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From Primary Resources to Useful Energy: The Pollution Ceiling Efficiency Paradox

Author

Listed:
  • Jean-Pierre Amigues

    (Toulouse School of Economics(INRA, IDEI and LERNA))

  • Michel Moreaux

    (Toulouse School of Economics (IDEI, IUF and LERNA))

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 ones, that is more costly ones. We show that, independently of technical progress, along a perfect foresight equilibrium path which is Pareto optimal, the transformation rate of any exploited resource should increase though out time, excepted within the period during which the carbon constraint is binding, what we call the 'ceiling paradox'.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:fae:wpaper:2016.10
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    File URL: http://faere.fr/pub/WorkingPapers/Amigues_Moreaux_FAERE_WP2016.10.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. 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).
    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, 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).
    4. Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Moreaux, Michel, 2016. "Pollution Abatement v.s. Energy Efficiency Improvements," TSE Working Papers 16-626, 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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