Future Options for EU Climate Policies and their Public Acceptability Workshop
BC3 co-organizes Workshop Cecilia 2050 Workshop
The CECILIA2050 research project is entering its last and third year and is preparing to focus on its ultimate goal of formulating near-term and medium-term policy recommendations: how could andshould the EU climate policy mix evolve to put the EU on track towards a low-carbon economy? What is the role for economic instruments (carbon pricing) in the policy mix, and for which decisions areplanning tools necessary? How should climate and energy policy should interact? It is one thing to analyse which policies appear most efficient and effective. Yet, to be implementedsuccessfully, any policy mix will also need public acceptance – in the current political and economic climate even more so than in the past. In this context, the objective of this workshop will be to explorethe acceptability of different types of climate policies, in order to understand how the design of policy
instruments affects their acceptability. This will be explored both at the EU level and at the Member State level, such as the Czech Republic.
FLAGSHIP Workshop “Governance challenges, territorial dynamics and their feedback into integrated scenarios building”
The FLAGSHIP workshop will be held in Bilbao on Friday, 24th October.
The workshop is hosted by the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), under the title of“Governance challenges, territorial dynamics and their feedback into integrated scenarios building”
Flagship workshop bilbao 20141024
After having assessed and analyzed the state-of-art of Forward Looking Analysis methodologies, and having worked on innovative quantitative and qualitative tools, methods and models to assess Grand Societal Challenges, FLAGSHIP partners are now developing a Policy Brief and are looking for experts’ views and contributions. The on-going work and the questions that emerged will be presented during this one-day workshop. The workshop will include sessions on:
• FLAGSHIP storylines on global scenarios
• FLAGSHIP analysis on the territorial differentiations of exposure and sensitivity
• FLAGSHIP legal governance scenarios and related toolbox of indicators
BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars: Emission Tax, Health Insurance and Crowding out of Energy Conservation Behavior: An Experiment
Dr. Pallab Mozumder
Department of Earth & Environment, Department of Economics and Social Science Laboratory, International Hurricane Research Center, Florida (Colombia)
A major share of domestic energy demand is met from conventional fossil fuel based sources, such as coal. Combustion of fossil fuels in production of energy causes emission of greenhouse gases and particle pollution, which leads to health hazards. As people are becoming increasingly concerned about these hazardous impacts, they may choose to reduce their energy consumption with energy saving installations. In this paper we present a decision-making experiment to understand motivation for energy saving choices in a diverse set of policy contexts. The experimental design includes multiple sets of decision-making choices differentiated with options to purchase health insurance. Altogether 64 subjects took part in 8 decision-making sessions. Every session consists of 3 sections and each section includes 30 rounds. In every round, subjects make a choice whether to spend on energy saving installations to decrease their household energy bill and emission related health risks. While each subject in the first and third section pays a lump sum emission tax, the emission tax is proportional to the total energy bill in the second section. Subjects make energy saving choices both with and without the option to purchase health insurance. The data collected in this experiment, allows us to see the effectiveness of a public policy intervention to increase energy efficiency. The empirical analysis suggests that energy savings increase when emission tax is proportional to total energy consumption. However, energy savings seem to be crowded out when subjects have the option to buy health insurance to cover pollution related health risks. We also find that rewarding scheme works better than the punishment scheme in promoting energy conservation. We discuss policy implications of our findings.
BC3 Seminars : MCDM and CGE Models Applied for Environmental Issues
BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change Sede Building 1, 1st floor, Scientific Park of the University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Bizkaia, SpainProf. Alejandro Cardenete
Full Professor at the University Loyola,Sevilla
The goal of this presentation is to analyze two complementary approaches to include not only macroeconomic indicators if not to include environmental issues. Therefore we use MCDM – multicriteria decision making- techniques to capture different goals, economics and non-economics, in the same objective function. This approach is included in CGE models – computable general equilibrium- where you have all agents, institutions and sectors in the same model. So, linking these two models we apply them looking for different objectives as to increase GDP and to decrease CO2 emissions at the same time, for example. To see the potentiality of this approach we present different published papers where we can explore this one.
BC3 Seminars: Vertical Fiscal Externalities and the Environment
BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change Sede Building 1, 1st floor, Scientific Park of the University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Bizkaia, SpainProf. Dr. Christoph Böhringer
Chair of Economic Policy Department of Economics, University of Oldenburg
We show that imposition of a state-level environmental tax in a federation crowds out preexisting federal taxes. We explain how this vertical fiscal externality can lead unilateral state-level environmental policy to generate a welfare gain in the implementing state, at the expense of other states. Using a computable general equilibrium model of the Canadian federation, we show that vertical fiscal externalities can be the major determinant of the welfare change following environmental policy implementation by a state government. Our numerical simulations indicate that – as a consequence of vertical fiscal externalities – state governments can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 20 percent without any net cost to themselves.
Klimagune Workshop 2014: “Landa-ingurunearen aukerak eta erronkak klima-aldaketaren aurrean”
BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change Sede Building 1, 1st floor, Scientific Park of the University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Bizkaia, SpainKlimagune Workshop 2014 Klimagune Workshop-a klima-aldaketari buruz eztabaidatzeko zientzia-politika foroa da. Bateragune hau Zientzia eta Teknologiaren Euskal Sareko eragile guztiei zabaldurik dago eta baita klima aldaketaren […]
BC3 Seminars: Environmental and ecological modeling with non-parametric smoothing techniques
BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change Sede Building 1, 1st floor, Scientific Park of the University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Bizkaia, SpainDr. Dae-Jin Lee
BCAM – Basque Center of Applied Mathematics.
Non-parametric regression or smoothing is a form of regression analysis in which the predictor does not take a predetermined form but is constructed according to information derived from the data. There is a wide range of smoothing techniques in the literature, penalized splines are a very popular tool for smoothing due to their flexibility and ability to incorporate more complex structures such as additional covariates, correlations or hierarchical structures and multidimensional settings. In this talk I will introduce some basic concepts and techniques together with several examples from environmental and ecological applications.
BC3 Seminars: Modelling impacts of Ocean Acidification in fish catches and its economic implications
BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change Sede Building 1, 1st floor, Scientific Park of the University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Bizkaia, SpainJose A. Fernandes, MSc, PhD
Scientist (Bio-economic modeller)
Plymouth Marine Laboratory (Sea and Society) Prospect Place, The Hoe, Plymouth
An assessment of the potential biological impacts and economic consequences of ocean warming and acidification is needed for sustainable ocean resources management. Here, we use new theory, observations, experiments and modelling to quantify (in terms of catches, monetary value and equivalent jobs) the combined effects of acidification and warming on commercial fish and shellfish under different CO2 emission scenarios. The UK is used as a case study area but the methods and key messages will be transferable across a broad range of settings. Incorporation of combined acidification and warming experimental data into the model scenarios consistently resulted in greater modelled changes than use of warming data alone. Shellfish species were impacted the most across the scenarios tested. This translates in a decrease in total potential landings in most UK administrative areas and particularly for the small vessels fleet. We also calculate the economic equivalent direct and indirect impacts in terms of income and jobs when using the results from this work projection considering the total fisheries related economy. The economic and social impacts could be further exacerbated in communities with economies highly dependent on fishing which are considered particularly vulnerable if there is a lack of a diversified economy.
BC3 Seminars: What seaweeds are telling us on climate change?: A view from a local to a European perspective
BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change Sede Building 1, 1st floor, Scientific Park of the University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Bizkaia, SpainProf. Jose M. Gorostiaga
Marine Botanist
Laboratory of Botany,
Faculty of Science and Technology
University of the Basque Country
Spatial and temporal changes in marine vegetation along the coasts of southern Bay of Biscay, as a result of both natural and anthropogenic factors (pollution), have been reported in the last century. However, the intensity of these changes in the last 15 years is unprecedented because of its intensity, speed and extent of the geographical area. These recent shifts in macroalgae distributions are attributed to climatic alterations. Ocean warming and acidification are evident effects of the climate change. In the case of the Basque coast, the average summer temperatures of sea-surface water have risen by as much as 1 °C from 1980 to 2008 (20.8 °C to 21.7 °C). No evidence has been found until now that the pH of seawater off Basque coast has varied. However, marine algae have revealed that other environmental factors are involved. Rising solar radiation and decreasing nutrient availability are thought to be factors of change in the distributional pattern of a “key” species of the Basque coastal ecosystem, Gelidium corneum. The stress exerted by the new environmental conditions entails a progressive decline on this red alga which is losing its resilience to other disturbance factors such grazing pressure and storm damage. The rapid response capabilities of the seaweeds to environmental changes makes them ideal organisms for taking the pulse on climate change. Changes in the marine vegetation will have a cascading effect on the coastal ecosystem, with important biological, ecological, and socio-economic consequences, as well as implications for the environmental management policies. For this reason, it is required to address this issue in a multidisciplinary way within a European framework.
Doctoral Course: Trade, Environment and Growth
Faculty of Sarriko Avenida Lehendakari Agirre, 83, Bilbao, SpainThis course in jointly organized and financed by the Doctoral Program in Economics (Instruments of the Economic Analysis), the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) and the Research group on Economics and the Environment (UPV/EHU, Gobierno Vasco, IT-799-13).
Prof. Erik Dietzenbacher (U. Groningen)
Personal Profile: http://www.rug.nl/staff/h.w.a.dietzenbacher/
This course applies input-output analysis to issues on trade, on environment, and on growth. For the production of commodities and services, industries depend on other industries for their intermediate products. More and more, such linkages between industries cross borders. Input-output analysis is a tool that takes such inter-dependencies in the production structure into full account. It has been applied to a wide variety of topics, ranging from agricultural and development economics to disciplines dealing with energy and environmental issues. The course will focus on three of such topics.
