Documents Kletzan-Slamanig, Daniela 5 results

"The integration of climate policy concerns in other policy areas, where decisions are taken that determine greenhouse gas emissions, is a prerequisite for effectively mitigating climate change. There are particularly strong interlinkages between energy policy and climate policy as the major part of greenhouse gas emissions is related to energy supply and use. In this paper we initially compile a set of seven indicators for assessing climate policy integration (political commitment, actors, functional overlap, time perspective, weighting and resources, policy instruments, and emission impact). We then apply the criteria for an appraisal of climate policy integration in EU energy policy during the last decade, i.e., we focus on CPI from a horizontal perspective. The focus of our research lies on strategic energy policy documents, on the one hand, and on the comparison of four key energy policy documents in the context of the 2016 Winter Package to existing legislation, on the other. Our results show that mitigation of climate change is a key objective in all energy policy documents analysed. Furthermore, EU legislative processes ensure a comprehensive involvement of all stakeholders. The energy policy objectives regarding renewable energy and energy efficiency are synergetic and reinforcing with climate policy. It has to be noted, however, that other energy policy documents, like the Energy Security Strategy, contain conflicting issues and the proposed recasts of existing legislation reduce preferential treatment for renewables."

"Economic literature generally favours market-based instruments for regulating environmental externalities since they ensure compliance at the least cost to society. Emission taxes have been increasingly introduced internationally, with the focus shifting to CO2 after the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. In this paper, the theoretical economic literature on energy and emission taxes is reviewed. The focus is on theoretical recommendations regarding the optimal design of environmental and especially carbon taxes, their performance relative to other instruments, the concept of a double dividend as well as potential competitiveness and distribution effects. Carbon taxation can play a key role in climate policy and for achieving long-term emission reductions. This overview of economic considerations may help in creating a sustainable, effective and efficient regulatory system for reducing emissions."

"We assess distributive, macroeconomic, and CO2 emission impacts of CO2 tax schemes in Austria by applying the macroeconomic input-output model DYNK[AUT]. The tax schemes analysed focus primarily on CO2 emissions not covered by the European Emission Trading System (ETS), applying different CO2 tax rates as well as tax compensation schemes. We perform comparative scenario analysis for our model's base year (i.e., short-term impacts). Our model simulations indicate that – without tax compensation – impacts on households can be regressive if measured as tax burden relative to income, and are found to be rather proportional if measured as tax burden relative to expenditure or as changes in total expenditure and income. Lower income households benefit more from tax compensations (lump sum payments), i.e., CO2 taxes with compensation measures for households lead to progressive tax burden impacts. Energy-related CO2 emissions decrease quite substantially in non-ETS sectors, although households react inelastic. Value added in most non-ETS industry and service sectors declines only slightly without tax compensation and commodity import shares are hardly affected. Decreasing employers' social contribution (i.e., lowering labour costs) mitigates negative impacts in most non-ETS industry and service sectors. GDP decreases very moderately without tax recycling, depending on the tax rate. Employment effects are similar but smaller. Tax recycling leads to negligible GDP impacts and increases employment. Our simulations thus suggest that CO2 taxes could be a crucial and socially acceptable element within a comprehensive set of policy instruments in order to contribute to achieving greenhouse-gas emission targets for non-ETS sectors in Austria."

"Both the UN SDGs and the Paris Agreement imply ambitious long-term targets which only can be met with a fundamental restructuring of economic and social systems. We propose a set of energy and climate policy indicators that allows informed policy making and goes beyond the approaches that mainly focus on progress based on the UN indicator set. The sustainable energy indicators cover the whole energy system as well as the three dimensions of sustainability. The approach combines an energy service centred perspective with research on energy and climate indicators and embeds the indicator framework in broader socio-ecologic context. For the four demand-side sectors a set of 118 high-level energy indicators has been assembled that can be further disaggregated to about 387 indicators. For electricity and heat supply a set of 25 energy indicators has been compiled that can be further disaggregated to about 130 indicators differentiating by energy source and plant type. Interactions (i.e., synergies and conflicts) between the different target dimensions and the corresponding indicators need to be carefully considered. Given the complexity of the issue and the lack of adequate indicators and gaps in data availability it is difficult to interpret certain observable trends. This needs to be kept in mind when using the indicator system for policy analysis."

"Two major international frameworks provide landmarks for future development paths: the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement. Monitoring the progress towards achieving the individual goals has to consider a multitude of synergies and trade-offs. In this paper we use composite indices to analyse climate and energy policy in Austria and other selected EU countries. The analysis delivers several results which are also supported by the assessment of climate and energy policies in the case study countries. In general, the improvements regarding energy efficiency, emissions and deployment of renewables have been moderate in the period under observation. This hints at the time needed for restructuring to take place. This underlines the importance of credible political commitment to climate targets, the implementation of ambitious instruments and the need for stability in the guiding frameworks in order to effectuate substantial changes. In addition, the description of the circumstances and policy frameworks in the selected countries shows, that each one is characterised by a very specific energy system (complemented by specific social structures) which determines the challenges that have to be overcome on the way to decarbonisation."