A comparison of taxes and tradable permits in national climate policy

This article discusses domestic climate policy design in a country that has made a binding commitment to the Kyoto Protocol but at the same time want to limit the number of industry shutdowns that follows from the policy. It is furthermore considered how public budget constraints might affect climate policies. The similarities between an optimally-designed taxation regime and a domestic tradable permit regime that is integrated into the international permit market are brought into focus. The similarities presuppose a greenhouse gas tax that fluctuates in accordance with the international permit price. It is argued that climate policy can generate double dividends, but that the allocation of free permits reduces these dividends. It is concluded that some organisations promotion of systems tradable permits, with distribution of permits free of charge, as an alternative to carbon taxes must be understood from their effect on income distribution. The paper is to a large extent based on an article, Holtsmark (1999), written in Norwegian and prepared for presentation at a seminar held by the Norwegian Ministry of Finance in November 1998. I gratefully acknowledge Lynn P. Nygaard's translation to English. Valuable comments on the Norwegian article from Cathrine Hagem, Michael Hoel and Jon Vislie were also appreciated

Deling av arbeid, arbeidsløshet og miljøproblemer - en drøfting av noen kortsiktige og langsiktige sammenhenger

The aim of the project is to discuss the links between technological development, unemployment, work sharing and some environmental issues. The discussion explores whether reduced working hours in general are likely to generate reduced pollution and other environmental benefits. Although several environmental problems are mentioned, the focus is mainly on greenhouse gas emissions. The conclusion is that there might be some environmental gains from reduced working hours in the short term, but this conclusion is not robust. In the discussion of the long-term consequences, the importance of technological development is emphasized. Especially in connection with global warming, for example the technological development within new renewable energy production is of special interest. In the literature on endogenous growth the role of the working force and "learning by doing" are emphasized. A simple model with endogenous technological development is used to illustrate that there is a risk that reduced working hours could make reductions of greenhouse gas emissions more difficult

Insulating Effect of a Snow Cover on the Growth of Young Sea Ice

"The vertical temperature profile through a section of the air-snow-ice system was measured daily off Point Barrow (Alaska) during the late winter and early spring of 1950. Nine thermistors were spaced from 2 m above the snow to a depth of 85 cm in the ice. Four control areas with varying thicknesses of snow cover were used to measure simultaneously the different amounts of ice growth. Snow temperatures at 7 cm varied only 9 C (-7 to -16 C) while the air temperatures varied from -10 to -32 C. The ice growth in the absence of a snow cover was nearly 50 percent greater than under 2 m of snow. Present knowledge is not sufficient to predict ice thickness from snow-cover thickness, but results of earlier studies suggest that a hyperbolic relationship exists."--SIPRE

Great power guarentees or small state cooperation?: atlanticsm and European regionalism in Norwegian foreign policy, 1940-1945

In this study, Sven G. Holtsmark explores the Norwegian foreign policy discussions, and the reorientation of the basic premises of Norway’s security and foreign relations, during the Second World War. Why did the policymakers in London consistently reject all ideas of regional solutions in Europe, propagating either schemes of cooperation with the western great powers or “non-alignment” in the form of Norway as a “bridge” between the East and the West

Between "russophobia" and "bridge-building": The Norwegian Government and the Soviet Union 1940-1945

Strong elements of traditional Scandinavian "russophobia" continued to influence the evolution of Norwegian-Soviet relations during the second world war, even when the Norwegian government gradually redirected its official foreign policy doctrine from strong commitments to North Atlantic military cooperation towards a doctrine of "bridge-building" might be expected to have influenced Norway's relations with the Soviet Union. one of the aims of this study is to give a general presentation of Norwegian-Soviet relations during the war. On this background the study further examines how the redirectioning of Norway's foreign policy line made itself felt in the various fields of Norwegian-Soviet relations. The study tends to emphasize the continued presence of a skeptical attitude towards the Soviet Union in Norwegian government circles. This factor made itself felt when the two countries set out to lay the foundations of war-time cooperation, and also influenced Norwegian long-term foreign policy and security planning

Om den røde hær rykker inn i Norge... Spørsmålet om sovjetisk deltagelse i frigjøringen av Norge 1941-1944

Spørsmålet om sovjetisk deltagelse I frigjøringen av Norge 1941-1944 Hvordan forholdt den norske eksilregjeringen seg til mulighetene for sovjetisk innmarsj i Finnmark under Andre verdenskrig? Sven G. Holtsmark tar for seg den norske eksilregjeringens politikk fra 1941 til 1945, og beskriver hvordan regjeringen arbeidet med spørsmålet om frigjøringen av Finnmark, og da spesielt synet på sovjetisk innblanding