• Energy Research

An environmental fiscal reform (EFR) represents a transition of a taxation system toward one based in environmental taxation, rather than on taxation of capital, labor, or consumption. It differs from an environmental tax reform (ETR) in that an EFR also includes a reform of subsidies which counteract environmental policy. This research details different ways in which an EFR is not only possible but also a good option that provides economic and environmental benefits. We have developed a detailed dynamic CGE model examining 101 industries and commodities in Spain, with an energy and an environmental extension comprising 31 pollutant emissions, in order to simulate the economic and environmental effects of an EFR. The reform focuses on 39 industries related to the energy, water, transport and waste sectors. We simulate an increase in taxes and a reduction on subsidies for these industries and at the same time we use new revenues to reduce labor, capital and consumption taxes. All revenue recycling options provide both economic and environmental benefits, suggesting that the “double dividend” hypothesis can be achieved. After three to four years after implementing an EFR, GDP is higher than the base case, hydrocarbons consumption declines and all analyzed pollutants show a reduction.

Governments foster voluntary actions within households to mitigate climate change. However, the literature suggests that they may not be as effective as expected due to rebound effects. We use a dynamic economy–energy–environment computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Catalan economy to simulate the effect of 75 different actions on GDP and net CO emissions, over a 20-year period. We also examine how a carbon tax could counteract the carbon rebound effects. We find energy rebound effects ranging from 61.77% to 117.49% for voluntary energy conservation actions, depending on where the spending is redirected, with similar carbon rebound values. In our main scenarios, where energy savings are redirected to savings and all non-energy goods proportionally, the rebound is between 64.47% and 66.90%. We also find, for these scenarios, that a carbon tax of between 2.4 and 3.6 €/ton per percentage point of voluntary energy reduction would totally offset carbon rebound effects. These results suggest that voluntary actions in households need additional measures to provide the expected results in terms of energy use reduction and climate change mitigation. This project received the support of the Beatriu de Pinós postdoctoral program of the Government of Catalonia's Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Ministry of Business and Knowledge. It is also supported by a grant from the Harvard Global Institute.

Trabajo presentado en el 9th Atlantic Workshop on Energy and Environmental Economics, celebrado en la Isla de La Toja, Galicia (España), los días 23 y 24 de junio de 2022. Vídeo de la ponencia accesible a través de la web de la Universidad de Vigo: https://tv.uvigo.es/video/62da7685a33c06469d6fc502

Mountain ecosystems are considered to be vulnerable to climate change, with potential detrimental effects including the reduction of the snow seasons, the gradual retreat of glaciers, and changes in water storage and availability. One vulnerable sector to climate change is winter tourism, with some resorts likely to experience a significant reduction in the length of the skiing seasons and snow recreation areas throughout this century. This study assessed the vulnerability of 31 Spanish alpine ski resorts to climate change and evaluated the potential socio-economic and environmental implications of several adaptation measures. Results show that lower-altitude areas such as the Cantabrian Mountains and the Iberian System could be more vulnerable to climate change than higher-altitude areas of the Catalan Pyrenees or the Penibaetic System. Adaptation initiatives may include, inter alia, the production of artificial snow, the protection and conservation of the snow coverage area, and the diversification of recreation activities offered during the whole year. The study concludes that the design and implementation of adaptation strategies have to be adequate to the level of vulnerability associated with each resort as well as minimize their potential socio-economic and environmental costs.

The study of the so-called rebound effect has traditionally pertained to the domain of neoclassical energy economics. In recent years, other disciplines have applied this concept in the context of the environmental assessment of products and policies, and multiple perspectives have unfolded more or less in parallel. Among these, the environmental rebound effect (ERE) perspective, focused on efficiency changes and indicators that go beyond energy to multiple environmental issues, has remained relatively unnoticed. This article thus asks the following questions: What are the foundational aspects of the ERE and how these relate to other perspectives? Are there irreconcilable differences between perspectives? And what is the value of the ERE towards a general framework? We map the fundamental ideas behind the ERE and find that the lack of articulation has resulted in inconsistent usage and lack of clarity. We also argue that the ERE offers many valuable insights for rebound assessment, such as the study of broader efficiency changes and of innovations aimed at tackling multiple environmental issues. Perhaps most importantly, the ERE helps bringing together the existing rebound perspectives, as its application shows that it is both possible and valuable to articulate broader definitions for the rebound effect. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.

Abstract Some progress has been done during the last years on the methods and provision of empirical evidence on the direct and indirect rebound effect. However, these methods are complex, and sometimes require some specific economic knowledge. The development of risk and vulnerability rebound indicators for economies can be a useful tool to help the research community, policy-makers and other practitioners to understand and tackle the rebound effect. This research shows a new analytical way to obtain the direct and indirect rebound effect from the direct rebound effect and the use of energy input-output coefficients, and proposes three risk and vulnerability rebound indicators to show the effects of energy efficiency improvements in households on overall energy consumption. An estimation of these indicators has been conducted for the EU-27 countries.

Promoting energy efficiency is generally assumed to be an effective strategy to reduce energy use and tackle climate change. However, an extensive literature has shown that rebound effects reduce its effectiveness and can even be counterproductive. We show how a more complex policy strategy, with coordinated measures, could provide the desired results by offsetting energy and carbon rebound effects. Along with the energy-efficiency improvement, we separately implement five different policies: carbon taxes, energy production taxes, an emissions trading system, and changes in consumption patterns (away from energy and toward services consumption). These policies are assessed using an economy–energy–environment dynamic Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model developed for Catalonia, and compared in economic, energy, and environmental terms. The simulations show that all the strategies tested are able to offset rebounds at a low cost, with a proper design. All of them improve GDP in relation to the no-efficiency improvement base case. If tax revenues from the parallel policies are used to encourage investment, the long-term effect on GDP may even be positive. Jaume Freire-González received the support of the Beatriu de Pinós postdoctoral program of the Government of Catalonia's Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Ministry of Business and Knowledge. Mun Ho is supported by the Harvard Global Institute.