Endogenous structural change and climate targets.

This paper envisages endogenous technical change as resulting from the interplay between the economic growth engine, consumption, technology and localization patterns. We perform numerical simulations with the recursive dynamic general equilibrium model IMACLIM-R to study how modeling induced technical change affects costs of CO2 stabilization. IMACLIM-R incorporates innovative specifications about final consumption of transportation and energy to represent critical stylized facts such as rebound effects and demand induction by infrastructures and equipments. Doing so brings to light how induced technical change may not only lower stabilization costs thanks to pure technological progress, but also triggers induction of final demand - effects critical to both the level of the carbon tax and the costs of policy given a specific stabilization target. Finally, we study the sensitivity of total stabilization costs to various parameters including both technical assumptions as accelerated turnover of equipments and non-energy choices as alternative infrastructure policies.induced technical change; structural change; climate policy; carbon tax;transportation; infrastructures

How CO2 Capture and Storage Can Mitigate Carbon Leakage

Most CO2 abatement policies reduce the demand for fossil fuels and therefore their price in international markets. If these policies are not global, this price decrease raises emissions in countries without CO2 abatement policies, generating “carbon leakage”. On the other hand, if the countries which abate CO2 emissions are net fossil fuel importers, they benefit from this price decrease, which reduces the abatement cost. In contrast, CO2 capture and storage (CCS) does not reduce fossil fuel demand, therefore it generates neither this type of leakage nor this negative feedback on abatement costs. We quantify these effects with the global hybrid general equilibrium model Imaclim-R and show that they are quantitatively important. Indeed, for a given unilateral abatement in OECD countries, leakage is more than halved in a scenario with CCS included among the abatement options, compared to a scenario prohibiting CCS. We show that the main reason for this difference in leakage is the above-mentioned international fossil fuel price feedback. This article does not intend to assess the desirability of CCS, which has many other pros and cons. It just identifies a consequence of CCS that should be taken into account, together with many others, when deciding to what extent CCS should be developed.CO2 Capture and Storage, Carbon Leakage

Do overarching mitigation objectives dominate transport-specific targets in the EU?

International audienceThis research investigates if the stringent 2020 and 2050 overarching CO2 mitigation objectives set out by the European Union dominate its 2010 to 2020 targets specific to the transportation arena, specifically its biofuel penetration objectives and gram CO2 per kilometre emission caps. Using a dynamic recursive general equilibrium model, IMACLIM-R, we demonstrate that these overarching targets do not dominate the interim transportation targets when the carbon policy triggering compliance with the mitigation objectives boils down to the theoretical least-cost option of uniform carbon pricing. Ground transportation is confirmed as quite insensitive to high carbon prices, even when such prices are applied over a long term. It is tempting to conclude that pursuing the mitigation objectives specific to transportation will impose unnecessary costs. However, because of the second best conditions prevailing in actual economies, and of the risk of lock-in in carbon intensive trajectories, we conclude with the urgent need for some ambitious transport-specific policy design research agenda

IMACLIM-R: a modelling framework to simulate sustainable development pathways

To assess the sustainability of future development pathways requires models to compute long-run Economy-Energy-Environment scenarios. This paper presents the IMACLIM-R framework, aimed at investigating climate, energy and development inter-related issues. The model was built in an attempt to address three methodological challenges: to incoporate knowledge from economics and engineering sciences, to support the dialogue with and between stakeholders, to produce scenarios with a strong consistency, concerning especially the interplay between development patterns, technology and growth. These goals led to the development of a recursive structure articulating a static general equilibrium framework including innovative features and sectorspecific dynamic modules now concerning energy, transportation and industry. This paper provides the general rationale of the model and the description of all its components.

The costs of climate policies in a second best world with labour market imperfections

International audienceThe critical role of labour market imperfections is explored in climate stabilisation costs formation, using a dynamic recursive energy-economy model that represents a second best world with market imperfections and short-run adjustments constraints along a long-term growth path. The degree of rigidity of the labour markets is a central parameter and a systematic sensitivity analysis of the model results confirms this. When labour markets are represented as highly flexible, the model results are in the usual range of existing literature, i.e. less than 2% GDP losses in 2030 for a stabilisation target at 550ppm CO2 equivalent. However, when labour markets rigidities are accounted for, mitigation costs increase dramatically. Accompanying measures are identified, namely labour subsidies, which guarantees against the risk of large stabilisation costs in the case of high rigidities of the labour markets. This complements the usual view that mitigation is a long-term matter that depends on technology, innovation, investment and behavioural change. The results support the view that mitigation is also a shorter-term issue and a matter of transition on the labour market.Le rôle déterminant des imperfections du marché du travail dans la formation des coûts de l'atténuation du changement climatique est exploré, avec un modèle de l'interface énergie-économie, récursif et dynamique, qui représente un monde de second rang avec des imperfections du marché du travail et des contraintes d'ajustement de court terme le long d'une trajectoire de croissance à long terme. Le degré de rigidité des marchés du travail est un paramètre central, ceci étant confirmé par une analyse de sensibilité systématique des résultats. Lorsque les marchés du travail sont représentés comme très flexibles, les résultats se situent dans la fourchette habituelle de la littérature existante (c'est-à-dire moins de 2% de pertes de PIB mondial en 2030 pour une cible de stabilisation à 550 ppm équivalent CO2). Cependant, lorsque les rigidités du marché du travail sont prises en compte, le coût de l'atténuation augmente très significativement. Des mesures d'accompagnement, à savoir des subventions sur le travail, garantissent contre le risque de coûts de la stabilisation élevés dans le cas de fortes rigidités sur le marché du travail. Cette vision complète la conception habituelle selon laquelle l'atténuation est une question de long terme qui dépend de la technologie, de l'innovation, de l'investissement et des changements de comportements. L'article signale que l'atténuation est aussi un problème de plus court terme et une question de transition sur les marchés du travail

IMACLIM-R: a modelling framework to simulate sustainable development pathways

International audienceTo assess the sustainability of future development pathways requires models to compute long-run Economy-Energy-Environment scenarios. This paper presents the IMACLIM-R framework, aimed at investigating climate, energy and development inter-related issues. The model was built in an attempt to address three methodological challenges: to incoporate knowledge from economics and engineering sciences, to support the dialogue with and between stakeholders, to produce scenarios with a strong consistency, concerning especially the interplay between development patterns, technology and growth. These goals led to the development of a recursive structure articulating a static general equilibrium framework including innovative features and sectorspecific dynamic modules now concerning energy, transportation and industry. This paper provides the general rationale of the model and the description of all its components

Climate policies as a hedge against the uncertainty on future oil supply

International audienceDespite the inextricable link between oil scarcity and climate change, the interplay between these two issues is paradoxically an underworked area. This article uses a global energy-economy model to address the link between future oil supply and climate change and assesses in a common framework both the costs of climate policies and oil scarcity. It shows that, in the context of a limited and uncertain amount of ultimately recoverable oil resources, climate policies reduce the world vulnerability to peak oil. Climate policies, therefore, appear as a hedging strategy against the uncertainty on oil resources, in addition to their main aim of avoiding dangerous climate change. This co-benefit is estimated at the net present value of US$11,500 billion. Eventually, reducing the risk of future economic losses due to oil scarcity may appear as a significant side-benefit of climate policies to many decision-makers

Screening Estrogenic Activities of Chemicals or Mixtures In Vivo Using Transgenic (cyp19a1b-GFP) Zebrafish Embryos

The tg(cyp19a1b-GFP) transgenic zebrafish expresses GFP (green fluorescent protein) under the control of the cyp19a1b gene, encoding brain aromatase. This gene has two major characteristics: (i) it is only expressed in radial glial progenitors in the brain of fish and (ii) it is exquisitely sensitive to estrogens. Based on these properties, we demonstrate that natural or synthetic hormones (alone or in binary mixture), including androgens or progestagens, and industrial chemicals induce a concentration-dependent GFP expression in radial glial progenitors. As GFP expression can be quantified by in vivo imaging, this model presents a very powerful tool to screen and characterize compounds potentially acting as estrogen mimics either directly or after metabolization by the zebrafish embryo. This study also shows that radial glial cells that act as stem cells are direct targets for a large panel of endocrine disruptors, calling for more attention regarding the impact of environmental estrogens and/or certain pharmaceuticals on brain development. Altogether these data identify this in vivo bioassay as an interesting alternative to detect estrogen mimics in hazard and risk assessment perspective