The potential cost of regulation of methane and nitrous oxide emissions in U.S. agriculture

Background Most studies on the environmental impacts of agriculture have attempted to measure environmental impacts but have not assessed the ability of the sector to reduce or mitigate such impacts. Only a few studies have examined greenhouse gas emissions from the sector. This paper assesses the ability of states in the U.S. to reduce agricultural emissions of methane and nitrous oxide, two major greenhouse gases (GHGs) with important global warming potential. Methods The analysis evaluates Färe’s PAC (pollution abatement cost) for each state and year, a measure of the potential opportunity costs of subjecting the sector to GHG emissions regulation. We use both hyperbolic and directional distance functions to specify agricultural technology with good and bad outputs. Results and conclusions We find that such regulations might reduce output by an average of about 2%, although the results for individual states vary quite widely.

Marginal Abatement Cost of Carbon Emissions under Different Shared Socioeconomic Pathways

Future emissions scenarios have served as a primary basis for assessing climate change and formulating climate policies. To explore the impact of uncertainty in future emissions scenarios on major outcomes related to climate change, this study examines the marginal abatement cost (MAC) of carbon emissions under the latest Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) subject to the economic optimum and the 1.5 °C temperature increase constraint using the Epstein-Zin (EZ) climate model. Taking the ”Regional Rivalry” (SSP3) scenario narrative under the economic optimum as a representative case, the expected MACs per ton CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions in the years 2015, 2030, 2060, 2100, and 2200 are: $102.08, $84.42, $61.19, $10.71, and $0.12, respectively. In parallel, the associated expected average mitigation rates (AMRs) are 0%, 63%, 66%, 81%, and 96%, respectively. In summary, in a world developing towards regional rivalry (SSP3) or fossil-fueled development (SSP5) with high mitigation pressure, the MAC values have approximately doubled, compared with the sustainability (SSP1) and inequality (SSP4) storylines with low mitigation pressure levels. The SSP2 (Middle of the Road) shows a moderate MAC decreasing trend with moderate mitigation pressure. The results provide a carbon price benchmark for policy makers with different attitudes towards the unknown future and can be used to formulate carbon mitigation strategy to respond to specific climate goals.

Optimal Licensing Strategy of Green Technology With Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

This paper develops a duopoly model to investigate a firm’s green technology licensing strategy with corporate social responsibility (CSR). In our model, licensing is conducted by an inside innovator and the patent holder may take CSR activities under a time-consistent emission tax. The result shows that fixed-fee licensing is always the optimal strategy of the patent holder when there is no CSR. In the CSR case, when the reduction degree of abatement cost coefficient is large, the optimal licensing strategy of the patent holder changes from pure royalty licensing to fixed-fee licensing as the degree of CSR decreases. Furthermore, we find that neither conflict nor consistency always exists between social welfare and firm payoff goals. When the degree of CSR is relatively low, fixed-fee licensing is preferred both by the patent holder and the government. Otherwise, when the degree of CSR is relatively high, the government prefers fixed-fee licensing, while the patent holder prefers royalty licensing. Finally, we analyze the effects of CSR behaviors on environment and social welfare. We show that CSR is beneficial for environment, while it is not always beneficial for social welfare.JEL Classifications: D42; M14; I13

Dominance of the residential sector in Chinese black carbon emissions as identified from downwind atmospheric observations during the COVID-19 pandemic

Emissions of black carbon (BC) particles from anthropogenic and natural sources contribute to climate change and human health impacts. Therefore, they need to be accurately quantified to develop an effective mitigation strategy. Although the spread of the emission flux estimates for China have recently narrowed under the constraints of atmospheric observations, consensus has not been reached regarding the dominant emission sector. Here, we quantified the contribution of the residential sector, as 64% (44–82%) in 2019, using the response of the observed atmospheric concentration in the outflowing air during Feb–Mar 2020, with the prevalence of the COVID-19 pandemic and restricted human activities over China. In detail, the BC emission fluxes, estimated after removing effects from meteorological variability, dropped only slightly (− 18%) during Feb–Mar 2020 from the levels in the previous year for selected air masses of Chinese origin, suggesting the contributions from the transport and industry sectors (36%) were smaller than the rest from the residential sector (64%). Carbon monoxide (CO) behaved differently, with larger emission reductions (− 35%) in the period Feb–Mar 2020, suggesting dominance of non-residential (i.e., transport and industry) sectors, which contributed 70% (48–100%) emission during 2019. The estimated BC/CO emission ratio for these sectors will help to further constrain bottom-up emission inventories. We comprehensively provide a clear scientific evidence supporting mitigation policies targeting reduction in residential BC emissions from China by demonstrating the economic feasibility using marginal abatement cost curves.

Abatement cost for selectivity negative emissions technology in power plant Indonesia with aim/end-use model

The Indonesian government has followed up the Paris Agreement with Law No. 16 of 2016 by setting an ambitious emission reduction target of 29% by 2030, and this figure could even increase to 41% if supported by international assistance. In line with this, mitigation efforts are carried out in the energy sector. Especially in the energy sector, it can have a significant impact when compared to other sectors due to an increase in energy demand, rapid economic growth, and an increase in living standards that will push the rate of emission growth in the energy sector up to 6. 7% per year. The bottom-up AIM/end-use energy model can select the technologies in the energy sector that are optimal in reducing emissions and costs as a long-term strategy in developing national low-carbon technology. This model can use the Marginal Abatement Cost (MAC) approach to evaluate the potential for GHG emission reductions by adding a certain amount of costs for each selected technology in the target year compared to the reference technology in the baseline scenario. In this study, three scenarios were used as mitigation actions, namely CM1, CM2, CM3. The Abatement Cost Curve tools with an assumed optimum tax value of 100 USD/ton CO2eq, in the highest GHG emission reduction potential, are in the CM3 scenario, which has the most significant reduction potential, and the mitigation costs are not much different from other scenarios. For example, PLTU – supercritical, which can reduce a significant GHG of 37.39 Mtoe CO2eq with an emission reduction cost of -23.66 $/Mtoe CO2eq.