EWI Working Papers 2020-3, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    16. Wood, Peter John & Jotzo, Frank, 2011. "Price floors for emissions trading," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1746-1753, March.
    17. Hintermayer, Martin, 2020. "A carbon price floor in the reformed EU ETS: Design matters!," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    18. Richard G. Newell & William A. Pizer & Daniel Raimi, 2014. "Carbon Markets: Past, Present, and Future," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 191-215, October.
    19. Adrian Amelung, 2016. "Das "Paris-Agreement": Durchbruch der Top-Down-Klimaschutzverhandlungen im Kreise der Vereinten Nationen," Otto-Wolff-Institut Discussion Paper Series 03/2016, Otto-Wolff-Institut für Wirtschaftsordnung, Köln, Deutschland.
    20. Botor, Benjamin & Böcker, Benjamin & Kallabis, Thomas & Weber, Christoph, 2021. "Information shocks and profitability risks for power plant investments – impacts of policy instruments," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:taf:tcpoxx:v:9:y:2009:i:6:p:612-633. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/tcpo20 .

    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.