Economists argue that the carbon market suffices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and attack additional policy tools for increasing mitigation costs. Time to look at how the carbon market works in practice! In my last blog I have pointed to the campaign of a few Norwegian economists [http://e24.no/makro-og-politikk/article3315038.ece]against climate policy tools such as the newly established green certificate market, which ensures a higher electricity price for renewable electricity. I [...]
October 18, 2009, by Edgar HertwichRead More
Some economists argue that support for renewable electricity leads to more coal power. Their reasoning is curiously flawed and oversees the crucial role of technological learning. A curious discussion about climate policy has arisen in Norway now that the country has agreed with Sweden to join Sweden’s ”green certificate [http://www.eoearth.org/article/Green_certificate]” market (a.k.a. el-certificate, similar to the renewable portopholio standard [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_port [...]
September 13, 2009, by Edgar HertwichRead More
The IPCC says that we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 % by 2050 to achieve the goal of limit global warming to not more than 2°C, agreed to by the EU and the G8. Recent research [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v458/n7242/abs/nature08017.html] indicates that the cumulative emissions in the period 2000-2050 should be not more than 1000 billion tons of CO2. In the first 7 years of this 50 year period; 234 billion tons were already emitted. Even if we give up the [...]
August 27, 2009, by Edgar HertwichRead More
Many people have asked how a country’s carbon footprint compares to the territorial emissions reported to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)? In hindsight, it was perhaps remiss of us not to include this data in the paper. However, it was not our motivation. Focusing on whether the emissions are bigger or smaller misses a large part of the story. The main focus of the paper is on what consumption categories cause emissions and how this varies across countri [...]
August 13, 2009, by Edgar HertwichRead More
A good week has gone since the release of the website and the online version of our article [http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es803496a]. A number of news outlets picked up the story, including the venerable Neue Züricher Zeitung [http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/forschung_und_technik/der_klimatische_fussabdruck_des_konsums_1.2755249.html] (Switzerland) and the tabloid VG (Norway). It was really interesting to discuss our research with numerous journalists and to see what they picked up. Her [...]
June 24, 2009, by Edgar HertwichRead More
Congratulations to Edgar Hertwich, Glen Peters and the NTNU team for presenting the ‘Carbon Footprint of Nations’ as a politically relevant way of accounting for greenhouse gas emissions, based on a sound methodology. The publication and website comes at an important time – the decisive climate policy negotiations in Copenhagen are only half a year away – and it will be a useful input to this process. For both, producers and consumers, as individuals, companies and nations are responsible [...]
June 15, 2009, by Edgar HertwichRead More
We are excited about launching this web site. Many years of our research have gone into developing models and analyzing data on the connection of industrial production, consumption and environmental pressures. Profound insights have been gained, and an approach has matured which we think is indispensible to address climate change and resource scarcity. Now, we feel that the world really should pay attention! We want to use this website to communicate our research findings to a broader pu [...]
June 12, 2009, by Edgar HertwichRead More
