IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fem/femwpa/2007.83.html

Climate Policy and the Optimal Extraction of High- and Low-Carbon Fossil Fuels

Author

Listed:
  • Edwin van der Werf

    (Kiel Institute for the World Economy)

  • Sjak Smulders

    (University of Calgary and Tilburg University)

Abstract

We study how restricting CO2 emissions affects resource prices and depletion over time. We use a Hotelling-style model with two non-renewable fossil fuels that differ in their carbon content (e.g. coal and natural gas) and in addition are imperfect substitutes in final good production. We show that an economy facing a CO2 flow-constraint may substitute towards the relatively dirty input. As the economy tries to maximise output per unit of emissions it is not only carbon content that matters: productivity matters as well. With an announced constraint the economy first substitutes towards the less productive input such that more of the productive input is available when constrained. Preliminary empirical results suggest that it is cost-effective to substitute away from dirty coal to cleaner oil or gas, but to substitute from natural gas towards the dirtier input oil.

Suggested Citation

  • Edwin van der Werf & Sjak Smulders, 2007. "Climate Policy and the Optimal Extraction of High- and Low-Carbon Fossil Fuels," Working Papers 2007.83, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    • Handle: RePEc:fem:femwpa:2007.83
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://feem-media.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/NDL2007-083.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Narita, Daiju, 2010. "Climate policy, technology choice, and multiple equilibria in a developing economy," Kiel Working Papers 1590, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    3. Chakravorty, Ujjayant & Leach, Andrew & Moreaux, Michel, 2012. "Cycles in nonrenewable resource prices with pollution and learning-by-doing," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 1448-1461.
    4. Adrien Vogt-Schilb & Guy Meunier & Hallegatte Stéphane, 2013. "Should marginal abatement costs differ across sectors? The effect of low-carbon capital accumulation," Post-Print hal-00829420, HAL.
    5. Ujjayant Chakravorty & Michel Moreaux & Mabel Tidball, 2008. "Ordering the Extraction of Polluting Nonrenewable Resources," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(3), pages 1128-1144, June.
    6. Michielsen, Thomas O., 2014. "Brown backstops versus the green paradox," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 87-110.
    7. Michielsen, T.O., 2011. "Brown Backstops versus the Green Paradox (Revision of CentER DP 2011-076)," Discussion Paper 2011-110, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    8. Chakravorty, Ujjayant & Magné, Bertrand & Moreaux, Michel, 2008. "A dynamic model of food and clean energy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 1181-1203, April.
    9. Adrien Vogt-Shilb & Guy Meunier & Stephane Hallegate, 2013. "Should marginal abatement costs differ across sectors? The effect of low-carbon capital accumulation," Working Papers hal-02805382, HAL.
    10. Andreas A. Renz & Christoph Weber, 2012. "A Hotelling Model for Fixed-Cost Driven Power Generation," EWL Working Papers 1206, University of Duisburg-Essen, Chair for Management Science and Energy Economics, revised Jan 2013.
    11. Renaud Coulomb & Oskar Lecuyer & Adrien Vogt-Schilb, 2019. "Optimal Transition from Coal to Gas and Renewable Power Under Capacity Constraints and Adjustment Costs," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(2), pages 557-590, June.
    12. Michielsen, T.O., 2011. "Brown Backstops versus the Green Paradox (Revision of CentER DP 2011-076)," Other publications TiSEM 7dc5a955-80bb-4069-bdbf-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    13. Jean-Pierre Amigues & Ujjayant Chakravorty & Michel Moreaux, 2010. "The Effect of Local and Global Pollution Mandates on a Nonrenewable Resource," Working Papers 2010-02, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    14. M. Scott Taylor & Moreno, "undated". "A Spatial Approach to Energy Economics: Theory, Measurement and Empirics," Working Papers 2014-67, Department of Economics, University of Calgary, revised 29 Sep 2014.
    15. Frederick Van Der Ploeg & Cees Withagen, 2014. "Growth, Renewables, And The Optimal Carbon Tax," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 55(1), pages 283-311, February.
    16. Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Chakravorty, Ujjayant & Moreaux, Michel, 2009. "Think Globally, Act Locally? Stock vs Flow Regulation of a Fossil Fuel," TSE Working Papers 09-115, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    17. Di Maria, Corrado & Smulders, Sjak & van der Werf, Edwin, 2012. "Absolute abundance and relative scarcity: Environmental policy with implementation lags," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 104-119.
    18. Hoel, Michael & Jensen, Svenn, 2012. "Cutting costs of catching carbon—Intertemporal effects under imperfect climate policy," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 680-695.
    19. Thomas Michielsen, 2013. "Brown Backstops Versus the Green Paradox," OxCarre Working Papers 108, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
    20. van der Ploeg, Frederick & Withagen, Cees, 2012. "Is there really a green paradox?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 342-363.
    21. Thomas Eichner & Gilbert Kollenbach & Mark Schopf, 2023. "Demand- Versus Supply-Side Climate Policies with a Carbon Dioxide Ceiling," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(652), pages 1371-1406.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q31 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q43 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy and the Macroeconomy

    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:fem:femwpa:2007.83. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Alberto Prina Cerai The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Alberto Prina Cerai to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feemmit.html .

    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.