IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v94y2016icp502-508.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Good things do not always come in threes: On the excess cost of overlapping regulation in EU climate policy

Author

Listed:
  • Böhringer, Christoph
  • Keller, Andreas
  • Bortolamedi, Markus
  • Rahmeier Seyffarth, Anelise

Abstract

Since the mid-1990's the European Union (EU) aims at pushing global climate policy. The objective is to promote international cooperation by the adoption of substantial EU-wide greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and their least-cost implementation. Our quantitative impact assessment of the EU Climate and Energy Package shows that the myriad of instruments used in the EU to curb greenhouse gas emissions is doomed to generate substantial excess cost. We conclude that EU climate and energy policy should better disentangle its choices of objectives, targets, and policy instruments on rigorous economic grounds in order to improve the coherence and overall cost-effectiveness of policy initiatives.

Suggested Citation

  • Böhringer, Christoph & Keller, Andreas & Bortolamedi, Markus & Rahmeier Seyffarth, Anelise, 2016. "Good things do not always come in threes: On the excess cost of overlapping regulation in EU climate policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 502-508.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:94:y:2016:i:c:p:502-508
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2015.12.034
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421515302470
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2015.12.034?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. Krichene, Noureddine, 2002. "World crude oil and natural gas: a demand and supply model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 557-576, November.
    2. Anna Creti & Maria-Eugenia Sanin, 2011. "Price versus quantities in the coordination of international environmental policy," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 126-127, pages 109-130.
    3. Ringlund, Guro Bornes & Rosendahl, Knut Einar & Skjerpen, Terje, 2008. "Does oilrig activity react to oil price changes An empirical investigation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 371-396, March.
    4. Achtnicht, Martin & von Graevenitz, Kathrine & Koesler, Simon & Löschel, Andreas & Schoeman, Beaumont & Tovar Reaños, Miguel Angel, 2015. "Including road transport in the EU-ETS: An alternative for the future?," ZEW Expertises, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, number 111452.
    5. Fischer, Carolyn & Preonas, Louis, 2010. "Combining Policies for Renewable Energy: Is the Whole Less Than the Sum of Its Parts?," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 4(1), pages 51-92, June.
    6. Samuel Fankhauser & Cameron Hepburn & Jisung Park, 2010. "Combining Multiple Climate Policy Instruments: How Not To Do It," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 1(03), pages 209-225.
    7. Boeters, Stefan & Koornneef, Joris, 2011. "Supply of renewable energy sources and the cost of EU climate policy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 1024-1034, September.
    8. Azusa OKAGAWA & Kanemi BAN, 2008. "Estimation of substitution elasticities for CGE models," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 08-16, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    9. Helm, Dieter, 2014. "The European framework for energy and climate policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 29-35.
    10. Christoph Böhringer, 2014. "Two Decades of European Climate Policy: A Critical Appraisal," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, January.
    11. Christoph Böhringer & Knut Rosendahl, 2010. "Green promotes the dirtiest: on the interaction between black and green quotas in energy markets," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 316-325, June.
    12. Christoph Bohringer & Tim Hoffmann & Andreas Lange & Andreas Loschel & Ulf Moslener, 2005. "Assessing Emission Regulation in Europe: An Interactive Simulation Approach," The Energy Journal, , vol. 26(4), pages 1-22, October.
    13. Mandell, Svante, 2008. "Optimal mix of emissions taxes and cap-and-trade," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 131-140, September.
    14. Joseph E. Aldy, 2017. "Policy surveillance in the G-20 fossil fuel subsidies agreement: lessons for climate policy," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 97-110, September.
    15. Böhringer, Christoph & Rutherford, Thomas F. & Tol, Richard S. J., 2009. "The EU 20/20/2020 Targets: An Overview of the EMF22 Assessment," Papers WP325, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    16. Lawrence H. Goulder, 2013. "Markets for Pollution Allowances: What Are the (New) Lessons?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(1), pages 87-102, Winter.
    17. Christoph Böhringer & Thomas F. Rutherford, 2010. "The Costs of Compliance: A CGE Assessment of Canada’s Policy Options under the Kyoto Protocol," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 177-211, February.
    18. Manuel Alejandro Cardenete & Ana-Isabel Guerra & Ferran Sancho, 2017. "Applied General Equilibrium," Springer Texts in Business and Economics, Springer, edition 2, number 978-3-662-54893-6, October.
    19. Frank Convery, 2009. "Origins and Development of the EU ETS," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 43(3), pages 391-412, July.
    20. Lawrence Goulder, 1995. "Environmental taxation and the double dividend: A reader's guide," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 2(2), pages 157-183, August.
    21. repec:cii:cepiei:2011-q2-3-126-127-8 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Flues, Florens & Löschel, Andreas & Lutz, Benjamin Johannes & Schenker, Oliver, 2014. "Designing an EU energy and climate policy portfolio for 2030: Implications of overlapping regulation under different levels of electricity demand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 91-99.
    23. Massimo Tavoni & Elmar Kriegler & Keywan Riahi & Detlef P. van Vuuren & Tino Aboumahboub & Alex Bowen & Katherine Calvin & Emanuele Campiglio & Tom Kober & Jessica Jewell & Gunnar Luderer & Giacomo Ma, 2015. "Post-2020 climate agreements in the major economies assessed in the light of global models," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(2), pages 119-126, February.
    24. Graham, Paul & Thorpe, Sally & Hogan, Lindsay, 1999. "Non-competitive market behaviour in the international coking coal market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 195-212, June.
    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. Ettore Bompard & Daniele Grosso & Tao Huang & Francesco Profumo & Xianzhang Lei & Duo Li, 2018. "World Decarbonization through Global Electricity Interconnections," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-29, July.
    2. Marc Vielle, 2020. "Navigating various flexibility mechanisms under European burden-sharing," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 22(2), pages 267-313, April.
    3. Sun, Wen & Hao, Xinyu & Zhang, Xiaoling, 2024. "Climate policy interactions: Capturing game signals in carbon markets," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    4. Antimiani, Alessandro & Costantini, Valeria & Paglialunga, Elena, 2023. "Fossil fuels subsidy removal and the EU carbon neutrality policy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    5. Julien Lefevre, 2018. "Modeling the Socioeconomic Impacts of the Adoption of a Carbon Pricing Instrument – Literature review," CIRED Working Papers hal-03128619, HAL.
    6. Burmeister, Johannes & Peterson, Sonja, 2016. "National climate policies in times of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS)," Kiel Working Papers 2052, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    7. Filippo Maria D’Arcangelo & Ilai Levin & Alessia Pagani & Mauro Pisu & Åsa Johansson, 2022. "A framework to decarbonise the economy," OECD Economic Policy Papers 31, OECD Publishing.
    8. Corradini, Massimiliano & Costantini, Valeria & Markandya, Anil & Paglialunga, Elena & Sforna, Giorgia, 2018. "A dynamic assessment of instrument interaction and timing alternatives in the EU low-carbon policy mix design," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 73-84.
    9. del Río, Pablo, 2017. "Why does the combination of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and a renewable energy target makes economic sense?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 824-834.
    10. Anke, Carl-Philipp & Hobbie, Hannes & Schreiber, Steffi & Möst, Dominik, 2020. "Coal phase-outs and carbon prices: Interactions between EU emission trading and national carbon mitigation policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    11. Juan Ignacio Pe~na & Rosa Rodriguez, 2022. "Are EU Climate and Energy Package 20-20-20 targets achievable and compatible? Evidence from the impact of renewables on electricity prices," Papers 2202.01720, arXiv.org.
    12. Karen Turner & Julia Race & Oluwafisayo Alabi & Antonios Katris & Kim Swales, 2023. "The relationship between a ‘polluter pays’ approach to carbon capture, regional policy and ‘just transition’ employment agendas," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(3), pages 366-378, March.
    13. Massimiliano Corradini & Valeria Costantini & Anil Markandya & Elena Paglialunga & Giorgia Sforna, 2018. "Some reflections on policy mix in the EU low-carbon strategy," Departmental Working Papers of Economics - University 'Roma Tre' 0236, Department of Economics - University Roma Tre.
    14. He, Yong & Jiang, Ruipeng & Liao, Nuo, 2023. "How to promote the Chinese Certified Emission Reduction scheme in the carbon market? A study based on tripartite evolutionary game model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 285(C).
    15. 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.
    16. Peña, Juan Ignacio & Rodríguez, Rosa, 2019. "Are EU's Climate and Energy Package 20-20-20 targets achievable and compatible? Evidence from the impact of renewables on electricity prices," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 477-486.
    17. Mulder, Machiel & Zeng, Yuyu, 2018. "Exploring interaction effects of climate policies: A model analysis of the power market," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 165-185.
    18. Wang, Ge & Zhang, Qi & Su, Bin & Shen, Bo & Li, Yan & Li, Zhengjun, 2021. "Coordination of tradable carbon emission permits market and renewable electricity certificates market in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    19. Howell, Shaun & Rezgui, Yacine & Hippolyte, Jean-Laurent & Jayan, Bejay & Li, Haijiang, 2017. "Towards the next generation of smart grids: Semantic and holonic multi-agent management of distributed energy resources," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 193-214.
    20. Zeng, Yingying, 2017. "Indirect double regulation and the carbon ETSs linking: The case of coal-fired generation in the EU and China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 268-280.
    21. Paul Lehmann & Jos Sijm & Erik Gawel & Sebastian Strunz & Unnada Chewpreecha & Jean-Francois Mercure & Hector Pollitt, 2019. "Addressing multiple externalities from electricity generation: a case for EU renewable energy policy beyond 2020?," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 21(2), pages 255-283, April.
    22. Wenhui Zhao & Xiongjiantao Bao & Guanghui Yuan & Xiaomei Wang & Hongbo Bao, 2019. "The Equilibrium Model for the Coexistence of Renewable Portfolio Standards and Emissions Trading: The Supply Chain Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-29, January.
    23. Bao, Xiongjiantao & Zhao, Wenhui & Wang, Xiaomei & Tan, Zhongfu, 2019. "Impact of policy mix concerning renewable portfolio standards and emissions trading on electricity market," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 761-774.
    24. Nagel, Niels Oliver & Böhringer, Christoph & Rosendahl, Knut Einar & Bolkesjø, Torjus Folsland, 2023. "Impacts of green deal policies on the Nordic power market," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(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. Böhringer, Christoph & Lange, Andreas & Rutherford, Thomas F., 2014. "Optimal emission pricing in the presence of international spillovers: Decomposing leakage and terms-of-trade motives," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 101-111.
    2. Böhringer, Christoph & Rutherford, Thomas F., 2013. "Transition towards a low carbon economy: A computable general equilibrium analysis for Poland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 16-26.
    3. Böhringer, Christoph & Bortolamedi, Markus, 2015. "Sense and no(n)-sense of energy security indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 359-371.
    4. Böhringer, Christoph & Garcia-Muros, Xaquin & Gonzalez-Eguino, Mikel & Rey, Luis, 2017. "US climate policy: A critical assessment of intensity standards," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(S1), pages 125-135.
    5. Grischa Perino, 2015. "Climate Campaigns, Cap and Trade, and Carbon Leakage: Why Trying to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Can Harm the Climate," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(3), pages 469-495.
    6. Böhringer, Christoph & Rivers, Nicholas & Yonezawa, Hidemichi, 2016. "Vertical fiscal externalities and the environment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 51-74.
    7. Bye, Brita & Fæhn, Taran & Rosnes, Orvika, 2018. "Residential energy efficiency policies: Costs, emissions and rebound effects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 191-201.
    8. Paul Lehmann & Jos Sijm & Erik Gawel & Sebastian Strunz & Unnada Chewpreecha & Jean-Francois Mercure & Hector Pollitt, 2019. "Addressing multiple externalities from electricity generation: a case for EU renewable energy policy beyond 2020?," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 21(2), pages 255-283, April.
    9. Böhringer, Christoph & Fischer, Carolyn & Rosendahl, Knut Einar, 2014. "Cost-effective unilateral climate policy design: Size matters," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 318-339.
    10. Lecuyer, Oskar & Quirion, Philippe, 2013. "Can uncertainty justify overlapping policy instruments to mitigate emissions?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 177-191.
    11. Christoph Böhringer, Xaquin Garcia-Muros, and Mikel González-Eguino, 2019. "Greener and Fairer: A Progressive Environmental Tax Reform for Spain," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    12. Christoph Bohringer & Knut Einar Rosendahl & Jan Schneider, 2014. "Unilateral Climate Policy: Can OPEC Resolve the Leakage Problem?," The Energy Journal, , vol. 35(4), pages 79-100, October.
    13. Böhringer, Christoph & Rivers, Nicholas, 2021. "The energy efficiency rebound effect in general equilibrium," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    14. Peña, Juan Ignacio & Rodríguez, Rosa, 2019. "Are EU's Climate and Energy Package 20-20-20 targets achievable and compatible? Evidence from the impact of renewables on electricity prices," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 477-486.
    15. Corradini, Massimiliano & Costantini, Valeria & Markandya, Anil & Paglialunga, Elena & Sforna, Giorgia, 2018. "A dynamic assessment of instrument interaction and timing alternatives in the EU low-carbon policy mix design," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 73-84.
    16. Boeters, Stefan & Bollen, Johannes, 2012. "Fossil fuel supply, leakage and the effectiveness of border measures in climate policy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(S2), pages 181-189.
    17. Böhringer, Christoph & Dijkstra, Bouwe & Rosendahl, Knut Einar, 2014. "Sectoral and regional expansion of emissions trading," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 201-225.
    18. Jarke, Johannes & Perino, Grischa, 2017. "Do renewable energy policies reduce carbon emissions? On caps and inter-industry leakage," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 102-124.
    19. Böhringer, Christoph & Keller, Andreas & van der Werf, Edwin, 2013. "Are green hopes too rosy? Employment and welfare impacts of renewable energy promotion," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 277-285.
    20. del Río, Pablo, 2017. "Why does the combination of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and a renewable energy target makes economic sense?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 824-834.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    D61; H23; D58; Climate policy; Overlapping regulation; Computable general equilibrium;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • D58 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Computable and Other Applied General Equilibrium Models

    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:eee:enepol:v:94:y:2016:i:c:p:502-508. 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.