Between 2002 and 2007, Germany introduced its National Strategy for Sustainable Development and its Integrated Climate Protection Program, which both defined clear energy and climate-related objectives, setting an emissions reduction trajectory of 40% below the 1990 level by 2020. This spurred...

Executive Summary The German government aims to reduce primary energy demand by 80% until 2050 and heating demand by 20% until 2020. Besides the need for additional efforts to achieve these targets, Germany has already implemented a set of policies and programmes to increase investments in...

To assess how capital stocks adapt to energy price changes, it is necessary to account for the impacts on different vintages of capital and to account separately for price-induced and autonomous improvements in the energy efficiency of capital stock. The results of econometric analysis for five...

This paper examines the effects of firm-level innovation in carbon-abatement technologies on optimal cap-and-trade schemes with and without price controls. We characterize optimal cap-and-trade regulation with a price cap and a price floor, and compare it to the special cases of pure taxation...

Um Kosten, Energieimporte und CO2-Emissionen zu reduzieren, ist im Energiekonzept der Bundesregierung vorgesehen, den Wärmebedarf für Gebäude bis 2020 um 20 Prozent und den Primärenergiebedarf bis 2050 um 80 Prozent zu senken. Dazu soll der Anteil der jährlich energetisch sanierten Gebäude...

Integrating large quantities of variable renewable electricity generation remains a political and operational challenge. One of the main obstacles in Europe to installing at least 200 GWs of power from variable renewable sources is how to deal with the insufficient network capacity and the...

Governments willing to commit themselves to maintain carbon prices at or above a certain level face the challenge that their commitments need to be credible both for investors in low-carbon technology and for foreign governments. This article argues that governments can make such commitments by...

The European emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) has an efficient and effective market design that risks being undermined by three interrelated problems: the approach to allocation; the absence of a credible commitment to post-2012 continuation; and concerns about its impact on the international...

To meet its Kyoto requirements, the EU will establish an internal market for carbon dioxide allowances from 2005, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). National governments are to allocate most of these allowances for free. The analysis shows that as a result of the free allocation, the net...