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Converting Primary Resources into Useful Energy: The Pollution Ceiling Efficiency Paradox

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  • Jean-Pierre Amigues
  • Michel Moreaux

Abstract

We study an economy producing energy services from a polluting fossil fuel and a carbon free renewable resource under a constraint on the admissible atmospheric carbon concentration, equivalently under a constraint on the admissible temperature. The transformation rates of natural primary resources energy into useful energy are costly endogenous variables. Choosing higher efficiency rates requires to bring into operation more sophisticated energy transformation devices, that is more costly ones. We show that, independently of technical progress, along an optimal path, the transformation rate of any exploited resource should increase throughout time, excepted within the period during which the carbon constraint is binding, a phenomenon we call the ‘ceiling paradox’. The effects of technical progress in the fossil fuel and the renewable energy sectors are strongly contrasted. JEL Codes: Q00, Q32, Q43, Q54. Keywords: Energy Efficiency, Carbon Pollution, Non-Renewable Resources, Renewable Resources.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:adr:anecst:y:2018:i:132:p:5-32
    DOI: 10.15609/annaeconstat2009.132.0005
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    1. 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).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Energy Efficiency; Carbon Pollution; Non-Renewable Resources; Renewable Resources.;
    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

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