[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/resene/v35y2013i4p618-636.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The atmospheric carbon resilience problem: A theoretical analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Amigues, Jean-Pierre
  • Moreaux, Michel
Abstract
We study a dynamic carbon pollution model where carbon accumulates both inside a nonrenewable and a renewable reservoir with a constant regeneration rate. Two primary energy sources are available: a cheap exhaustible fossil fuel (coal) and an expensive clean energy alternative (solar). To avoid catastrophic climate events, the global carbon concentration has to remain below some critical mandated ceiling. We show that there exists an upper bound on the coal endowment that can be consumed, which distinguishes two main cases: coal is initially abundant or scarce. If the energy sector has to provide a constant aggregate energy flow to the final users, cost-effectiveness requires that the global ceiling should be attained only when solar energy is introduced. Then the economy stays forever at the ceiling and coal use is progressively replaced by solar energy use. In the abundant coal case, this energy sources substitution process lasts for an infinite duration while in the scarce coal case, coal exploitation ends in finite time. Under a welfare maximization criterion, if coal is abundant, we show that the economy may follow a sequence of phases at the ceiling and below the ceiling before the final transition towards clean energy.

Suggested Citation

  • Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Moreaux, Michel, 2013. "The atmospheric carbon resilience problem: A theoretical analysis," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 618-636.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:resene:v:35:y:2013:i:4:p:618-636
    DOI: 10.1016/j.reseneeco.2013.05.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092876551300047X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2013.05.008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:adr:anecst:y:2011:i:103-104:p:07 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Prieur, Fabien & Tidball, Mabel & Withagen, Cees, 2013. "Optimal emission-extraction policy in a world of scarcity and irreversibility," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 637-658.
    3. Farzin, Y H & Tahvonen, O, 1996. "Global Carbon Cycle and the Optimal Time Path of a Carbon Tax," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 48(4), pages 515-536, October.
    4. Reyer Gerlagh, 2011. "Too Much Oil," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 57(1), pages 79-102, March.
    5. Jean-Pierre Amigues & Michel Moreaux & Katheline Schubert, 2011. "Optimal Use of a Polluting Non-Renewable Resource Generating both Manageable and Catastrophic Damages," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 103-104, pages 107-141.
    6. Chakravorty, Ujjayant & Magne, Bertrand & Moreaux, Michel, 2006. "A Hotelling model with a ceiling on the stock of pollution," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 30(12), pages 2875-2904, December.
    7. Hoel, Michael & Kverndokk, Snorre, 1996. "Depletion of fossil fuels and the impacts of global warming," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 115-136, June.
    8. Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Lafforgue, Gilles & Moreaux, Michel, 2010. "Optimal capture and sequestration from the carbon emission flow and from the atmospheric carbon stock with heterogeneous energy consuming sectors," TSE Working Papers 10-163, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    9. Tahvonen, Olli & Salo, Seppo, 1996. "Nonconvexities in Optimal Pollution Accumulation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 160-177, September.
    10. Ujjayant Chakravorty & Michel Moreaux & Mabel Tidball, 2008. "Ordering the Extraction of Polluting Nonrenewable Resources," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(3), pages 1128-1144, June.
    11. Tahvonen, Olli & Withagen, Cees, 1996. "Optimality of irreversible pollution accumulation," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 20(9-10), pages 1775-1795.
    12. Toman, Michael A. & Withagen, Cees, 2000. "Accumulative pollution, "clean technology," and policy design," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 367-384, October.
    13. Olli Tahvonen, 1997. "Fossil Fuels, Stock Externalities, and Backstop Technology," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 30(4), pages 855-874, November.
    14. Gerlagh, Reyer, 2010. "Too Much Oil," Sustainable Development Papers 59419, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    15. Forster, Bruce A., 1975. "Optimal pollution control with a nonconstant exponential rate of decay," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-6, September.
    16. Withagen, Cees, 1994. "Pollution and exhaustibility of fossil fuels," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 235-242, August.
    17. Ulph, Alistair & Ulph, David, 1994. "The Optimal Time Path of a Carbon Tax," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 46(0), pages 857-868, Supplemen.
    18. Clarke, Harry R. & Reed, William J., 1994. "Consumption/pollution tradeoffs in an environment vulnerable to pollution-related catastrophic collapse," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 991-1010, September.
    19. Cropper, M. L., 1976. "Regulating activities with catastrophic environmental effects," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 1-15, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Moreaux, Michel & Withagen, Cees, 2013. "Climate Change and Carbon Capture and Storage," IDEI Working Papers 774, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    2. Chakravorty, Ujjayant & Leach, Andrew & Moreaux, Michel, 2012. "Cycles in nonrenewable resource prices with pollution and learning-by-doing," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 1448-1461.
    3. Jean-Pierre Amigues & Michel Moreaux, 2018. "Converting primary resources into useful energy: The pollution ceiling efficiency paradox," Post-Print hal-04723714, HAL.
    4. Durmaz, Tunç, 2018. "The economics of CCS: Why have CCS technologies not had an international breakthrough?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 328-340.
    5. Marc Chesney & Pierre Lasserre & Bruno Troja, 2017. "Mitigating global warming: a real options approach," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 255(1), pages 465-506, August.
    6. Prieur, Fabien & Tidball, Mabel & Withagen, Cees, 2013. "Optimal emission-extraction policy in a world of scarcity and irreversibility," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 637-658.
    7. Pauli Lappi & Markku Ollikainen, 2019. "Optimal Environmental Policy for a Mine Under Polluting Waste Rocks and Stock Pollution," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(1), pages 133-158, May.
    8. Moreaux, Michel & Withagen, Cees, 2015. "Optimal abatement of carbon emission flows," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 55-70.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Prieur, Fabien & Tidball, Mabel & Withagen, Cees, 2013. "Optimal emission-extraction policy in a world of scarcity and irreversibility," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 637-658.
    2. Jean-Pierre Amigues & Michel Moreaux, 2018. "Converting primary resources into useful energy: The pollution ceiling efficiency paradox," Post-Print hal-04723714, HAL.
    3. Michael Hoel, 2011. "The Supply Side of CO 2 with Country Heterogeneity," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 113(4), pages 846-865, December.
    4. Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Moreaux, Michel, 2016. "Pollution Abatement v.s. Energy Efficiency Improvements," TSE Working Papers 16-626, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    5. Jean-Pierre Amigues & Michel Moreaux, 2018. "Converting Primary Resources into Useful Energy: The Pollution Ceiling Efficiency Paradox," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 132, pages 5-32.
    6. Prudence Dato, 2017. "Energy Transition Under Irreversibility: A Two-Sector Approach," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 68(3), pages 797-820, November.
    7. Jean-Pierre Amigues & Michel Moreaux, 2016. "From Primary Resources to Useful Energy: The Pollution Ceiling Efficiency Paradox," Working Papers 2016.10, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    8. Moreaux, Michel & Withagen, Cees, 2015. "Optimal abatement of carbon emission flows," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 55-70.
    9. Hoel, Michael, 2013. "Supply Side Climate Policy and the Green Paradox," Memorandum 03/2013, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    10. Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Moreaux, Michel, 2013. "Optimal growth under a climate constraint," IDEI Working Papers 798, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    11. Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Moreaux, Michel, 2016. "The Joint Dynamics of the Energy Mix, Land Uses and Energy Efficiency Rates During the Transition Toward the Green Economy," TSE Working Papers 16-625, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    12. Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Moreaux, Michel, 2012. "Potential Irreversible Catastrophic Shifts of the Assimilative Capacity of the Environment," IDEI Working Papers 697, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    13. Jean-Pierre Amigues & Michel Moreaux & Katheline Schubert, 2011. "Optimal Use of a Polluting Non-Renewable Resource Generating both Manageable and Catastrophic Damages," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 103-104, pages 107-141.
    14. Aznar-Márquez, J. & Ruiz-Tamarit, J.R., 2017. "Sustainable growth and environmental catastrophes," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 83-91.
    15. Hoel, Michael & Jensen, Svenn, 2012. "Cutting costs of catching carbon—Intertemporal effects under imperfect climate policy," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 680-695.
    16. Moreaux, Michel & Withagen, Cees, 2013. "Climate Change and Carbon Capture and Storage," TSE Working Papers 13-393, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    17. Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Moreaux, Michel, 2019. "Energy Conversion Rate Improvements, Pollution Abatement Efforts and Energy Mix: The Transition toward the Green Economy under a Pollution Stock Constraint," TSE Working Papers 19-994, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    18. van der Ploeg, Frederick & Withagen, Cees, 2012. "Too much coal, too little oil," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 62-77.
    19. Kollenbach, Gilbert, 2017. "Unilateral climate Policy and the Green Paradox: Extraction Costs matter," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168245, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    20. Chakravorty, Ujjayant & Magné, Bertrand & Moreaux, Michel, 2008. "A dynamic model of food and clean energy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 1181-1203, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Climate change; Carbon pollution; Carbon reservoirs; Carbon ceiling; Fossil fuels; Clean energy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment
    • Q17 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agriculture in International Trade

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:resene:v:35:y:2013:i:4:p:618-636. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505569 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.