IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ris/ewikln/2020_003.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Carbon Price Floor in the Reformed EU ETS: Design matters!

Author

Listed:

Abstract

Despite the reform of the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), discussions about complementing it with a carbon price floor (CPF) are ongoing. This paper analyzes the effect of a European CPF in the reformed EU ETS using a Hotelling model of the EU ETS, amended by the market stability reserve (MSR), and the cancellation mechanism. Two CPF designs are compared: (1) a buyback program and (2) a top-up tax. The buyback program sets a minimum price for the allowances from the implementation year onwards. After the announcement, firms anticipate the CPF, which immediately increases the carbon price to the discounted CPF level. Therefore, firms emit less and bank more allowances, leading to more intake into the MSR, and more cancellation of allowances. The top-up tax imposes a tax on emissions, which enhances the market price of allowances to the CPF level from the implementation year onwards. Firms increase their short-run emissions in anticipation of the upcoming tax. Only after the implementation year firms start to lower their emissions. Thus, the effect on aggregate cancellation is ambiguous. Despite being equivalent in a static setting, the design choice for the CPF matters in a dynamic context, such as the EU ETS.

Suggested Citation

  • Hintermayer, Martin, 2020. "A Carbon Price Floor in the Reformed EU ETS: Design matters!," EWI Working Papers 2020-3, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:ewikln:2020_003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ewi.uni-koeln.de/cms/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/EWI_WP_20-03_A_Carbon_Price_Floor_in_the_Reformed_EU_ETS_Hintermayer.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Egli, Philipp & Lecuyer, Oskar, 2017. "Quantifying the net cost of a carbon price floor in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 685-693.
    2. Bocklet, Johanna & Hintermayer, Martin, 2020. "How does the EU ETS reform impact allowance prices? The role of myopia, hedging requirements and the Hotelling rule," EWI Working Papers 2020-1, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    3. Abrell, Jan & Rausch, Sebastian, 2017. "Combining price and quantity controls under partitioned environmental regulation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 226-242.
    4. Burtraw, Dallas & Palmer, Karen & Kahn, Danny, 2010. "A symmetric safety valve," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(9), pages 4921-4932, September.
    5. Grischa Perino, 2018. "New EU ETS Phase 4 rules temporarily puncture waterbed," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(4), pages 262-264, April.
    6. Simon Quemin, 2020. "Using Supply-Side Policies to Raise Ambition: The Case of the EU ETS and the 2021 Review," Working Papers 2002, Chaire Economie du climat.
    7. Wood, Peter John & Jotzo, Frank, 2011. "Price floors for emissions trading," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1746-1753, March.
    8. Grischa Perino & Robert A. Ritz & Arthur van Benthem, 2019. "Overlapping Climate Policies," NBER Working Papers 25643, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Grischa Perino & Robert Ritz & Arthur van Benthem, 2019. "Understanding overlapping policies: Internal carbon leakage and the punctured waterbed," Working Papers EPRG1910, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    10. Hans-Werner Sinn, 2008. "Public policies against global warming: a supply side approach," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 15(4), pages 360-394, August.
    11. David M. Newbery & David M. Reiner & Robert A. Ritz, 2019. "The Political Economy of a Carbon Price Floor for Power Generation," The Energy Journal, , vol. 40(1), pages 1-24, January.
    12. Quemin, Simon & Trotignon, Raphaël, 2021. "Emissions trading with rolling horizons," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    13. Julien Chevallier, 2012. "Banking And Borrowing In The Eu Ets: A Review Of Economic Modelling, Current Provisions And Prospects For Future Design," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 157-176, February.
    14. Bocklet, Johanna & Hintermayer, Martin & Schmidt, Lukas & Wildgrube, Theresa, 2019. "The Reformed EU ETS - Intertemporal Emission Trading with Restricted Banking," EWI Working Papers 2019-4, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    15. Brink, Corjan & Vollebergh, Herman R.J. & van der Werf, Edwin, 2016. "Carbon pricing in the EU: Evaluation of different EU ETS reform options," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 603-617.
    16. Harold Hotelling, 1931. "The Economics of Exhaustible Resources," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(2), pages 137-137.
    17. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4611 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Anne Schopp & William Acworth & Daniel Huppmann & Karsten Neuhoff, 2015. "Modelling a Market Stability Reserve in Carbon Markets," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1483, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    19. Roberts, Marc J. & Spence, Michael, 1976. "Effluent charges and licenses under uncertainty," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(3-4), pages 193-208.
    20. Sabine Fuss & Christian Flachsland & Nicolas Koch & Ulrike Kornek & Brigitte Knopf & Ottmar Edenhofer, 2018. "A Framework for Assessing the Performance of Cap-and-Trade Systems: Insights from the European Union Emissions Trading System," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 12(2), pages 220-241.
    21. Bocklet, Johanna & Hintermayer, Martin & Schmidt, Lukas & Wildgrube, Theresa, 2019. "The reformed EU ETS - Intertemporal emission trading with restricted banking," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    22. Bruninx, Kenneth & Ovaere, Marten & Delarue, Erik, 2020. "The long-term impact of the market stability reserve on the EU emission trading system," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    23. Christian Flachsland & Michael Pahle & Dallas Burtraw & Ottmar Edenhofer & Milan Elkerbout & Carolyn Fischer & Oliver Tietjen & Lars Zetterberg, 2020. "How to avoid history repeating itself: the case for an EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) price floor revisited," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 133-142, January.
    24. Lana Friesen & Lata Gangadharan & Peyman Khezr & Ian A. MacKenzie, 2020. "Mind your Ps and Qs! An Experiment on Variable Allowance Supply in the US Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative," Discussion Papers Series 618, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    25. Carolyn Fischer & Leonie Reins & Dallas Burtraw & David Langlet & Åsa Löfgren & Michael Mehling & Stefan Weishaar & Lars Zetterberg & Harro van Asselt & Kati Kulovesi, 2019. "The Legal and Economic Case for an Auction Reserve Price in the EU Emissions Trading System," CESifo Working Paper Series 7903, CESifo.
    26. Johanna Bocklet & Martin Hintermayer, 2020. "How Does the EU ETS Reform Impact Allowance Prices? The Role of Myopia, Hedging Requirements and the Hotelling Rule," CESifo Working Paper Series 8579, CESifo.
    27. Reyer Gerlagh & Roweno J.R.K. Heijmans & Knut Einar Rosendahl, 2019. "Endogenous Emission Caps Always Induce a Green Paradox," CESifo Working Paper Series 7862, CESifo.
    28. Fell, Harrison, 2016. "Comparing policies to confront permit over-allocation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 53-68.
    29. Rubin, Jonathan D., 1996. "A Model of Intertemporal Emission Trading, Banking, and Borrowing," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 269-286, November.
    30. Perino, Grischa & Willner, Maximilian, 2016. "Procrastinating reform: The impact of the market stability reserve on the EU ETS," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 37-52.
    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. Wu, Qingyang & Wang, Yanying, 2022. "How does carbon emission price stimulate enterprises' total factor productivity? Insights from China's emission trading scheme pilots," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    2. Zhang, Xinhua & Hueng, C. James & Lemke, Robert J., 2023. "Using a price floor on carbon allowances to achieve emission reductions under uncertainty," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1096-1110.
    3. Dai, Xingyu & Xiao, Ling & Wang, Qunwei & Dhesi, Gurjeet, 2021. "Multiscale interplay of higher-order moments between the carbon and energy markets during Phase III of the EU ETS," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    4. Feng, Huchen & Hu, Yu-Jie & Li, Chengjiang & Wang, Honglei, 2023. "Rolling horizon optimisation strategy and initial carbon allowance allocation model to reduce carbon emissions in the power industry: Case of China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    5. Schmidt, Lukas, 2020. "Puncturing the Waterbed or the New Green Paradox? The Effectiveness of Overlapping Policies in the EU ETS under Perfect Foresight and Myopia," EWI Working Papers 2020-7, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    6. Aslan, Aydin & Posch, Peter N., 2022. "Does carbon price volatility affect European stock market sectors? A connectedness network analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    7. Iva Ridjan Skov & Noémi Schneider & Gerald Schweiger & Josef-Peter Schöggl & Alfred Posch, 2021. "Power-to-X in Denmark: An Analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-14, February.
    8. Giacomo Di Foggia & Massimo Beccarello & Ugo Arrigo, 2023. "Assessment of the European Emissions Trading System’s Impact on Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-13, December.
    9. Ohlendorf, Nils & Flachsland, Christian & Nemet, Gregory F. & Steckel, Jan Christoph, 2022. "Carbon price floors and low-carbon investment: A survey of German firms," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    10. Hongyan Zhang & Lin Zhang & Ning Zhang, 2024. "When and Under What Conditions Does an Emission Trading Scheme Become Cost Effective?," The Energy Journal, , vol. 45(2), pages 261-294, March.
    11. Song, Yazhi & Liu, Tiansen & Li, Yin & Zhu, Yue & Ye, Bin, 2022. "Paths and policy adjustments for improving carbon-market liquidity in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    12. Li Meng & Ke Wang & Taoyong Su & He He, 2022. "Carbon Emission Trading and Corporate Financing: Evidence from China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-13, July.
    13. Salant, Stephen & Shobe, William & Uler, Neslihan, 2022. "The effects of “nonbinding” price floors," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    14. Hao, Xinyu & Sun, Wen & Zhang, Xiaoling, 2023. "How does a scarcer allowance remake the carbon market? An evolutionary game analysis from the perspective of stakeholders," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 280(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. Hintermayer, Martin, 2020. "A Carbon Price Floor in the Reformed EU ETS: Design Matters!," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224576, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    2. Hintermayer, Martin, 2020. "A carbon price floor in the reformed EU ETS: Design matters!," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    3. Quemin, Simon & Trotignon, Raphaël, 2021. "Emissions trading with rolling horizons," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    4. Schmidt, Lukas, 2020. "Puncturing the Waterbed or the New Green Paradox? The Effectiveness of Overlapping Policies in the EU ETS under Perfect Foresight and Myopia," EWI Working Papers 2020-7, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    5. Bocklet, Johanna, 2020. "The Reformed EU ETS in Times of Economic Crises: the Case of the COVID-19 Pandemic," EWI Working Papers 2020-10, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    6. Simon Quemin, 2020. "Using Supply-Side Policies to Raise Ambition: The Case of the EU ETS and the 2021 Review," Working Papers 2002, Chaire Economie du climat.
    7. Osorio, Sebastian & Tietjen, Oliver & Pahle, Michael & Pietzcker, Robert C. & Edenhofer, Ottmar, 2021. "Reviewing the Market Stability Reserve in light of more ambitious EU ETS emission targets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    8. Quemin, Simon, 2022. "Raising climate ambition in emissions trading systems: The case of the EU ETS and the 2021 review," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    9. Tietjen, Oliver & Lessmann, Kai & Pahle, Michael, 2021. "Hedging and temporal permit issuances in cap-and-trade programs: The Market Stability Reserve under risk aversion," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    10. Herweg, Fabian, 2020. "Overlapping efforts in the EU Emissions Trading System," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    11. Wildgrube, Theresa, 2022. "Fit for 55? An assessment of the effectiveness of the EU COM's reform proposal for the EU ETS," EWI Working Papers 2022-4, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    12. Estelle Cantillon & Aurélie Slechten, 2023. "Market Design for the Environment," NBER Chapters, in: New Directions in Market Design, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Johanna Bocklet & Martin Hintermayer, 2020. "How Does the EU ETS Reform Impact Allowance Prices? The Role of Myopia, Hedging Requirements and the Hotelling Rule," CESifo Working Paper Series 8579, CESifo.
    14. Bocklet, Johanna & Hintermayer, Martin, 2020. "How does the EU ETS reform impact allowance prices? The role of myopia, hedging requirements and the Hotelling rule," EWI Working Papers 2020-1, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    15. Edenhofer, Ottmar & Flachsland, Christian & Kalkuhl, Matthias & Knopf, Brigitte & Pahle, Michael, 2019. "Optionen für eine CO2-Preisreform," Working Papers 04/2019, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung.
    16. David M. Newbery & David M. Reiner & Robert A. Ritz, 2018. "When is a carbon price floor desirable?," Working Papers EPRG 1816, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    17. Bruninx, Kenneth & Ovaere, Marten & Delarue, Erik, 2020. "The long-term impact of the market stability reserve on the EU emission trading system," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    18. Brink, Corjan & Vollebergh, Herman R.J. & van der Werf, Edwin, 2016. "Carbon pricing in the EU: Evaluation of different EU ETS reform options," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 603-617.
    19. Bocklet, Johanna & Hintermayer, Martin & Schmidt, Lukas & Wildgrube, Theresa, 2019. "The reformed EU ETS - Intertemporal emission trading with restricted banking," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    20. Lintunen, Jussi & Kuusela, Olli-Pekka, 2018. "Business cycles and emission trading with banking," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 397-417.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Intertemporal Emission Trading; Carbon Price Floor; EU ETS;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ris:ewikln:2020_003. 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: Sabine Williams (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ewikode.html .

    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.