Global warming and its economic and social consequences are closely connected with the output of greenhouse gases. With respect to the Kyoto Protocol the European Union is obligated to reduce the emissions of these gases by 8% in the period 2008/2012 compared to 1990. The corresponding reduction goal for Germany is 21%. A variety of measures is arranged for this purpose both on the European and on the national level, for example the European emission trading system for greenhouse gases or the taxation of the energy consumption as well as the introduction of guaranteed feed-in-tariffs for renewable energies. Besides this energy efficiency standards and the promotion of measures for energy conservation play an important role. As the different instruments of energy and climate change policy lead to different abatement costs, it is necessary to analyze the impact and the interaction of this variety of instruments. From there it was examined whether individual instruments neutralize each other, whether the existing policy mix can be optimized and whether certain instruments are redundant.
Surveys on literature, analysis of the energy consumption and the CO2 emissions, calculation of the CO2 abatement costs of the different instruments.
European Commission, European Energy Exchange, Federal Office for Statistics, Federal Ministry of Finance, Working Group Energy Balances, Federal Environment Agency, German Emissions Trading Authority, German Renewable Energy Agency, Association of Transmission System Operators, Association of the German Biofuel Industry.
Cost-efficient climate protection policy is impossible in the presence of the existing variety of instruments which impose quite different costs on the CO2 emissions. A comprehensive emission trading system covering all energy users would be the best instrument for the cost-minimal reduction of the CO2 emissions. Most instruments of German climate change policy as for example the existing feed-in-tariffs for renewable energies or the promotion of cogeneration and bio-fuels are too expensive. With the cost-minimizing emission trading system a higher reduction of CO2 emissions could be reached at the same costs.
Johann Wackerbauer, Jutta Albrecht-Saavedra, Marc Gronwald, Janina Ketterer, Jana Lippelt, Johannes Pfeiffer, Luise Röpke, Markus Zimmer, Bewertung der klimapolitischen Maßnahmen und Instrumente: eine Studie im Auftrag der E.ON AG, ifo Forschungsberichte 51, ifo Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, München, 2011.
RSS