Efficiency and Distributional Impacts of Tradable White Certificates Compared to Taxes, Subsidies and Regulations

Tradable White Certificates (TWC) schemes, also labelled Energy-Efficiency Certificates schemes, were recently implemented in Great Britain, Italy and France. Energy suppliers have to fund a given quantity of energy efficiency measures, or to buy so-called "white certificates" from other suppliers who exceed their target. We develop a partial equilibrium model to compare TWC schemes to other policy instruments for energy efficiency, i.e., energy taxes, subsidies on energy-saving goods and regulations fixing a minimum level of energy-efficiency. The model features an endogenous level of energy service and we analyse the influence of the substitutability between energy and energy-saving goods to produce the energy service, as well as the influence of the elasticity of demand for the energy service. We show that if the level of energy service consumption is fixed, a TWC scheme is as efficient as an energy tax, but that it is much less otherwise because it does not provide the optimal incentive to reduce the consumption of energy service. This inefficiency is worsened if energy suppliers' targets are fixed rather than proportional to the suppliers' current output. On the other hand, compared to taxes, a TWC scheme allows reaching a given level of energy savings with a lower increase in the consumers' energy price, which may ease its implementation.Energy Saving Policies, Energy-Efficiency Certificates, White Certificates, Rebound Effect

On the Road to a Unified Market for Energy Efficiency: The Contribution of White Certificates Schemes

White certificates schemes mandate competing energy companies to promote energy efficiency with flexibility mechanisms, including the trading of energy savings. So far, stylized facts are lacking and outcomes are mainly country-specific. By comparing results of British, Italian and French experiences, we attempt to identify the core determinants of their performances. We show that (i) white certificates schemes are depicted in theoretical works as mandatory subsidies on energy efficiency goods recovered by an end-use energy tax, whereby white certificates exchanges are not a central feature; (ii) at current stages, existing schemes are cost-effective and economically efficient, with large discrepancies though; (iii) the hybrid subsidy-tax mechanism seems valid but conditional to cost pass through permissions; otherwise, obliged energy companies merely promote information on the “downstream” side (i.e. at the consumer level); (iv) although white certificates exchange between different types of actors involved can be important as in Italy, trade among obliged companies is negligible; instead, flexibility sustains vertical relationships between obliged parties and “upstream” partners (i.e. installers, energy service companies). In this respect, we support the view that white certificates schemes are a policy instrument of multi-functional nature (subsidisation, information, technology diffusion), whose static and dynamic efficiency depends upon the consistency between a proper definition of long-term energy savings, the appropriate cost-recovery permission and a fine coordination with other instruments. We finally propose a four stages deployment pattern, along which fragmented markets for energy efficient technologies get closer to create a unified market delivering energy efficiency as a homogeneous good.White Certificates Schemes, Static Efficiency, Dynamic Efficiency, Vertical Organisation, Policy Coordination

Determination of transport properties of fluids by optical methods

In this workshop we will discuss some fundamentals of equilibrium and non-equilibrium thermodynamics, in particular how concentration gradients are formed due to the Soret effect. At first we will pay attention to the analysis of fluctuations at macroscopic thermodynamic equilibrium for the determination of the Fick diffusion coefficient and the thermal diffusivity. Then, starting with the extended diffusion equation, we will derive solutions for the concentration field under common experimental geometries and introduce modern optical techniques for the measurement of the Fick diffusion, thermodiffusion and Soret coefficients

European experiences with white certificate obligations: A critical review of existing evaluations

White certificate obligations impose energy savings targets on energy companies and allow them to trade energy savings certificates. They can be seen as a means of internalizing energy-use externalities and addressing energy efficiency market failures. This paper reviews existing evaluations of experiences with white certificate obligations in Great Britain, Italy and France. Ex ante microeconomic analysis find that the obligation is best modelled as a hybrid subsidy-tax instrument, whereby energy companies subsidize energy efficiency and pass-through the subsidy cost onto energy prices. Ex post static efficiency assessments find largely positive benefit-cost balances, with national differences reflecting heterogeneity in technical potentials. Compliance involved little trading between obligated parties. Whether the cost borne by obligated parties was recovered through increased energy revenue could not be ascertained. Ex post dynamic efficiency assessments find that in addition to addressing liquidity constraints through subsidies, white certificate obligations seem to have addressed informational and organisational market failures. Confidence in these conclusions is limited by the fact that no econometric analysis was performed. Yet the lack of publicly available data, a counterpart to the rationale of the instrument of harnessing private financing, makes any empirical evaluation of white certificate obligations challenging

Double Moral Hazard and the Energy Efficiency Gap

We investigate how moral hazard problems can cause sub-optimal investment in energy efficiency, a phenomenon known as the energy efficiency gap. We focus on contexts where both the seller and the buyer of an energy saving technology can take hidden actions. For instance, a home retrofit contractor may cut on the quality of installation to save costs, while the homeowner may increase her use of energy service when provided with higher energy efficiency. As a result, neither energy efficiency quality nor energy use are fully contractible. We formalize the double moral hazard problem and discuss how it can help rationalize the energy efficiency gap. We then compare two policy instruments: minimum quality standards and energy-savings insurance. Their relative efficiency depends on the balance between the monitoring costs associated with the former and the deadweight loss of the consumer's action induced by the latter. Calibrating the model to the U.S. retrofit industry, we find that at current market conditions, standards tend to outperform insurance. We also find that the welfare gains from undoing the double moral hazard are substantially larger than those from internalizing carbon dioxide externalities associated with underlying energy use

Planification côtière en Afrique de l'Ouest : retour d'expérience en Guinée-Bissau.

National audienceThis contribution reports the context of implementation of a GIS which is intented for coastal planning in Guinea Bissau in the context of the creation of a biosphere reserve. It takes stock of the productions of 10 years of collaboration between research and management of the north and the south. This experiment has become a model in the coastal countries of West Africa.Cet article relate le contexte de la mise en oeuvre d'un SIG à vocation de planification côtière en Guinée-Bissau dans le contexte de création d'une réserve de biosphère. Il fait le bilan des productions et des acquis de 10 ans de collaboration entre des organismes de recherche et de gestion territoriale du nord et du sud. Une expérience qui fait école au sein des pays côtiers d'Afrique de l'Ouest

Slowing-down of non-equilibrium concentration fluctuations in confinement

Fluctuations in a fluid are strongly affected by the presence of a macroscopic gradient making them long-ranged and enhancing their amplitude. While small-scale fluctuations exhibit diffusive lifetimes, larger-scale fluctuations live shorter because of gravity, as theoretically and experimentally well-known. We explore here fluctuations of even larger size, comparable to the extent of the system in the direction of the gradient, and find experimental evidence of a dramatic slowing-down in their dynamics. We recover diffusive behaviour for these strongly-confined fluctuations, but with a diffusion coefficient that depends on the solutal Rayleigh number. Results from dynamic shadowgraph experiments are complemented by theoretical calculations and numerical simulations based on fluctuating hydrodynamics, and excellent agreement is found. The study of the dynamics of non-equilibrium fluctuations allows to probe and measure the competition of physical processes such as diffusion, buoyancy and confinement.Comment: Includes see Supplementary Material. Submitted to PR

Réduction à 1/2 500 000 de la Carte géomorphologique de la France 1/1000 000. Généralisation et utilisation

Réduction à 1/2 500 000 des deux feuilles NW et NE de la Carte géomorphologique de la France à 1/1 000 000 à partir des fichiers de zones lithologiques et de formations superficielles et d'une réduction photographique des formes. Principes d'aménagement de la légende. Perspectives d'utilisation comme carte d'atlas, comme base de données pour d'autres cartes et comme source sélective de documentation