IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v111y2017icp9-17.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Baseline manipulation in voluntary carbon offset programs

Author

Listed:
  • Liu, Xiaoyu
  • Cui, Qingbin

Abstract

Studies of voluntary carbon trading almost exclusively assume the additionality baselines are set by regulators who have either entirely perfect or imperfect information about the costs and emissions of projects. In practice, regulators are often less informed than project proponents; therefore, the baselines are more likely to be privately defined even for sectoral crediting. The primary concern with privately defined baselines is that baseline developers may exert their powers to manipulate the baselines, leading to increases in sectoral emission caps. This study models baseline manipulation behaviors in the context of adverse selection, where participants can self-select into the market. The theoretical results show that the extent to which the baseline is manipulated is highly dependent on who is assigned as the baseline developer. The more the baseline developer emits, the more likely the developer manipulates the baseline. The results are then further discussed in the context of the U.S. commercial building sector, where empirical methods are introduced to characterize cost and revenue functions. The empirical analysis reveals that, because of the notably low price elasticity of the offset supply, baselines are often positively biased even with third-party verifications. If that policymakers wish to allow baselines to be privately defined, they might be advised to implement baseline setting on an invitation-only basis to specific emitters that have relatively lower historical emissions.

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Xiaoyu & Cui, Qingbin, 2017. "Baseline manipulation in voluntary carbon offset programs," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 9-17.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:111:y:2017:i:c:p:9-17
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2017.09.014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421517305761
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.09.014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Malik Arun S., 1993. "Self-Reporting and the Design of Policies for Regulating Stochastic Pollution," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 241-257, May.
    2. Arthur van Benthem & Suzi Kerr, 2010. "Optimizing Voluntary Deforestation Policy in the Face of Adverse Selection and Costly Transfers," Working Papers 10_04, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    3. Juan-Pablo Montero, 1999. "Voluntary Compliance with Market-Based Environmental Policy: Evidence from the U.S. Acid Rain Program," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(5), pages 998-1033, October.
    4. Fischer, Carolyn, 2005. "Project-based mechanisms for emissions reductions: balancing trade-offs with baselines," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(14), pages 1807-1823, September.
    5. Montero, Juan-Pablo, 2000. "Optimal design of a phase-in emissions trading program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 273-291, February.
    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. Liu, Xiaoyu & Cui, Qingbin, 2018. "Value of performance baseline in voluntary carbon trading under uncertainty," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 468-476.
    2. Donnelly, David & Fricaudet, Marie & Ameli, Nadia, 2023. "“Accelerating institutional funding of low-carbon investment: The potential for an investment emissions intensity tax”," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).

    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. Millard-Ball, Adam, 2013. "The trouble with voluntary emissions trading: Uncertainty and adverse selection in sectoral crediting programs☆☆Special thanks to Suzi Kerr, Lawrence Goulder, Michael Wara, Arthur van Benthem, Lee Sch," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 40-55.
    2. Knut Rosendahl & Jon Strand, 2015. "Emissions Trading with Offset Markets and Free Quota Allocations," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 61(2), pages 243-271, June.
    3. van Benthem, Arthur & Kerr, Suzi, 2013. "Scale and transfers in international emissions offset programs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 31-46.
    4. van Benthem, Arthur A. & Kerr, Suzi, 2010. "Optimizing Voluntary Deforestation Policy in the Face of Adverse Selection and Costly Transfers," 2010 Conference, August 26-27, 2010, Nelson, New Zealand 96813, New Zealand Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    5. Antonio Bento & Ravi Kanbur & Benjamin Leard, 2016. "On the importance of baseline setting in carbon offsets markets," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 137(3), pages 625-637, August.
    6. Juan Pablo Montero, 1998. "Optimal Opt-in "Climate" Contracts," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 1, pages 363-384, November.
    7. Suzi Kerr, 2013. "Managing Risks and Tradeoffs Using Water Markets," Working Papers 13_13, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    8. Andrew Manale & Cynthia Morgan & Glenn Sheriff & David Simpson, 2011. "Offset markets for nutrient and sediment discharges in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed: Policy tradeoffs and potential steps forward," NCEE Working Paper Series 201105, National Center for Environmental Economics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, revised Aug 2011.
    9. Carsten Helm & Franz Wirl, 2011. "International Environmental Agreements: Incentive Contracts with Multilateral Externalities," Working Papers V-336-11, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2011.
    10. Horowitz, John K. & Just, Richard E., 2013. "Economics of additionality for environmental services from agriculture," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 105-122.
    11. Springborn, Michael & Yeo, Boon-Ling & Lee, Juhwan & Six, Johan, 2013. "Crediting uncertain ecosystem services in a market," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 554-572.
    12. repec:old:wpaper:336-11 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Suzi Kerr & Adam Millard-Ball, 2012. "Cooperation To Reduce Developing Country Emissions," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(04), pages 1-30.
    14. Heather Klemick, 2012. "What is the Optimal Offsets Discount under a Second-Best Cap & Trade Policy?," NCEE Working Paper Series 201204, National Center for Environmental Economics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, revised Jul 2012.
    15. Bento, Antonio & Ho, Benjamin & Ramirez-Basora, Mario, 2015. "Optimal monitoring and offset prices in voluntary emissions markets," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 202-223.
    16. repec:zbw:hohpro:336-11 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Juan-Pablo Montero, 2004. "Markets for environmental protection: design and performance incomplete enforcement," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 31(1 Year 20), pages 79-99, June.
    18. Strand, Jon, 2011. "Carbon offsets with endogenous environmental policy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 371-378, March.
    19. Armin Schmutzler, 1996. "Pollution control with imperfectly observable emissions," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 7(3), pages 251-262, April.
    20. Motta, Massimo & Polo, Michele, 2003. "Leniency programs and cartel prosecution," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 347-379, March.
    21. Inés Macho-Stadler, 2008. "Environmental regulation: choice of instruments under imperfect compliance," Spanish Economic Review, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 1-21, March.
    22. Chau, Nancy H. & Qin, Yu & Zhang, Weiwen, 2015. "Networked Leaders in the Shadow of the Market – A Chinese Experiment in Allocating Land Conversion Rights," Working Papers 250022, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.

    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:eee:enepol:v:111:y:2017:i:c:p:9-17. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    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.