Economic Modelling of Climate Change and Energy Policies

Abstract

Energy and environmental policies are typically addressed by different departments of government, and by different Directorates General in the case of the European Commission. The result is that policy frameworks, models and values develop in parallel and this in turn can result in diverging policy recommendations, and actions that are often not mutually consistent. An important integrative force in the European Union (EU) has been the creation of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme which links the planets scarcity of assimilative capacity for greenhouse gas emissions directly to the market that shapes decisions by producers and consumers of energy. It is necessary that the intellectual community be untrammelled by such territorial institutional or political considerations, and look at the choices and issues holistically with the focus on the well being of society as a whole. This book is an important contribution in this regard as it sets the stage, addresses the role and potential of emissions trading, and then focuses on more speculative arenas of policy and practice. As such it provides both policy practitioners and the intellectual community with plenty of substance to be informed by, and to argue about.