Over the past few years it has become increasingly clear that the physical consequences of climate change and the transition to a carbon-neutral economy are posing risks to companies and must be managed accordingly. At the same time, around half a million sites belonging to companies and other...

Ocean conservation and sustainable use cannot be pursued or achieved without consideration of the planetary impacts of climate change, and particularly the role of the oceans in both mitigation and adaptation. For this reason, the international community has increasingly committed to providing...

Promoting investment in low carbon "clean" sectors has gained popularity over the last years under the heading of sustainable finance, at the same time raising concerns about adverse welfare effects of such policies. We analyze the economic impact of subsidizing investment in "clean" industries...

The top three carbon emitters, the European Union (EU), China, and the United States (US), account for up to 50% of the global total, and actions of them are deterministic for the ambitious target of the Paris Agreement. Towards carbon neutrality, while the EU has been consistently leading and...

The report analyzes, by looking back at existing compliance systems in the EU, Alberta, Australia, Colombia and Japan, the conditions under which offsets can add value to the compliance system without undermining its environmental integrity. The compliance system’s climate ambition as well as...

In November 2018, the European Commission published its Strategic Long-Term Vision entitled “A Clean Planet for all” calling for the target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This proposal was subsequently agreed upon by EU heads of state and government, it features centrally in...

This policy paper commissioned by the German Federal Environment Agency examines the greenhouse gas reduction potential from the measures of the first pillar (GAEC standards and eco-schemes) of the Common European Agricultural Policy 2023-2027. The results are based on a study that will be...

Free riding incentives make it difficult to control climate change. To improve the chances of the Paris Agreement's ambitious goal, many nations are forming scientific networks in carbon capture and storage (CCS). These networks take many forms (bilateral, hub-and-spoke, and multilateral)....

This Policy Brief takes stock of the global and European trade and carbon-emission effects from CBAM. It argues that the current design of the CBAM is not good enough and, ultimately, that there are risks that it will dent the positive effects on global carbon emissions that come from a lower...

The authors discuss a pragmatic approach to sequentially institute carbon border measures on a sectoral basis, beginning with the steel industry. They outline how domestic legal authorities such as Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act could be paired with flexibilities in World Trade...

Cap-and-trade systems have emerged as the preferred national and regional instrument for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases throughout the industrialized world, and the Clean Development Mechanism -- an international emission-reduction-credit system -- has developed a substantial...

This paper demonstrates how three important results in environmental economics, true under mild conditions in closed economies, are false or need serious amendment in a world with international trade in goods. Since the three results we highlight have framed much of the ongoing discussion and...

Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, wider and decisive actions to tackle climate change and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been called for in the international community. Many countries are seeking a sustainable economic recovery plan that reflects climate change and...

Under the Kyoto Protocol, Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is expected to facilitate the North-South knowledge spillovers for climate-friendly technologies. This paper examines the effects of this voluntary international climate cooperation on firm innovation and knowledge spillovers through...

Fears that globalization necessarily hurts the environment are not well-founded. A survey reveals little statistical evidence, on average across countries, that openness to international trade undermines national attempts at environmental regulation through a race to the bottom' effect. If...

The two Koreas’ divergent growth and development paths resulting from political-economic or socioeconomic differences eventually have led to differences in environmental and ecological issues, North and South Korea typifying the problems facing poor and advanced countries respectively. Putting...

The climate crisis is the most important long-term challenge facing policymakers around the world. Addressing it will require deep economic transformations within and across national borders, and a mix of ambition and pragmatism about what nations’ individual political and legal constraints...

In this paper we explore the cross-country implications of climate-related mitigation policies. Specifically, we set up a two-country, two-sector (brown vs green) DSGE model with negative production externalities stemming from carbon-dioxide emissions. We estimate the model using US and euro...

In this paper we explore the cross-country implications of climate-related mitigation policies. Specifically, we set up a two-country, two-sector (brown vs green) DSGE model with negative production externalities stemming from carbon-dioxide emissions. We estimate the model using US and euro...

This paper discusses the environmental externalities that are commonly found in the developing world (the environmental regime) along with the policy responses, if any, commonly used to deal with these. Included are the effects of industrial emissions, air and water quality impacts of untreated...

In the debate about the correct discount rate to use in evaluating policy with regard to climate change, which covers the entire world and extends for centuries, the conditions for deploying benefit-cost analysis are often overlooked. Where (a) income distributional effects of policies are large...

This study critically examines 20 years of geography and political ecology literature on the energy justice implications of climate change mitigation. Grounded in an expert guided literature review of 198 studies and their corresponding 332 case studies, it assesses the linkages between low...

Multilateral cooperation initiatives (or “climate clubs”) can generate some of the additional action that is needed to achieve the goals agreed in the Paris Agreement. An analysis of the state of collaboration in the four policy areas energy transition, synthetic fuels, food systems and...

Over the past 70 years, the number of international environmental agreements (IEAs) has increased substantially, highlighting their prominent role in environmental governance. This paper applies the toolkit of network analysis to identify the network properties of international environmental...

This paper examines leadership in relation to supplying a global public good. Both the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement encourage the developed countries to take a lead in reducing emissions. Does a country benefit from taking a lead? When does leadership improve global welfare? The answer...

This Policy Brief takes stock of the global and European trade and carbon-emission effects from CBAM. It argues that the current design of the CBAM is not good enough and, ultimately, that there are risks that it will dent the positive effects on global carbon emissions that come from a lower...

Published under the auspices of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Clean Electrification, this Insight Report invites policy-makers, regulators and investors to place greater focus on the demand side of the electricity system. It presents the technology, business models and system...