Addressing the Climate Problem: Choice between Allowances, Feed-in Tariffs and Taxes

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Abstract

Instruments chosen to pursue climate related targets are not always efficient. In this paper we consider an economy with three climate related targets for its electricity generation: a given share of “green” electricity, a given expansion of “green” electricity, and a given reduction of “black” (fossil based) electricity. At its disposal the country has three instruments: an allowance system (tradable green certificates), a subsidy system (feed-in tariffs) and a Pigouvian fossil tax. Each of these instruments may be used to attain any of the given targets. Within the setting of the model it is verified that each kind of the target has only a single efficient instrument under certainty, and that there is a deadweight loss of using other instruments to achieve the target. Similarly, there is also an analysis of instrument choice when several targets are to be attained at the same time. The paper also discusses the case of simultaneous targets as well as the relevance
of the various targets.
Original languageEnglish
PublisherMunich Society for the Promotion of Economic Research ‐ CESifo
Number of pages32
Publication statusPublished - 2018
SeriesCESifo Working Papers
Number6926
ISSN2364-1428

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