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21. Long-Term Energy Security Risks for Europe: A Sector-Specific Approach

Author:
Christian Egenhofer, Arno Behrens, and Arianna Checchi
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
The aim of the paper is to identify and evaluate existing and potential EU energy supply risks on the basis of a sector-specific approach. Moving away from common generalisations on security of energy supply as well as from those studies that focus only on one sector, it brings together all types of fuel and analyses the risks related to each of them. The result is a comprehensive picture of the energy security challenges faced by the EU in the long-term. The paper can be seen as a tool to avoid overlapping, incoherence and contradictions in the process of assessing security of supply and aims to formulate a consistent and more unified European energy policy.
Topic:
Security and Energy Policy
Political Geography:
Europe

22. Global Welfare Implications of Carbon Border Taxes

Author:
Daniel Gros
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
This paper presents a simple, basic model to compute the welfare consequences of the introduction of a tariff on the CO 2 content of imported goods in a country that already imposes a domestic carbon tax. The main finding is that the introduction of a carbon import tariff increases global welfare (and not just the welfare of the importing country) if there is no (or insufficient) pricing of carbon abroad. A higher domestic price of carbon justifies a higher import tariff. Moreover, a higher relative intensity of carbon abroad increases the desirability of high import tariff imposed by the home country because a border tax shifts production to the importing country, which in this case leads to lower environmental costs.
Topic:
Climate Change, Economics, Energy Policy, and Environment

23. The Case for a Gas Transit Consortium in Ukraine: A Cost-Benefit Analysis

Author:
Michael Emerson and Elena Gnedina
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
The 2009 gas dispute between Ukraine and Russia has led to a severe drop in Russian gas supplies to some EU member states. The dispute has once again shown that the status quo is defective and unsustainable as a policy. This Policy Brief argues that – beyond ad hoc temporary measures, such as the monitoring by EU experts agreed on January 12th and the 2009-10 price agreement apparently reached on January 18th – the problem needs a comprehensive and robust solution. This would be a gas transit consortium, bringing all major stakeholders – Gazprom, Naftohaz, one or a few European energy companies, and the international financial institutions – to jointly manage the trans-Ukrainian trunk pipeline. The consortium agreement would be underwritten politic ally and legally by a tripartite treaty to be ratified by the EU, Russia and Ukraine. The consortium should be bound by European standards of transparency, corporate governance and accounting in order to tackle the major problem – the lack of trust – in the EU- Ukraine-Russia energy triangle.
Topic:
Economics, Energy Policy, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Ukraine

24. Energy: A Reinforced Obstacle to Democracy?

Author:
Richard Youngs
Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
Rising oil and gas prices appear to have helped shore up autocratic producer states across the world. They also seem to have led Western states to dilute their support for democratic reforms in these countries. But while this conventional wisdom correctly restates the problematic relationship between energy and democracy, the overall picture is more complex. The paper reveals that the opaque management of increased oil and gas revenues has sparked pressure for governance reforms from within producer states and has also encouraged new international initiatives linking energy security with good governance.
Topic:
Corruption, Energy Policy, Government, International Political Economy, and Oil

25. What do we know about the economics of adaptation?

Author:
Asbjørn Aaheim and Marianne Aasen
Publication Date:
02-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
An attempt to summarise the state of knowledge about social and economic challenges related to climate change, for example based on the latest IPCC reports, would probably give the impression that impacts, adaptation and vulnerability are a question of interactions between people and institutions within small local communities (IPCC, 2007a), whereas mitigation can be addressed by political analyses and economics (IPCC, 2007b). In most economic studies, the motivation behind mitigation is presented as that of limiting greenhouse gas emissions to a given target
Topic:
Climate Change, Economics, and Energy Policy
Political Geography:
Europe

26. Adaptation and Mainstreaming of EU Climate Change Policy: An Actor-Based Perspective

Author:
Darryn McEvoy, Kate Lonsdale, and Piotr Matczak
Publication Date:
02-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
Adaptation to climate change (in comparison to the mitigation agenda) is a relatively new focus for both research and policy communities. Drawing from ongoing 'actor-based' research being carried out for the ADAM project, this briefing paper reports on the knowledge base being developed through a process of engagement with experts and key stakeholders across a variety of countries, landscape types, sectors, institutions and actors. The concluding discussion then focuses on some of the implications of these early findings for both EU policy and decision-making more generally.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, and Environment
Political Geography:
Europe

27. The Future of European Electricity: Choices before 2020

Author:
Arno Behrens, Henry Neufeldt, Gunnar Eskeland, Eberhard Jochem, Thure Traber, and Nathan Rive
Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
The electricity sector plays a central role in the European Union's efforts to achieve greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions of at least 20% by 2020 compared to 1990 levels. While the electricity sector is currently responsible for about one-third of Europe's total energy-related GHG emissions, there are large potentials for reducing emissions. Mitigation strategies will need to focus on more efficient electricity use, but also on improved conversion rates and new technologies such as renewables and carbon capture and storage (CCS). Apart from mitigation of climate change, the sector will also have to adapt to climate change. Global warming will have a significant impact on the ability to generate electricity and to deliver it without interruption. This ADAM-CEPS Policy Brief focuses on four issues relevant to the nexus between climate change and the electricity sector.
Topic:
Energy Policy and Markets
Political Geography:
Europe

28. The Demonstration Phase for Carbon Capture and Storage: The case for public support

Author:
Christian Egenhofer
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is seen as a key technology, without which the achievement of EU and global climate change targets will be extremely difficult. In order to reach these targets, the EU aims to have CCS technology available on a commercial basis as of 2020, which adds a certain sense of urgency to the endeavour. To this end, in 2007, the European Council announced up to 12 large-scale CCS demonstration plants. No decision on possible public financial support has so far been taken.
Topic:
Climate Change and Energy Policy
Political Geography:
Europe

29. Climate Governance Post-2012, Options for EU Policy-Making

Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
This brief focuses on three issues that are especially important in the long-term development of the climate regime: (a) the challenge of the fragmentation of negotiations and governance systems; (b) the challenge of steering and evaluating novel types of privatised and market-based governance mechanisms; and (c) the challenge of designing architectures for global adaptation governance. These three core issues of fragmentation, privatisation and adaptation can be related to the overarching need to define the architecture of the post-2012 regime – and of any subsequent regimes that may follow a Copenhagen agreement.
Topic:
International Relations, Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, Privatization, Treaties and Agreements, and Governance
Political Geography:
Europe

30. A Reinforced Obstacle to Democracy?

Author:
Richard Youngs
Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
Rising oil and gas prices appear to have helped shore up autocratic producer states across the world. They also seem to have led Western states to dilute their support for democratic reforms in these countries. But while this conventional wisdom correctly restates the problematic relationship between energy and democracy, the overall picture is more complex. The paper reveals that the opaque management of increased oil and gas revenues has sparked pressure for governance reforms from within producer states and has also encouraged new international initiatives linking energy security with good governance.
Topic:
Security, Energy Policy, Government, and Oil