Efficient CO2 Emissions Control with National Emissions Taxes and International Emissions Trading

In a group of countries like the European Union all countries seek to achieve their national CO2 emissions target by a joint emissions trading scheme covering some part of their economies (trading sector) and by a national emissions tax in the rest of their economies (nontrading sector). Applicable are also emissions taxes overlapping with the trading scheme that can either be freely chosen or are inert. Welfare-maximizing governments determine tax rates and the tradable-permits budget. It is shown that efficiency requires not to levy overlapping emissions taxes and to set the tax rate in the nontrading sector equal to the permit price. In the small-country case emissions control turns out to be efficient if tax rates in the trading sector are flexible. Otherwise it is second-best to violate cost effectiveness and to choose an excessive endowment of tradable permits. If countries are large and optimal tariffs cannot be applied, emissions taxes or subsidies (!) are shown to serve as a perfect surrogate; efficiency cannot be attained unless there is a central authority mandating cost effectiveness and banning overlapping taxes. Fiscal externalities are specified and the countries’ welfare in the large and small country case is compared.emissions taxes, emissions trading, international trade

Bankruptcy Risk and Imperfectly Enforced Emissions Taxes

Under favorable but reasonable conditions, an imperfectly enforced emissions tax produces the efficient allocation of individual emissions control; aggregate emissions are independent of whether enforcement of the tax is sufficient to induce the full compliance of firms, and differences in individual violations are independent of firm-level differences. All of these desirable characteristics disappear when some firms under an emissions tax risk bankruptcy—the allocation of emissions control is inefficient, imperfect enforcement causes higher aggregate emissions, and financially insecure firms choose higher violations.Bankruptcy, Emissions Taxes, Limited Liability

Emissions control for ground power gas turbines

The similarities and differences of emissions reduction technology for aircraft and ground power gas turbines is described. The capability of this technology to reduce ground power emissions to meet existing and proposed emissions standards is presented and discussed. Those areas where the developing aircraft gas turbine technology may have direct application to ground power and those areas where the needed technology may be unique to the ground power mission are pointed out. Emissions reduction technology varying from simple combustor modifications to the use of advanced combustor concepts, such as catalysis, is described and discussed

Self-organized global control of carbon emissions

There is much disagreement concerning how best to control global carbon emissions. We explore quantitatively how different control schemes affect the collective emission dynamics of a population of emitting entities. We uncover a complex trade-off which arises between average emissions (affecting the global climate), peak pollution levels (affecting citizens' everyday health), industrial efficiency (affecting the nation's economy), frequency of institutional intervention (affecting governmental costs), common information (affecting trading behavior) and market volatility (affecting financial stability). Our findings predict that a self-organized free-market approach at the level of a sector, state, country or continent, can provide better control than a top-down regulated scheme in terms of market volatility and monthly pollution peaks.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

21st Century emissions technology - a review

This article reviews the 21st Century Emissions Technology conference held by Institute of Mechanical Engineers (in December 2000) and summarises the latest developments in emissions control

Automotive fuel economy and emissions program

Experimental data were generated to support an assessment of the relationship between automobile fuel economy and emissions control systems. Tests were made at both the engine and vehicle levels. Detailed investigations were made on cold-start emissions devices, exhaust gas recirculation systems, and air injection reactor systems. Based on the results of engine tests, an alternative emission control system and modified control strategy were implemented and tested in the vehicle. With the same fuel economy and NOx emissions as the stock vehicle, the modified vehicle reduced HC and CO emissions by about 20 percent. By removing the NOx emissions constraint, the modified vehicle demonstrated about 12 percent better fuel economy than the stock vehicle

HOW TO TALK TO AN ANGRY CUSTOMER

In the work presented the potential of a pyrometric process control during laser beam soldering will be enhanced. Primarily we have developed a processing head with an integrated up-to-date pyrometric sensor conditioned for the temperature range of soft soldering. Using high speed photography we have analysed the detected secondary emissions during laser beam soldering and correlated the acquired pyrometric signals of process emissions with processes sequencing. Finally we named different strategies and control methods to achieve reliable high quality solder joints implementing a pyrometric process control

Controlling Greenhouse Gas Emissions by means of Tradable Emissions Permits and the Implications for Irish Farmers

The increasing concern over climate change has led to a number of international agreements to control greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture currently accounts for 28 percent of Ireland’s total greenhouse gas emission and therefore has a major role to play in Ireland achieving its emissions targets. To date research into reducing emissions from Irish agriculture has focused on devising abatement strategies at the farm level such as changes in animal feeding practices. Alternatively emissions could be controlled using market-based emissions abatement strategies such as emissions taxes or permit trading, which are in theory a least cost means of cutting emissions. This paper uses data from the Irish National Farm Survey to construct a farm-level Linear Programming model and to simulate a market for tradable emission permits. The impact on average gross margin of allowing farmers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by trading permits is compared with a scenario where emissions are unconstrained and a scenario where a command and control approach is adopted to reduce emissions.Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Farm-level Modeling, Linear Programming, Irish Agriculture, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management,

Evaluation of In-Use Fuel Economy and On-Board Emissions for Hybrid and Regular CyRide Transit Buses, October 2012

The objective of this project was to evaluate the in-use fuel economy and emission differences between hybrid-electric and conventional transit buses for the Ames, Iowa transit authority, CyRide. These CyRide buses were deployed in the fall of 2010. Fuel economy was compared for the hybrid and control buses. Several older bus types were also available and were included in the analysis. Hybrid buses had the highest fuel economy for all time periods for all bus types. Hybrid buses had a fuel economy that was 11.8 percent higher than control buses overall, 12.2 percent higher than buses with model years 2007 and newer, 23.4 percent higher than model years 2004 through 2006, 10.2 percent higher than model years 1998 through 2003, 38.1 percent higher than model years 1994 through 1997, 36.8 percent higher than model years 1991 through 1993, and 36.8 percent higher for model years pre-1991. On-road emissions were also compared for three of the hybrid buses and two control buses using a portable emissions monitor. On-average, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and hybrid carbon emissions were much higher for the control buses than for the hybrid buses. However, on average nitrogen oxide emissions were higher for the hybrid buses

The Pollution Game: A Classroom Exercise Demonstrating the Relative Effectiveness of Emissions Taxes and Tradable Permits

This classroom exercise illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of various regulatory frameworks aimed at internalizing negative externalities from pollution. Specifically, the exercise divides students into three groups—the government regulatory agency and two polluting firms—and allows them to work through a system of uniform command-and-control regulation, a tradable emissions permit framework, and an emissions tax. Students have the opportunity to observe how flexible, market-oriented regulatory frameworks can outperform inflexible command-and-control. More importantly given the ongoing debate about how best to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, students can also observe how the introduction of abatement-cost uncertainty can cause one market-oriented solution to outperform another.classroom experiments, emissions taxes, pollution, tradable emissions permits