UN approval of greenhouse gas emission reduction projects in developing countries: The political economy of the CDM Executive Board

The approval of methodologies and individual projects in the context of the Kyoto Protocols Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is often an issue of national interest. Decisions of the CDM Executive Board (EB) can thus be expected to be highly politicized. Based on data for about 250 methodologies and about 1000 projects discussed by the EB so far, this paper provides a first econometric analysis of this hypothesis. The results suggest that indeed, along with formal quality criteria, political-economic variables determine the final EB decision. This is most clearly the case for decisions on CDM projects which are far less transparent than those on CDM methodologies. In particular, EB membership of the country or countries concerned raises the chances of a project to be approved. Moreover, clearly, with rising numbers of methodologies and projects, EB decision making has become stricter over time. --International climate policy,CDM,political economy,rational choice,international organization

The power of active choice : field experimental evidence on repeated contribution decisions to a carbon offsetting program

We study the effect of a subtle change in the choice architecture on offsetting behavior. In a large-scale field experiment, we examine repeated voluntary contributions to a carbon offsetting program during the online purchase of long-distance bus tickets. In the control group, travelers had the option to offset their carbon emissions resulting from their bus trip, but they could also simply ignore the offer. In the treatment group, travelers were forced to actively choose whether to offset their carbon emissions or not. This “active choice” requirement immediately increased participation in the offsetting program by almost 50%. Investigating returning customers, we find that this treatment remains effective over time. We report evidence that some customers tend to keep avoiding active contribution decisions in subsequent booking decisions

What determines UN approval of greenhouse gas emission reduction projects in developing countries?: An analysis of decision making on the CDM Executive Board

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), established by the Kyoto protocol, can generate substantial rents for project participants via the sale of Certified Emission Reductions. For this reason, supposedly technical decisions about the approval of CDM methodologies and about the registration of projects may be driven by benefits to specific countries or interest groups. Our econometric analysis of data for about 250 methodologies and about 1000 projects discussed by the CDM Executive Board (EB) so far, suggests that indeed, along with formal quality criteria, political-economic variables determine the final EB decisio

The effect of electricity taxation on the German manufacturing sector : a regression discontinuity approach

Germany taxes electricity use since 1999. The government granted reduced rates to energy intensive firms in the industrial sector for addressing potentially adverse effects on firms' competitiveness. Firms that use more electricity than certain thresholds established by legislation, pay reduced marginal tax rates. As a consequence, the marginal tax rate is a deterministic and discontinuous function of electricity use. We identify and estimate the causal effects of these reduced marginal tax rates on the economic performance of firms using a regression discontinuity design. Our econometric analysis relies on official micro-data at the plant and firm level collected by the German Federal Statistical Office that cover the whole manufacturing sector. We do not find any systematic, statistically significant effects of the electricity tax on firms' turnover, exports, value added, investment and employment. The results suggest that eliminating the reduced marginal electricity tax rates could increase revenues for the government without adversely affecting firms' economic performance

Ups and downs : how economic growth affects policy interactions

Current climate and energy policy has to operate under an ex-ante unforeseen economic crisis. An obvious consequence is the collapse of prices for carbon emission allowances as, for example, seen in the European Union. However, this price collapse may be amplified by the interaction of a carbon emission cap and supplementary policy targets such as the minimum shares for renewables in the power sector. The static interaction between climate and renewable policies has been discussed extensively. This paper extends this debate by analysing how uncertain differences in medium to long-run growth rates affect the efficiency and effectiveness of a policy portfolio containing an emission trading scheme and a target for a minimum renewable share. Making use of a simple partial equilibrium model we identify an asymmetric interaction of emissions trading and renewable quotas with respect to different growth rates of an economy. The results imply that unintended consequences of the policy interaction may be particularly severe and costly when economic growth is low and that carbon prices are more sensitive to changes in economic growth if they are applied in combination with renewable energy targets. Our main example for the policy interaction is the EU, yet our research also relates particularly well to the uncertainty of economic growth in fast growing emerging economies like China

Functional Roles of Cercozoa in the Rhizosphere and Phyllosphere of Plants

Protists are a group of highly diverse unicellular eukaryotic organisms. They are globally distributed and inhabit all types of terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Protists represent an enormous functional diversity and occupy various ecological niches as bacterivores, fungivores, algivores, predators, primary producers, saprotrophs or parasites of plants and animals. Among protists, the Cercozoa are one of the most diverse, speciose and ecologically important of all protist phyla. Protists in terrestrial systems often show an association to plants and they are well known predators on plant surfaces. However, a comprehensive understanding about the distribution and functions of plant-associated protists in the rhizosphere (i.e. belowground compartments of plants) and the phyllosphere (i.e. aboveground compartments of plants, mainly leaves) is lacking. Therefore this thesis aims to increase the knowledge on the diversity and functional roles of plant-associated Cercozoa. In the first chapter several cercomonad Cercozoa strains were isolated from the phyllosphere and rhizosphere of plants from three functional groups. Their potential phyllosphere and rhizosphere as well as plant specificity was investigated and revealed that cercomonad communities show a deterministic assembly in the above- and belowground compartments of plants. During the course of this study, three novel cercomonad species were described and ten new cercomonad genotypes reported. This indicates that cercozoan taxa preferentially associated with the phyllosphere exist and that Cercozoa diversity is far from being completely revealed. The second chapter aims at deciphering the feeding preferences of leaf-associated cercomonads and their predation effects on the composition, function and interaction of phyllosphere bacterial communities. Predation-induced shifts in bacterial community composition could be linked to phenotypic protist traits and we showed that leaf associated cercomonads significantly structured bacterial community composition which led to an altered interaction pattern among bacterial taxa. This study further demonstrated that cercomonad predation can have significant impact on the physiological function of bacterial communities. The third chapter of this thesis aimed to reveal the spatial and temporal dynamics between leaf-associated cercomonad Cercozoa and phyllosphere bacteria on leaves. We could prove that leaf-associated cercomonads are active and feeding on bacterial cells on the leaf surface and confirm the activity of protists on plant surfaces is closely connected to moisture on leaves. The last chapter aimed to increase the knowledge on the ecology and function of plant-associated cercozoan testate amoebae. Four different strains of Rhogostoma spp. were isolated from Arabidopsis leaves, agricultural soil and rhizosphere soil of Ocimum basilicum and Nicotiana sp. Detailed morphological description for two novel Rhogostoma species isolated from the phyllosphere and rhizosphere is provided. The potential ingestion of bacteria, algae and fungi was investigated, providing indications on how the Rhogostomidae also prey on other (co isolated) members of the phyllosphere microbiome

Den deutschen Strommarkt an die Wirklichkeit anpassen : Skizze einer neuen Marktordnung

Der deutsche Strommarkt ist im Umbruch. Strom aus erneuerbaren Quellen verdrängt solchen aus konventioneller Erzeugung. Die bestehende Marktordnung fördert zwar effektiv den Ausbau der erneuerbaren Elektrizitätserzeugung, geht aber mit hohen Kosten einher. Zudem entstehen regionale Ungleichgewichte zwischen Elektrizitätserzeugung und -nachfrage. Im Folgenden wird eine neue Marktordnung für den deutschen Strommarkt skizziert, die einen kosteneffizienten Ausbau der Erneuerbaren und die Stabilität der Netze gemeinsam berücksichtigt. Das zentrale Instrument für eine neue Strommarktordnung sind Knappheitspreise. Stromerzeuger müssen Anreize erhalten, ihr Verhalten an die Knappheit von Strom am Markt anzupassen. Dazu müssen die Preise widerspiegeln, wann und wo Elektrizität knapp ist. Die Kombination aus einer Marktprämie zur Förderung der Erneuerbaren und Market Splitting zum Management von Netzengpässen kann dies erreichen

Energy efficiency and industrial output : the case of the iron and steel industry

The iron and steel industry is one of the most carbon emitting and energy consuming sectors in Europe. At the same time this sector is of high economic importance for the European Union. Therefore, while public environmental and energy policies target this sector, there is political concern that it suffers too much from these policy measures. Various actors fear a policy-induced decline in steel production, and possibly an international reallocation of production plants. This study analyzes the role that input prices and public policies may play in attaining an environmentally more sustainable steel production and how this - in turn - affect total steel output. As we find out for examples of major European steel producing countries, a kind of rebound effect of energy-efficiency improvements in steel production on total steel output may arise

Den deutschen Strommarkt an die Wirklichkeit anpassen : Skizze einer neuen Marktordnung

Der deutsche Strommarkt ist im Umbruch. Strom aus erneuerbaren Quellen verdrängt solchen aus konventioneller Erzeugung. Die bestehende Marktordnung fördert zwar effektiv den Ausbau der erneuerbaren Elektrizitätserzeugung, geht aber mit hohen Kosten einher. Zudem entstehen regionale Ungleichgewichte zwischen Elektrizitätserzeugung und -nachfrage. Im Folgenden wird eine neue Marktordnung für den deutschen Strommarkt skizziert, die einen kosteneffizienten Ausbau der Erneuerbaren und die Stabilität der Netze gemeinsam berücksichtigt. Das zentrale Instrument für eine neue Strommarktordnung sind Knappheitspreise. Stromerzeuger müssen Anreize erhalten, ihr Verhalten an die Knappheit von Strom am Markt anzupassen. Dazu müssen die Preise widerspiegeln, wann und wo Elektrizität knapp ist. Die Kombination aus einer Marktprämie zur Förderung der Erneuerbaren und Market Splitting zum Management von Netzengpässen kann dies erreichen

Den Strommarkt an die Wirklichkeit anpassen: Skizze einer neuen Marktordnung

Der deutsche Strommarkt ist im Umbruch. Strom aus erneuerbaren Quellen verdrängt solchen aus konventioneller Erzeugung. Gleichzeitig wird immer mehr Elektrizität im Norden Deutschlands produziert und muss zu den Verbrauchern im Süden transportiert werden. Die bestehende Marktordung fördert zwar effektiv den Ausbau erneuerbarer Elektrizitätserzeugung, geht aber mit hohen Kosten einher. Zudem entstehen regionale Ungleichgewichte zwischen Elektrizitätserzeugung und -nachfrage. Einerseits durch den Ausbau erneuerbarer Stromerzeugung vor allem im Norden, anderseits durch den Rückgang konventioneller Kapazitäten im Süden. Es verwundert nicht, dass momentan zahlreiche Vorschläge zur Reform des Erneuerbaren-Energien- Gesetzes und des Netzausbaus entwickelt und diskutiert werden. Die meisten bestehenden Vorschläge betrachten entweder den Ausbau der Erneuerbaren oder der Netze, gehen aber nicht auf die Interaktion zwischen beiden ein. Wir skizzieren eine neue Marktordung für den deutschen Strommarkt, die einen kosteneffzienten Ausbau der Erneuerbaren und die Stabilität der Netze gemeinsam berücksichtigt. Eine Prämie auf den Börsenstrompreis fördert die Erneuerbaren, während die Aufteilung des deutschen Strommarktes in mehrere Preiszonen hilft, effzient mit regionalen Kapazit äts- und Netzengpässen umzugehen. Durch die gezielte Stärkung von zeit- und regionalspezifschen Preissignalen erwarten wir eine deutliche Kostensenkung, sowohl im Vergleich zum bisherigen System als auch zu Vorschlägen, die den Ausbau der erneuerbaren Energien nicht mit Netzausbau und Rückgang an konventionellen Kapazit äten integrieren