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THE CHANGING ROLE OF CARBON PRICING IN THE EU

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2020

Milan Elkerbout
Milan Elkerbout*
Affiliation:
MISTRA Research Fellow at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Stockholm and Research Fellow at CEPS, Brussels. E-mail: Milan.Elkerbout@ivl.se.
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Abstract

Carbon pricing has been the most prominent climate change mitigation policy for the EU since the launch of its emissions trading system (ETS) in 2005. Since then, the context of international climate policy as well as of the socio-political and economical context of decarbonisation has changed considerably. The 2015 Paris Agreement engages virtually every country unlike its predecessor, while non-carbon pricing policies have led to rapid cost reductions in renewables, even if other sectors (particularly in energy-intensive industry) have not seen similar developments. This paper examines how the role of carbon pricing in the EU climate policy mix has evolved from its beginnings as a means to help achieve modest targets under the Kyoto Protocol, to a policy instrument increasingly augmented by a wider policy mix aimed at reaching no net emissions of greenhouse gases by mid-century.

Keywords

EU climate policycarbon pricingemissions tradingpolitical economy of decarbonisation.P48: Q54Q58L52F53.
Type
Research Article
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 251 , February 2020 , pp. R13 - R24
Copyright
© National Institute of Economic and Social Research, 2020

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