A climate diplomacy proposal: carbon pricing consultations

The Doha climate talks in December 2012, wrapped up lines of negotiation that were begun years before in Bali. Negotiators resolved contentious questions about the future of the Kyoto Protocol and finally put the constraints of the Bali agenda behind them. Now they need turn to developing by 2015 a new agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to cover the post-2020 period. In order to make concrete progress on climate policy there is a need to establish a Carbon Pricing Consultation (CPC) process, which would be a detailed, pragmatic, and ongoing discussion of the implementation details of domestic cap-and-trade and GHG taxes.Though carbon pricing generally been considered to be a national-level policy to be adopted at the discretion of individual governments the paper argues that a CPC process would provide an opportunity for negotiators, as well as the administrators of national pricing policies, to discuss how to induce, practically and efficiently, the broad economic shifts required to de-couple emissions and economic activity. This paper makes the argument for focusing on carbon pricing in the international negotiations and offers a way forward in that process

A Copenhagen Collar: Achieving Comparable Effort Through Carbon Price Agreements

The global financial crisis proves how unforeseen macroeconomic conditions can affect policies aimed at reducing and stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions. It has made voters uneasy about potential climate policy that could raise energy costs and unemployment. To improve the political stability of any policy agreement emerging from this December’s annual meeting on the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen, and to ensure the comparability of commitments and ease the inclusion of developing countries, the authors propose that the UNFCCC supplement emissions targets with a price collar. This paper outlines an example that shows that a price collar can have a negligible expected impact on the outcome that matters most for the climate—increasing emissions.

Climate Change and Real Estate: How Environmental Risks and Policies Impact Markets

Climate change could worsen environmental conditions that affect real estate values, such as extreme weather events and coastal erosion. But policies to prevent climate change can also affect real estate values, for example through higher energy prices and land use regulation. This lecture will examine the linkages between the climate change risks, climate policy, and real estate markets. We will also discuss the likely regional economic effects of recent proposed climate legislation

EPA\u27s Proposed Greenhouse Gas Regulation for Power Plants: How does it Work and what will it mean for Nevada?

In June, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed important new limits on carbon dioxide emissions from existing U.S. power plants. The new regulation is the centerpiece of the Obama Administration’s climate policy. If the controversial rule is finalized as planned next year, it will cover about a third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. This lecture will explain the legal, environmental, and economic issues posed by the rule and highlight the important role for states in implementing it. The lecture will also review the implications and options for achieving the emissions target the EPA set for Nevada

Climate Change Economics 101

Outline of Talk:- Climate change is a market failure- Climate and energy facts- Economically efficient policy design- Economics of Domestic Legislatio

A Climate Diplomacy Proposal : Carbon Pricing Consultations

Climate talks in December 2012 in Doha, Qatar, wrapped up lines of negotiation that were begun years before in Bali. Negotiators resolved contentious questions about the future of the Kyoto Protocol and finally put the constraints of the Bali agenda behind them. Now they will turn to developing by 2015 a new agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to cover the post-2020 period. At the same time, the Major Economics Forum (MEF) needs a new thrust of engagement, having developed the Clean Energy Ministerial into an enduring venue for technology discussions.1 This momentary opening for new agenda items offers an excellent opportunity to expand the dialogue to include technical aspects of the one policy approach that would actually address the climate problem cost effectively: pricing carbon and other greenhouse gases (GHGs)

Do Gasoline Prices Affect Residential Property Values?

This paper estimates the effect of gasoline prices on home values and explores the degree to which the relationship varies across a city. Using data from 930,702 home sales in Clark County, Nevada, from 1976 through 2010, we find that gasoline prices have significantly different effects on the sales price of homes in different neighborhoods. A ten percent increase in gasoline prices is associated with changes in location-specific average home values that span a range of over $13,000. This suggests that energy policies may affect household housing wealth via gasoline prices, a heretofore unrecognized distributional outcome

A Proposal to Integrate Price Mechanisms into International Climate Negotiations

The Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change continue their efforts to forge a new binding international agreement by 2015. This article proposes to adapt international negotiations to allow for hybrid price and quantity-based commitments. The economic risks surrounding target-only commitments—the current approach—are enormous. Combining a clear cumulative emissions target with price-based limits on the cost associated with achieving that target would reduce those risks, ensure that commitments by Parties remain feasible and reduce the chance that the agreement would collapse. Moreover, we argue that adding prices into the agreement offers transparent and verifiable assurance of the comparability of effort across countries. Finally, we also show that it is possible to calculate ‘carbon price equivalents’of quantity-based climate commitments in a conceptually similar way to the tariff equivalents used in international trade negotiations

The U.S. Tax System: Where Do We Go From Here?

This talk will explore how the U.S. tax system really works, where revenue comes from, where spending goes, what a tax expenditure is, and discuss deficit prognoses and how the recent political debates could affect our economy. The speaker will highlight some advantages and disadvantages of different budget balancing options

Could a State-Level Carbon Tax Work in the Intermountain West?

With the U.S. federal government stuck in partisan gridlock, attention increasingly turns to states and localities for innovative climate solutions. This talk will explore the option for Intermountain West states to tax carbon, including how they could establish a tax base, set price signals, and manage revenue. The presentation will pay special attention to the option of “swapping” a carbon tax for revenue sources that more negatively impact economic growth, such as taxes on business activity. This research will explore the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches and consider the issue of the burdens on lower income households and certain industries. In addition, the speaker will discuss how a carbon tax at the state level could impact the case for other state-level policies to promote clean energy and reduce emissions. The research presented is a collaboration with Brookings scholar Tracy Gordon and UNLV graduate student in economics, Matt Kinzer