IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cam/camdae/2346.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Supply-Side crediting for accelerated decarbonization: A political economy perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Mehling, M. A.

Abstract

Climate policy ambition lags behind committed decarbonization targets, due in large measure to the unfavorable political economy of climate policies that require a reduction in emissions or increase their cost, such as phase-out mandates or carbon pricing. This paper describes a policy innovation, supply-side crediting, that can improve the political economy of climate action, catalyze innovation, and contribute to the objective of a just transition. By creating a revenue stream for the decommissioning of fossil fuel reserves, supply-side crediting alters the incentive structure and generates political buy-in from key stakeholders in the energy economy. Revenue from supply-side crediting can scale up climate finance and accelerate the commercialization of necessary low-carbon solutions, such as carbon dioxide removal technologies. Through various impact channels, supply-side crediting can help overcome resistance against climate policy ambition and address socioeconomic impacts of the energy transition. Over time, supply-side crediting can thus unlock a virtuous sequence that enables increased viability of demand-side carbon constraints such as carbon pricing.

Suggested Citation

  • Mehling, M. A., 2023. "Supply-Side crediting for accelerated decarbonization: A political economy perspective," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2346, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:cam:camdae:2346
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/publication-cwpe-pdfs/cwpe2346.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leigh Raymond, 2020. "Carbon pricing and economic populism: the case of Ontario," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(9), pages 1127-1140, October.
    2. Shanjun Li & Lang Tong & Jianwei Xing & Yiyi Zhou, 2017. "The Market for Electric Vehicles: Indirect Network Effects and Policy Design," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(1), pages 89-133.
    3. Kyle C. Meng & Ashwin Rode, 2019. "The social cost of lobbying over climate policy," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 9(6), pages 472-476, June.
    4. Vallejo, María Cristina & Burbano, Rafael & Falconí, Fander & Larrea, Carlos, 2015. "Leaving oil underground in Ecuador: The Yasuní-ITT initiative from a multi-criteria perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 175-185.
    5. Frederick van der Ploeg & Armon Rezai, 2020. "Stranded Assets in the Transition to a Carbon-Free Economy," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 12(1), pages 281-298, October.
    6. Irene Monasterolo, 2020. "Climate Change and the Financial System," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 12(1), pages 299-320, October.
    7. Michael Pahle & Dallas Burtraw & Christian Flachsland & Nina Kelsey & Eric Biber & Jonas Meckling & Ottmar Edenhofer & John Zysman, 2018. "Sequencing to ratchet up climate policy stringency," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(10), pages 861-867, October.
    8. Tobias S. Schmidt & Sebastian Sewerin, 2017. "Technology as a driver of climate and energy politics," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 2(6), pages 1-3, June.
    9. Kenneth Gillingham & James H. Stock, 2018. "The Cost of Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(4), pages 53-72, Fall.
    10. Michaël Aklin & Matto Mildenberger, 2020. "Prisoners of the Wrong Dilemma: Why Distributive Conflict, Not Collective Action, Characterizes the Politics of Climate Change," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 20(4), pages 4-27, Autumn.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Michael A. Mehling, 2023. "Supply-side crediting for accelerated decarbonisation: a political economy perspective," Working Papers EPRG2314, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    2. Ergen, Timur & Schmitz, Luuk, 2023. "The sunshine problem: Climate change and managed decline in the European Union," MPIfG Discussion Paper 23/6, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    3. Fries, Steven, 2023. "Sequencing decarbonization policies to manage their macroeconomic impacts," INET Oxford Working Papers 2023-26, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    4. Adam Michael Bauer & Cristian Proistosescu & Gernot Wagner, 2023. "Carbon Dioxide as a Risky Asset," CESifo Working Paper Series 10278, CESifo.
    5. Lackner, Teresa & Fierro, Luca E. & Mellacher, Patrick, 2025. "Opinion dynamics meet agent-based climate economics: An integrated analysis of carbon taxation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    6. Wang, Kunlun & Zheng, Leven J. & Lin, Boqiang, 2024. "Demand-side incentives, competition, and firms’ innovative activities: Evidence from automobile industry in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    7. Stefano Carattini & Garth Heutel & Givi Melkadze, 2023. "Climate Policy, Financial Frictions, and Transition Risk," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 778-794, December.
    8. Pongsak Luangaram & Yuthana Sethapramote & Kannika Thampanishvong & Gazi Salah Uddin, 2024. "Climate Risk and Financial Stability: A Systemic Risk Perspective from Thailand," PIER Discussion Papers 224, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    9. Rafaty, R. & Dolphin, G. & Pretis, F., 2020. "Carbon pricing and the elasticity of CO2 emissions," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 20116, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    10. Sheldon, Tamara L. & Dua, Rubal, 2024. "The dynamic role of subsidies in promoting global electric vehicle sales," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    11. Wu, Xin & Bai, Xiao & Qi, Hanying & Lu, Lanxin & Yang, Mingyuan & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad, 2023. "The impact of climate change on banking systemic risk," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 419-437.
    12. Rao, Amar & Lucey, Brian & Kumar, Satish, 2023. "Climate risk and carbon emissions: Examining their impact on key energy markets through asymmetric spillovers," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    13. Oskar Lindgren & Erik Elwing & Mikael Karlsson & Sverker C. Jagers, 2024. "Public acceptability of climate-motivated rationing," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    14. Yeh, Sonia & Burtraw, Dallas & Sterner, Thomas & Greene, David, 2021. "Tradable performance standards in the transportation sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    15. Chan, Ying Tung & Ji, Qiang & Zhang, Dayong, 2024. "Optimal monetary policy responses to carbon and green bubbles:A two-sector DSGE analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    16. Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline & Mouez Fodha, 2023. "Debt, tax and environmental policy [Dette, taxe et politique environnementale]," Post-Print halshs-04181981, HAL.
    17. Littlejohn, Christina & Proost, Stef, 2022. "What role for electric vehicles in the decarbonization of the car transport sector in Europe?," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    18. Lana Ollier & Florence Metz & Alejandro Nuñez-Jimenez & Leonhard Späth & Johan Lilliestam, 2022. "The European 2030 climate and energy package: do domestic strategy adaptations precede EU policy change?," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 55(1), pages 161-184, March.
    19. Mark Purdon & Julie Witcover & Colin Murphy & Sonya Ziaja & Mark Winfield & Genevieve Giuliano & Charles Séguin & Colleen Kaiser & Jacques Papy & Lewis Fulton, 2021. "Climate and transportation policy sequencing in California and Quebec," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 38(5), pages 596-630, September.
    20. Roy Kouwenberg & Chenglong Zheng, 2023. "A Review of the Global Climate Finance Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-32, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • P18 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Energy; Environment
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cam:camdae:2346. 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: Jake Dyer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/ .

    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.