TY  - JOUR
A1  - Franks, Max
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
A1  - Lessmann, Kai
T1  - Optimal pricing for carbon dioxide removal under inter-regional leakage
JF  - Journal of environmental economics and management
N2  - Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) moves atmospheric carbon to geological or land-based sinks. In a first-best setting, the optimal use of CDR is achieved by a removal subsidy that equals the optimal carbon tax and marginal damages. We derive second-best policy rules for CDR subsidies and carbon taxes when no global carbon price exists but a national government implements a unilateral climate policy. We find that the optimal carbon tax differs from an optimal CDR subsidy because of carbon leakage and a balance of resource trade effect. First, the optimal removal subsidy tends to be larger than the carbon tax because of lower supply-side leakage on fossil resource markets. Second, net carbon exporters exacerbate this wedge to increase producer surplus of their carbon resource producers, implying even larger removal subsidies. Third, net carbon importers may set their removal subsidy even below their carbon tax when marginal environmental damages are small, to appropriate producer surplus from carbon exporters.
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2022.102769
SN  - 1096-0449
SN  - 0095-0696
VL  - 117
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Sureth, Michael
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
A1  - Edenhofer, Ottmar
A1  - Rockström, Johan
T1  - A welfare economic approach to planetary boundaries
JF  - Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik
N2  - The crises of both the climate and the biosphere are manifestations of the imbalance between human extractive, and polluting activities and the Earth’s regenerative capacity. Planetary boundaries define limits for biophysical systems and processes that regulate the stability and life support capacity of the Earth system, and thereby also define a safe operating space for humanity on Earth. Budgets associated to planetary boundaries can be understood as global commons: common pool resources that can be utilized within finite limits. Despite the analytical interpretation of planetary boundaries as global commons, the planetary boundaries framework is missing a thorough integration into economic theory. We aim to bridge the gap between welfare economic theory and planetary boundaries as derived in the natural sciences by presenting a unified theory of cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis. Our pragmatic approach aims to overcome shortcomings of the practical applications of CEA and CBA to environmental problems of a planetary scale. To do so, we develop a model framework and explore decision paradigms that give guidance to setting limits on human activities. This conceptual framework is then applied to planetary boundaries. We conclude by using the realized insights to derive a research agenda that builds on the understanding of planetary boundaries as global commons.
KW  - cost-benefit analysis
KW  - cost-effectiveness analysis
KW  - global commons
KW  - planetary boundaries
KW  - precautionary principle
KW  - shadow price
KW  - uncertainty
KW  - welfare economics
Y1  - 2023
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1515/jbnst-2022-0022
SN  - 0021-4027
SN  - 2366-049X
VL  - 243
IS  - 5
SP  - 477
EP  - 542
PB  - De Gruyter Oldenbourg
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Lessmann, Kai
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
T1  - Climate finance intermediation
BT  - interest spread effects in a climate policy model
JF  - Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists
N2  - Interest rates are central determinants of saving and investment decisions. Costly financial intermediation distorts these price signals by creating a spread between deposit and loan rates. This study investigates how bank spreads affect climate policy in its ambition to redirect capital. We identify various channels through which interest spreads affect carbon emissions in a dynamic general equilibrium model. Interest rate spreads increase abatement costs due to the higher relative price for capital-intensive carbon-free energy, but they also tend to reduce emissions due to lower overall economic growth. For the global average interest rate spread of 5.1 percentage points, global warming increases by 0.2°C compared to the frictionless economy. For a given temperature target to be achieved, interest rate spreads necessitate substantially higher carbon taxes. When spreads arise from imperfect competition in the intermediation sector, the associated welfare costs can be reduced by clean energy subsidies or even eliminated by economy-wide investment subsidies.
KW  - financial friction
KW  - banking
KW  - greenhouse gas mitigation
KW  - investment subsidy
Y1  - 2023
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1086/725920
SN  - 2333-5955
SN  - 2333-5963
VL  - 11
IS  - 1
SP  - 213
EP  - 251
PB  - University of Chicago Press
CY  - Chicago, IL
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wenz, Leonie
A1  - Carr, Robert Devon
A1  - Kögel, Noah
A1  - Kotz, Maximilian
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
T1  - DOSE - global data set of reported sub-national economic output
JF  - Scientific data
N2  - Many phenomena of high relevance for economic development such as human capital, geography and climate vary considerably within countries as well as between them. Yet, global data sets of economic output are typically available at the national level only, thereby limiting the accuracy and precision of insights gained through empirical analyses. Recent work has used interpolation and downscaling to yield estimates of sub-national economic output at a global scale, but respective data sets based on official, reported values only are lacking. We here present DOSE — the MCC-PIK Database Of Sub-national Economic Output. DOSE contains harmonised data on reported economic output from 1,661 sub-national regions across 83 countries from 1960 to 2020. To avoid interpolation, values are assembled from numerous statistical agencies, yearbooks and the literature and harmonised for both aggregate and sectoral output. Moreover, we provide temporally- and spatially-consistent data for regional boundaries, enabling matching with geo-spatial data such as climate observations. DOSE provides the opportunity for detailed analyses of economic development at the subnational level, consistent with reported values.
KW  - economics
KW  - environmental health
KW  - geography
Y1  - 2023
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02323-8
SN  - 2052-4463
VL  - 10
IS  - 1
SP  - 1
EP  - 17
PB  - Nature Publishing Group
CY  - London
ER  - 
TY  - RPRT
A1  - Blanz, Alkis
A1  - Eydam, Ulrich
A1  - Heinemann, Maik
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
A1  - Moretti, Nikolaj
T1  - Fiscal Policy and Energy Price Shocks
T2  - CEPA Discussion Papers
N2  - The effects of energy price increases are heterogeneous between households and firms. Financially constrained poorer households, who spend a larger relative share of their income on energy, are particularly affected. In this analysis, we examine the macroeconomic and welfare effects of energy price shocks in the presence of credit-constrained households that have subsistence-level energy demand. Within a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model calibrated for the German economy, we compare the performance of different policy measures (transfers and energy subsidies) and different financing schemes (income tax vs. debt). Our results show that credit-constrained households prefer debt over tax financing regardless of the compensation measure due to their difficulty to smooth consumption. On the contrary, rich households tend to prefer tax-financed measures as they increase the labor supply of poor households. From an aggregate perspective, tax-financed measures targeting firms effectively cushion aggregate output losses.
T3  - CEPA Discussion Papers - 70 
KW  - energy prices
KW  - E-DSGE
KW  - fiscal policy
KW  - welfare
Y1  - 2023
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-612763
SN  - 2628-653X
IS  - 70
ER  - 
TY  - RPRT
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
A1  - Franks, Max
A1  - Gruner, Friedemann
A1  - Lessmann, Kai
A1  - Edenhofer, Ottmar
T1  - Pigou’s Advice and Sisyphus’ Warning
BT  - Carbon Pricing with Non-Permanent Carbon-Dioxide Removal
T2  - CEPA Discussion Papers
N2  - Carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere is becoming an important option to achieve net zero climate targets. This paper develops a welfare and public economics perspective on optimal policies for carbon removal and storage in non-permanent sinks like forests, soil, oceans, wood products or chemical products. We derive a new metric for the valuation of non-permanent carbon storage, the social cost of carbon removal (SCC-R), which embeds also the conventional social cost of carbon emissions. We show that the contribution of CDR is to create new carbon sinks that should be used to reduce transition costs, even if the stored carbon is released to the atmosphere eventually. Importantly, CDR does not raise the ambition of optimal temperature levels unless initial atmospheric carbon stocks are excessively high. For high initial atmospheric carbon stocks, CDR allows to reduce the optimal temperature below initial levels. Finally, we characterize three different policy regimes that ensure an optimal deployment of carbon removal: downstream carbon pricing, upstream carbon pricing, and carbon storage pricing. The policy regimes differ in their informational and institutional requirements regarding monitoring, liability and financing.
T3  - CEPA Discussion Papers - 62 
KW  - Carbon Dioxide Removal
KW  - Carbon Capture
KW  - Social Cost of Carbon
KW  - Climate Policy
KW  - Impermanence
Y1  - 2023
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-575882
SN  - 2628-653X
IS  - 62
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Montrone, Lorenzo
A1  - Steckel, Jan Christoph
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
T1  - The type of power capacity matters for economic development
BT  - evidence from a global panel
JF  - Resource and energy economics
N2  - We examine the relationship between different types of power investments and regional economic dynamics. We construct a novel panel dataset combining data on regional GDP and power capacity additions for different technologies between 1960 and 2015, which covers 65% of the global power capacity that has been installed in this period. We use an event study design to identify the effect of power capacity addition on GDP per capita, exploiting the fact that the exact amount of power capacity coming online each year is determined by random construction delays. We find evidence that GDP per capita increases by 0.2% in the 6 years around the coming online of 100 MW coal-fired power capacity. We find similar effects for hydropower capacity, but not for any other type of power capacity. The positive effects are regionally bounded and stronger for projects on new sites (green-field). The magnitude of this effect might not be comparable to the total external costs of building new coal-fired power capacity, yet our results help to explain why policymakers favor coal investments for spurring regional growth.
KW  - Energy and development
KW  - Economic growth
KW  - Public infrastructure
KW  - Public investments
KW  - Electricity sector
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2022.101313
SN  - 0928-7655
VL  - 69
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Amberg, Maximilian
A1  - aus dem Moore, Nils
A1  - Bekk, Anke
A1  - Bergmann, Tobias
A1  - Edenhofer, Ottmar
A1  - Flachsland, Christian
A1  - George, Jan
A1  - Haywood, Luke
A1  - Heinemann, Maik
A1  - Held, Anne
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
A1  - Kellner, Maximilian
A1  - Koch, Nicolas
A1  - Luderer, Gunnar
A1  - Meyer, Henrika
A1  - Nikodinoska, Dragana
A1  - Pahle, Michael
A1  - Roolfs, Christina
A1  - Schill, Wolf-Peter
T1  - Reformoptionen für ein nachhaltiges Steuer- und Abgabensystem
BT  - wie Lenkungssteuern effektiv und gerecht für den Klima- und Umweltschutz ausgestaltet werden können
JF  - Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik
N2  - Steuern und Abgaben auf Produkte oder Verbrauch mit gesellschaftlichen Folgekosten (externe Kosten) – sogenannte Pigou- oder Lenkungssteuern – sind ein gesellschaftliches „Win-Win-Instrument“. Sie verbessern die Wohlfahrt und schützen gleichzeitig die Umwelt und das Klima. Dies wird erreicht, indem umweltschädigende Aktivitäten einen Preis bekommen, der möglichst exakt der Höhe des Schadens entspricht. Eine konsequente Bepreisung der externen Kosten nach diesem Prinzip könnte in Deutschland erhebliche zusätzliche Einnahmen erbringen: Basierend auf bisherigen Studien zu externen Kosten wären zusätzliche Einnahmen in der Größenordnung von 348 bis 564 Milliarden Euro pro Jahr (44 bis 71 Prozent der gesamten Steuereinnahmen) möglich. Die Autoren warnen allerdings, dass die Bezifferung der externen Kosten mit erheblichen Unsicherheiten verbunden ist. Damit Lenkungssteuern und -abgaben ihre positiven Lenkungs- und Wohlstandseffekte voll entfalten können, seien zudem institutionelle Reformen notwendig.
KW  - Externalitäten
KW  - Pigou-Steuern
KW  - Nachhaltige Steuerreform
KW  - Energiewende
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1515/pwp-2021-0051
SN  - 1465-6493
SN  - 1468-2516
VL  - 23
IS  - 3
SP  - 165
EP  - 199
PB  - De Gruyter
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hänsel, Martin C.
A1  - Franks, Max
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
A1  - Edenhofer, Ottmar
T1  - Optimal carbon taxation and horizontal equity
BT  - a welfare-theoretic approach with application to German household data
JF  - Journal of environmental economics and management
N2  - We develop a model of optimal taxation and redistribution under an ambitious climate target. We take into account vertical income differences, but also explicitly capture horizontal equity concerns by considering heterogeneous energy efficiencies. By deriving first- and second-best rules for policy instruments including carbon and labor taxes, transfers and energy subsidies, we investigate analytically how vertical and horizontal inequality is considered in the welfare maximizing tax structure. We calibrate the model to German household data and a 30 percent emission reduction goal and show that redistribution of carbon tax revenues via household-specific transfers is the first-best policy. Under plausible assumptions on inequality aversion, transfers to energy-intensive households should be about five times higher than transfers to energy-efficient households. Equal per-capita transfers do not require to observe households’ efficiency type, but increase equity-weighted mitigation costs by around 5 percent compared to the first-best. Mitigation costs increase by less, if the government can implement a uniform clean energy subsidy or household-specific tax-subsidy schemes on energy consumption and labor income that target heterogeneous energy efficiencies. Horizontal equity concerns may therefore constitute a new second-best rationale for clean energy policies or differentiated energy taxes.
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2022.102730
SN  - 0095-0696
SN  - 1096-0449
VL  - 116
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - RPRT
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
A1  - Flachsland, Christian
A1  - Knopf, Brigitte
A1  - Amberg, Maximilian
A1  - Bergmann, Tobias
A1  - Kellner, Maximilian
A1  - Stüber, Sophia
A1  - Haywood, Luke
A1  - Roolfs, Christina
A1  - Edenhofer, Ottmar
T1  - Effects of the energy price crisis on households in Germany
BT  - socio-political challenges and policy options
Y1  - 2022
UR  - https://www.mcc-berlin.net/fileadmin/data/C18_MCC_Publications/2022_MCC_Effects_of_the_energy_price_crisis_on_households.pdf
PB  - Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) gGmbH
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gruner, Friedemann
A1  - Fuß, Sabine
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
A1  - Minx, Jan C.
A1  - Strefler, Jessica
A1  - Merfort, Anne
T1  - Wie CO2-Entnahmen helfen können, die Klimaziele zu erreichen
JF  - Klima und Recht
Y1  - 2022
UR  - https://beck-online.beck.de/?typ=reference&y=300&z=KLIMR&b=2022&s=18&n=1
SN  - 2750-0551
VL  - 1
IS  - 1
SP  - 18
EP  - 21
PB  - C.H. Beck
CY  - München
ER  - 
TY  - RPRT
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
A1  - Flachsland, Christian
A1  - Knopf, Brigitte
A1  - Amberg, Maximilian
A1  - Bergmann, Tobias
A1  - Kellner, Maximilian
A1  - Stüber, Sophia
A1  - Haywood, Luke
A1  - Roolfs, Christina
A1  - Edenhofer, Ottmar
T1  - Auswirkungen der Energiepreiskrise auf Haushalte in Deutschland
BT  - sozialpolitische Herausforderungen und Handlungsoptionen
Y1  - 2022
UR  - https://www.mcc-berlin.net/fileadmin/data/C18_MCC_Publications/2022_MCC_Auswirkungen_der_Energiepreiskrise_auf_Haushalte.pdf
PB  - Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) gGmbH
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - RPRT
A1  - Steckel, Jan Christoph
A1  - Missbach, Leonard
A1  - Ohlendorf, Nils
A1  - Feindt, Simon
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
T1  - Effects of the energy price crisis on European households
BT  - socio-political challenges and policy options
Y1  - 2022
UR  - https://www.mcc-berlin.net/fileadmin/data/C18_MCC_Publications/2022_MCC_Effects_of_the_energy_price_crisis_on_European_households.pdf
PB  - Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) gGmbH
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - RPRT
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
A1  - Amberg, Maximilian
A1  - Bergmann, Tobias
A1  - Knopf, Brigitte
A1  - Edenhofer, Ottmar
T1  - Gaspreisdeckel, Mehrwertsteuersenkung, Energiepauschale
BT  - wie kann die Bevölkerung zielgenau und schnell entlastet werden?
Y1  - 2022
UR  - https://www.mcc-berlin.net/fileadmin/data/C18_MCC_Publications/2022_MCC_Gaspreise_und_Entlastungsma%C3%9Fnahmen.pdf
PB  - Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) gGmbH
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - RPRT
A1  - Kellner, Maximilian
A1  - Amberg, Maximilian
A1  - Bergmann, Tobias
A1  - Roolfs, Christina
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
T1  - Entlastungspakete für Energiepreisanstiege
BT  - Auswirkungen und Nachbesserungsbedarf
Y1  - 2022
UR  - https://www.mcc-berlin.net/fileadmin/user_upload/Kalkuhl/2022_MCC_Entlastungspakete_fuer_Energiepreisanstiege_.pdf
U6  - https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6617130
PB  - Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) gGmbH
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Blanz, Alkis
A1  - Eydam, Ulrich
A1  - Heinemann, Maik
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
T1  - Energiepreiskrise und Klimapolitik:
BT  - sind antizyklische CO2-Preise sinnvoll?
JF  - Ifo-Schnelldienst
N2  - Sollte Klimapolitik auf Energiepreisanstiege reagieren und kurzfristig CO2-Preise anpassen, um Haushalte zu entlasten? Alkis Blanz, Ulrich Eydam, Maik Heinemann und Matthias Kalkuhl, Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) und Universität Potsdam, zeigen, dass die Verwendung der Einnahmen aus der CO2-Bepreisung von entscheidender Bedeutung ist. Werden diese weitestgehend durch Steuersenkungen oder Transfers an Haushalte rückverteilt, sollten CO2-Preise nicht an kurzfristige Energiepreisschwankungen angepasst werden. Haushalte profitieren stärker von einer direkten Stabilisierung ihres Einkommens als von der Stabilisierung der Energiepreise. Werden Einnahmen aus der CO2-Bepreisung nicht rückerstattet, sind dagegen antizyklische CO2-Preise wohlfahrtserhöhend.
Y1  - 2022
UR  - https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/sd-2022-05-kalkuhl-etal-antizyklische-co2-preise.pdf
SN  - 0018-974X
SN  - 2199-4455
VL  - 75
IS  - 5
SP  - 34
EP  - 38
PB  - Ifo Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung
CY  - München
ER  - 
TY  - RPRT
A1  - Blanz, Alkis
A1  - Eydam, Ulrich
A1  - Heinemann, Maik
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
T1  - Optimal carbon pricing with fluctuating energy prices — emission targeting vs. price targeting
T2  - CEPA Discussion Papers
N2  - Prices of primary energy commodities display marked fluctuations over time. Market-based climate policy instruments (e.g., emissions pricing) create incentives to reduce energy consumption by increasing the user cost of fossil energy. This raises the question of whether climate policy should respond to fluctuations in fossil energy prices? We study this question within an environmental dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (E-DSGE) model calibrated on the German economy. Our results indicate that the welfare implications of dynamic emissions pricing crucially depend on how the revenues are used. When revenues are fully absorbed, a reduction in emissions prices stabilizes the economy in response to energy price shocks. However, when revenues are at least partially recycled, a stable emissions price improves overall welfare. This result is robust to different modeling assumptions.
T3  - CEPA Discussion Papers - 51 
KW  - energy prices
KW  - E-DSGE
KW  - climate policy
KW  - welfare
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-561049
SN  - 2628-653X
IS  - 51
ER  - 
TY  - RPRT
A1  - Bachelet, Marion
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
A1  - Koch, Nicolas
T1  - What if working from home will stick?
BT  - Distributional and climate impacts for Germany
T2  - CEPA Discussion Papers
N2  - The COVID-19 pandemic created the largest experiment in working from home. We study how persistent telework may change energy and transport consumption and costs in Germany to assess the distributional and environmental implications when working from home will stick. Based on data from the German Microcensus and available classifications of working-from-home feasibility for different occupations, we calculate the change in energy consumption and travel to work when 15% of employees work full time from home. Our findings suggest that telework translates into an annual increase in heating energy expenditure of 110 euros per worker and a decrease in transport expenditure of 840 euros per worker. All income groups would gain from telework but high-income workers gain twice as much as low-income workers. The value of time saving is between 1.3 and 6 times greater than the savings from reduced travel costs and almost 9 times higher for high-income workers than low-income workers. The direct effects on CO₂ emissions due to reduced car commuting amount to 4.5 millions tons of CO₂, representing around 3 percent of carbon emissions in the transport sector.
T3  - CEPA Discussion Papers - 41 
KW  - commuting
KW  - home office
KW  - COVID-19
KW  - energy expenditure
KW  - carbon emissions
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-532384
SN  - 2628-653X
IS  - 41
ER  - 
TY  - RPRT
A1  - Franks, Max
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
A1  - Lessmann, Kai
T1  - Optimal Pricing for Carbon Dioxide Removal Under Inter-Regional Leakage
T2  - CEPA Discussion Papers
N2  - Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) moves atmospheric carbon to geological or land-based sinks. In a first-best setting, the optimal use of CDR is achieved by a removal subsidy that equals the optimal carbon tax and marginal damages. We derive second-best subsidies for CDR when no global carbon price exists but a national government implements a unilateral climate policy. We find that the optimal carbon tax differs from an optimal CDR subsidy because of carbon leakage, terms-of-trade and fossil resource rent dynamics. First, the optimal removal subsidy tends to be larger than the carbon tax because of lower supply-side leakage on fossil resource markets. Second, terms-of-trade effects exacerbate this wedge for net resource exporters, implying even larger removal subsidies. Third, the optimal removal subsidy may fall below the carbon tax for resource-poor countries when marginal environmental damages are small.
T3  - CEPA Discussion Papers - 43 
KW  - carbon pricing
KW  - trade
KW  - unilateral climate policy
KW  - terms-of-trade effects
KW  - removal subsidies
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-538080
SN  - 2628-653X
IS  - 43
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Diluiso, Francesca
A1  - Walk, Paula
A1  - Manych, Niccolo
A1  - Cerutti, Nicola
A1  - Chipiga, Vladislav
A1  - Workman, Annabelle
A1  - Ayas, Ceren
A1  - Cui, Ryna Yiyun
A1  - Cui, Diyang
A1  - Song, Kaihui
A1  - Banisch, Lucy A.
A1  - Moretti, Nikolaj
A1  - Callaghan, Max W.
A1  - Clarke, Leon
A1  - Creutzig, Felix
A1  - Hilaire, Jerome
A1  - Jotzo, Frank
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
A1  - Lamb, William F.
A1  - Löschel, Andreas
A1  - Müller-Hansen, Finn
A1  - Nemet, Gregory F.
A1  - Oei, Pao-Yu
A1  - Sovacool, Benjamin K.
A1  - Steckel, Jan Christoph
A1  - Thomas, Sebastian
A1  - Wiseman, John
A1  - Minx, Jan C.
T1  - Coal transitions - part 1
BT  - a systematic map and review of case study learnings from regional, national, and local coal phase-out experiences
JF  - Environmental research letters
N2  - A rapid coal phase-out is needed to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, but is hindered by serious challenges ranging from vested interests to the risks of social disruption. To understand how to organize a global coal phase-out, it is crucial to go beyond cost-effective climate mitigation scenarios and learn from the experience of previous coal transitions. Despite the relevance of the topic, evidence remains fragmented throughout different research fields, and not easily accessible. To address this gap, this paper provides a systematic map and comprehensive review of the literature on historical coal transitions. We use computer-assisted systematic mapping and review methods to chart and evaluate the available evidence on historical declines in coal production and consumption. We extracted a dataset of 278 case studies from 194 publications, covering coal transitions in 44 countries and ranging from the end of the 19th century until 2021. We find a relatively recent and rapidly expanding body of literature reflecting the growing importance of an early coal phase-out in scientific and political debates. Previous evidence has primarily focused on the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany, while other countries that experienced large coal declines, like those in Eastern Europe, are strongly underrepresented. An increasing number of studies, mostly published in the last 5 years, has been focusing on China. Most of the countries successfully reducing coal dependency have undergone both demand-side and supply-side transitions. This supports the use of policy approaches targeting both demand and supply to achieve a complete coal phase-out. From a political economy perspective, our dataset highlights that most transitions are driven by rising production costs for coal, falling prices for alternative energies, or local environmental concerns, especially regarding air pollution. The main challenges for coal-dependent regions are structural change transformations, in particular for industry and labor. Rising unemployment is the most largely documented outcome in the sample. Policymakers at multiple levels are instrumental in facilitating coal transitions. They rely mainly on regulatory instruments to foster the transitions and compensation schemes or investment plans to deal with their transformative processes. Even though many models suggest that coal phase-outs are among the low-hanging fruits on the way to climate neutrality and meeting the international climate goals, our case studies analysis highlights the intricate political economy at work that needs to be addressed through well-designed and just policies.
KW  - climate change mitigation
KW  - coal transitions
KW  - evidence synthesis
KW  - political economy
KW  - systematic map
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac1b58
SN  - 1748-9326
VL  - 16
IS  - 11
PB  - Institute of Physics Publishing (IOP)
CY  - Bristol
ER  -