IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tse/wpaper/122842.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Energy Conversion Rate Improvements, Pollution Abatement Efforts and Energy Mix: The Transition toward the Green Economy under a Pollution Stock Constraint

Author

Listed:
  • Amigues, Jean-Pierre
  • Moreaux, Michel

Abstract

To prevent climate change, three options are currently considered: improve the energy conversion efficiency of primary energy sources, develop carbon free alternatives to polluting fossil fuels and abate potential emissions before they are released inside the atmosphere. We study the optimal mix and timing of these three mitigation options in a stylized dynamic model. Useful energy can come from two sources: a non-renewable fossil fuel resource and a carbon free renewable resource. The conversion efficiency rate of fossil energy into useful energy is open to choice but higher conversion rates are also more costly. The economy can abate some fraction of its potential emissions and a higher abatement rate incurs higher costs. The society objective is to maintain below some mandated level, or carbon cap, the atmospheric carbon concentration. In the empirically relevant case where the economy is actually constrained by the cap, at least temporarily, we show that the optimal path is a sequence of four regimes: a ’pre-ceiling’ regime before the economy is actually constrained by the cap, a ’ceiling’ regime at the cap, a ’post-ceiling’ regime below the cap and a final regime of exclusive exploitation of renewable resources. If the abatement option has ever to be used, it should be started before the beginning of the ceiling regime, first at an increasing rate and at a decreasing rate once the cap constraint binds. The efficiency performance from any source steadily improves with the exception of a time phase under the ceiling regime when it is constant. Renewables take progressively a larger share of the energy mix but their exploitation may be delayed significantly. Absolute levels of carbon emissions drop down continuously but follow a non monotonic pattern in per useful energy unit relative terms.To prevent climate change, three options are currently considered: improve the energy conversion efficiency of primary energy sources, develop carbon free alternatives to polluting fossil fuels and abate potential emissions before they are released inside the atmosphere. We study the optimal mix and timing of these three mitigation options in a stylized dynamic model. Useful energy can come from two sources: a non-renewable fossil fuel resource and a carbon free renewable resource. The conversion efficiency rate of fossil energy into useful energy is open to choice but higher conversion rates are also more costly. The economy can abate some fraction of its potential emissions and a higher abatement rate incurs higher costs. The society objective is to maintain below some mandated level, or carbon cap, the atmospheric carbon concentration. In the empirically relevant case where the economy is actually constrained by the cap, at least temporarily, we show that the optimal path is a sequence of four regimes: a ’pre-ceiling’ regime before the economy is actually constrained by the cap, a ’ceiling’ regime at the cap, a ’post-ceiling’ regime below the cap and a final regime of exclusive exploitation of renewable resources. If the abatement option has ever to be used, it should be started before the beginning of the ceiling regime, first at an increasing rate and at a decreasing rate once the cap constraint binds. The efficiency performance from any source steadily improves with the exception of a time phase under the ceiling regime when it is constant. Renewables take progressively a larger share of the energy mix but their exploitation may be delayed significantly. Absolute levels of carbon emissions drop down continuously but follow a non monotonic pattern in per useful energy unit relative terms.

Suggested Citation

  • Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Moreaux, Michel, 2019. "Energy Conversion Rate Improvements, Pollution Abatement Efforts and Energy Mix: The Transition toward the Green Economy under a Pollution Stock Constraint," TSE Working Papers 19-994, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
  • Handle: RePEc:tse:wpaper:122842
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.tse-fr.eu/sites/default/files/TSE/documents/doc/wp/2019/wp_tse_994.pdf
    File Function: Full Text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Weitzman, Martin L., 2010. "What Is the "Damages Function" for Global Warming — And What Difference Might It Make?," Scholarly Articles 33373343, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    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. van der Meijden, Gerard & Smulders, Sjak, 2018. "Technological Change During The Energy Transition," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(4), pages 805-836, June.
    4. Stern,Nicholas, 2007. "The Economics of Climate Change," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521700801, October.
    5. Lafforgue, Gilles & Magné, Bertrand & Moreaux, Michel, 2008. "Energy substitutions, climate change and carbon sinks," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(4), pages 589-597, November.
    6. Kenneth Gillingham & Richard G. Newell & Karen Palmer, 2009. "Energy Efficiency Economics and Policy," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 597-620, September.
    7. Daron Acemoglu & Ufuk Akcigit & Douglas Hanley & William Kerr, 2016. "Transition to Clean Technology," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(1), pages 52-104.
    8. Farzin, Y H & Tahvonen, O, 1996. "Global Carbon Cycle and the Optimal Time Path of a Carbon Tax," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 48(4), pages 515-536, October.
    9. Reyer Gerlagh & Bob van der Zwaan, 2006. "Options and Instruments for a Deep Cut in CO2 Emissions: Carbon Dioxide Capture or Renewables, Taxes or Subsidies?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 25-48.
    10. Pierre Lasserre, 1985. "Capacity Choice by Mines," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 18(4), pages 831-842, November.
    11. Moreaux, Michel & Withagen, Cees, 2015. "Optimal abatement of carbon emission flows," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 55-70.
    12. Steve Sorrell, 2014. "Energy Substitution, Technical Change and Rebound Effects," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-24, April.
    13. 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.
    14. Hunt Allcott & Michael Greenstone, 2012. "Is There an Energy Efficiency Gap?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 26(1), pages 3-28, Winter.
    15. Reyer Gerlagh, 2006. "ITC in a Global Growth-Climate Model with CCS: The Value of Induced Technical Change for Climate Stabilization," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Special I), pages 223-240.
    16. Schafer, Andreas, 2005. "Structural change in energy use," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 429-437, March.
    17. Tahvonen, Olli & Withagen, Cees, 1996. "Optimality of irreversible pollution accumulation," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 20(9-10), pages 1775-1795.
    18. Edenhofer, Ottmar & Bauer, Nico & Kriegler, Elmar, 2005. "The impact of technological change on climate protection and welfare: Insights from the model MIND," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2-3), pages 277-292, August.
    19. Farzin, Y. H., 1996. "Optimal pricing of environmental and natural resource use with stock externalities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1-2), pages 31-57, October.
    20. Toman, Michael A. & Withagen, Cees, 2000. "Accumulative pollution, "clean technology," and policy design," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 367-384, October.
    21. Hassler, John & Olovsson, Conny, 2012. "Energy-Saving Technical Change," CEPR Discussion Papers 9177, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    22. Leung, Dennis Y.C. & Caramanna, Giorgio & Maroto-Valer, M. Mercedes, 2014. "An overview of current status of carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 426-443.
    23. Chakravorty, Ujjayant & Magne, Bertrand & Moreaux, Michel, 2006. "A Hotelling model with a ceiling on the stock of pollution," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 30(12), pages 2875-2904, December.
    24. Martin L. Weitzman, 2010. "What Is The "Damages Function" For Global Warming — And What Difference Might It Make?," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 1(01), pages 57-69.
    25. Grimaud, André & Lafforgue, Gilles & Magné, Bertrand, 2011. "Climate change mitigation options and directed technical change: A decentralized equilibrium analysis," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 938-962.
    26. Lafforgue, Gilles & Magné, Bertrand & Moreaux, Michel, 2006. "Optimal Sequestration Policy with a Ceiling on the Stock of Carbon in the Atmosphere," IDEI Working Papers 401, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    27. Geoffrey Heal, 1976. "The Relationship Between Price and Extraction Cost for a Resource with a Backstop Technology," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 7(2), pages 371-378, Autumn.
    28. Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Lafforgue, Gilles & Moreaux, Michel, 2016. "Optimal timing of carbon capture policies under learning-by-doing," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 20-37.
    29. Sjak Smulders & Lucas Bretschger & Hannes Egli, 2011. "Economic Growth and the Diffusion of Clean Technologies: Explaining Environmental Kuznets Curves," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 49(1), pages 79-99, May.
    30. Jean-Pierre Amigues & Michel Moreaux, 2016. "From Primary Resources to Useful Energy: The Pollution Ceiling Efficiency Paradox," Working Papers 2016.10, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    31. Salant, Stephen & Eswaran, Mukesh & Lewis, Tracy, 1983. "The length of optimal extraction programs when depletion affects extraction costs," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 364-374, December.
    32. Manne, Alan & Richels, Richard, 2004. "The impact of learning-by-doing on the timing and costs of CO2 abatement," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 603-619, July.
    33. Charles F. Mason & Neil Wilmot, 2015. "Modeling Damages in Climate Policy Models: Temperature-Based or Carbon-Based?," CESifo Working Paper Series 5287, CESifo.
    34. Withagen, Cees, 1994. "Pollution and exhaustibility of fossil fuels," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 235-242, August.
    35. David Levhari & Nissan Liviatan, 1977. "Notes on Hotelling's Economics of Exhaustible Resources," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 10(2), pages 177-192, May.
    36. Frederick 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, pages 283-311, February.
    37. Mikhail Golosov & John Hassler & Per Krusell & Aleh Tsyvinski, 2014. "Optimal Taxes on Fossil Fuel in General Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(1), pages 41-88, January.
    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. Yuan, Huaxi & Feng, Yidai & Lee, Chien-Chiang & Cen, Yan, 2020. "How does manufacturing agglomeration affect green economic efficiency?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    2. Ma, Li & Long, Hualou & Tu, Shuangshuang & Zhang, Yingnan & Zheng, Yuhan, 2020. "Farmland transition in China and its policy implications," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    3. Yanay Farja & Mariusz Maciejczak, 2021. "Economic Implications of Agricultural Land Conversion to Solar Power Production," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-15, September.
    4. Jiang Du & Mengqin Zhao & Ming Zeng & Kezhen Han & Huaping Sun, 2020. "Spatial Effects of Urban Agglomeration on Energy Efficiency: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-19, April.
    5. Milad Kolagar & Seyed Mohammad Hassan Hosseini & Ramin Felegari & Parviz Fattahi, 2020. "Policy-making for renewable energy sources in search of sustainable development: a hybrid DEA-FBWM approach," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 485-509, December.

    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. Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Moreaux, Michel, 2016. "Pollution Abatement v.s. Energy Efficiency Improvements," TSE Working Papers 16-626, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    2. Jean-Pierre Amigues & Michel Moreaux, 2018. "Converting Primary Resources into Useful Energy: The Pollution Ceiling Efficiency Paradox," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 132, pages 5-32.
    3. Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Moreaux, Michel, 2018. "Competing Land Uses and Fossil Fuel, Optimal Energy Conversion Rates During the Transition Toward a Green Economy Under a Pollution Stock Constraint," TSE Working Papers 18-981, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    4. Jean-Pierre Amigues & Michel Moreaux, 2016. "From Primary Resources to Useful Energy: The Pollution Ceiling Efficiency Paradox," Working Papers 2016.10, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    5. Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Moreaux, Michel, 2016. "The Joint Dynamics of the Energy Mix, Land Uses and Energy Efficiency Rates During the Transition Toward the Green Economy," TSE Working Papers 16-625, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    6. Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Lafforgue, Gilles & Moreaux, Michel, 2016. "Optimal timing of carbon capture policies under learning-by-doing," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 20-37.
    7. Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Lafforgue, Gilles & Moreaux, Michel, 2012. "Optimal Timing of Carbon Capture Policies Under Alternative CCS Cost Functions," TSE Working Papers 12-318, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    8. Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Lafforgue, Gilles & Moreaux, Michel, 2014. "Optimal Timing of Carbon Capture and Storage Policies Under Learning-by-doing," IDEI Working Papers 824, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse, revised May 2014.
    9. Durmaz, Tunç, 2018. "The economics of CCS: Why have CCS technologies not had an international breakthrough?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 328-340.
    10. Casey, Gregory, "undated". "Energy Efficiency and Directed Technical Change: Implications for Climate Change Mitigation," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 259959, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. VARDAR, N. Baris, 2014. "Optimal energy transition and taxation of non-renewable resources," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2014021, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    12. Baldwin, Elizabeth & Cai, Yongyang & Kuralbayeva, Karlygash, 2020. "To build or not to build? Capital stocks and climate policy∗," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    13. Elizabeth Baldwin & Yongyang Cai & Karlygash Kuralbayeva, 2018. "To Build or Not to Build? Capital Stocks and Climate Policy," CESifo Working Paper Series 6884, CESifo.
    14. Grimaud, André & Rouge, Luc, 2014. "Carbon sequestration, economic policies and growth," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 307-331.
    15. Prudence Dato, 2017. "Energy Transition Under Irreversibility: A Two-Sector Approach," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 68(3), pages 797-820, November.
    16. Moreaux, Michel & Withagen, Cees, 2015. "Optimal abatement of carbon emission flows," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 55-70.
    17. Grimaud, André & Lafforgue, Gilles & Magné, Bertrand, 2011. "Climate change mitigation options and directed technical change: A decentralized equilibrium analysis," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 938-962.
    18. Philippe Aghion & Antoine Dechezleprêtre & David Hémous & Ralf Martin & John Van Reenen, 2016. "Carbon Taxes, Path Dependency, and Directed Technical Change: Evidence from the Auto Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(1), pages 1-51.
    19. Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Moreaux, Michel, 2013. "The atmospheric carbon resilience problem: A theoretical analysis," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 618-636.
    20. Armon Rezai & Frederick Van Der Ploeg, 2017. "Abandoning Fossil Fuel: How Fast and How Much," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 85(S2), pages 16-44, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    energy efficiency; ; carbon pollution; non-renewable resources; renewable resources; abatement.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q00 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - General
    • 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
    • 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:tse:wpaper:122842. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/tsetofr.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.