Narrow Your Choices

Refine By Countries

Refine By Series

Refine By Language

Refine By Date

—

Refine By IMF Taxonomy

Refine By JEL Taxonomy

Refine by LOC Taxonomy

Refine By THEMA Taxonomy

  • Print
  • Save

Political Science > Environmental Policy

You are looking at 1 - 8 of 8 items for :

  • Type: Journal Issue x
  • Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations x
Clear All Modify Search
Cover IMF Working Papers
Firms’ Response to Climate Regulations-Empirical Investigations Based on the European Emissions Trading System
Fotios Kalantzis, Salma Khalid, Alexandra Solovyeva, and Marcin Wolski
Using a novel cross-country dataset, which merges firm-level financials with information on firms’ participation in the European Unions’ Emissions Trading System (ETS), we investigate how firm performance is affected by tightening of environmental policies that put a price on pollution. We find that more stringent policies do not have a strong negative impact on the profitability of ETS-regulated or non-ETS firms. While firms report an increase in their input costs during periods of high carbon prices, their reported turnover is also higher. Among ETS-regulated firms which must purchase emission certificates under the EU ETS, tightening of climate policies in periods of high carbon prices results in increased investment, particularly in intangible assets. We establish robustness of our results using a quantile regression analysis, ensuring our key findings are not driven by distributional irregularities. Our findings provide support for the benefits of EU ETS on accelerating firms’ climate transition, while keeping firm-level financial costs at bay.
Keywords:
climate finance; climate change; decarbonization; firm-level analysis; Emissions Trading System (ETS); ETS firm; climate transition; EU Emissions Trading System; ETS-regulated firm; IMF working paper No. 24/135; Emissions trading; Climate policy; Environmental policy; Greenhouse gas emissions; Global
Cover High-Level Summary Technical Assistance Reports
Cabo Verde: Climate Policy Assessment
Katja Funke, Alberto Garcia Huitron, and Didier Tabaro
Cabo Verde faces development challenges from multiple structural factors, including insularity, territorial discontinuity, fragility of ecosystems, and scarcity of natural resources, namely water and arable land. Climate change implications are amplifying these challenges. As an island extension of the arid Sahel zone, Cabo Verde faces severe water shortage, which the country addresses more and more through energy intensive desalination, using electricity produced largely by thermal power plants, which depend entirely on imported fossil fuels. The resulting high energy prices directly impact the cost of water production. In conjunction with climate change induced aridity, the energy-water-climate nexus presents the core development challenge for the country.
Keywords:
Cabo Verde; Climate; Energy; Water; Adaptation; energy-water-climate nexus; climate change implication; climate policy assessment; Sahel zone; climate policy diagnostic; Climate policy; Climate change; Renewable energy; Tariffs; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Trade in Low Carbon Technologies: The Role of Climate and Trade Policies
Samuel Pienknagura
Curbing carbon emissions to meet the targets set in the Paris Agreement requires the deployment of low carbon technologies (LCTs) at a global scale. This paper assesses the role of climate and trade policies in fostering LCT diffusion through trade. Leveraging a comprehensive database of climate policies and a new database identifying trade in low carbon technologies and the tariffs applied to these goods, this paper shows that the introduction of new climate policies has a positive and significant impact on LCT imports. Zooming into specific climate policies, the paper finds that, except for non-binding ones, all climate policies stimulate LCT imports. The paper also highlights the role of trade policies as an engine of LCT diffusion—reductions in tariffs applied on LCT goods have a sizeable impact on LCT imports. On the flip side, results suggest that more protectionist measures would impede the spread of low-carbon technologies.
Keywords:
Climate policies; trade; low carbon technologies; technological diffusion.; LCT import; LCT diffusion; deployment of low carbon technologies; role of trade policies; policy portfolio; Climate policy; Imports; Trade policy; Tariffs; Climate change; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Climate Policies as a Catalyst for Green FDI
Samuel Pienknagura
This paper assesses the role of climate policies as a catalyst of low carbon technologies deployment through foreign direct investment (FDI). Leveraging detailed cross-border project-level information, it identifies “green” FDI and finds that a higher number of active climate policies is associated with higher levels of green FDI inflows. Importantly, climate policies do not appear to be linked to lower levels of non-green projects, suggesting relatively small overall costs from the green transition. The paper also finds heterogeneity across sectors and policy instruments. The association between climate policies and green projects is particularly strong in energy and manufacturing, and when the composition of the recipient's climate portfolio is tilted towards binding policies (e.g., taxes and regulation) and expenditure measures. Finally, results point to policy spillovers, whereby larger climate policy portfolios in the source country are linked to higher green FDI outflows, but green subsidies can discourage them. This, in turn, implies that subsidies could hamper efforts to deploy low-carbon technologies across countries.
Keywords:
Climate policies; FDI; low carbon technologies; renewable energy; policy instrument; FDI inflow; policy spillover; FDI outflow; green FDI; Climate policy; Foreign direct investment; Tariffs; Climate change; Greenhouse gas emissions; Global
Cover Staff Climate Notes
Carbon Pricing: What Role for Border Carbon Adjustments?
Ian W.H. Parry, Mr. Peter Dohlman, Mr. Cory Hillier, Mr. Martin D Kaufman, Florian Misch, Mr. James Roaf, Mr. Christophe J Waerzeggers, and Miss Kyung Kwak
This Climate Note discusses the rationale, design, and impacts of border carbon adjustments (BCAs), charges on embodied carbon in imports potentially matched by rebates for embodied carbon in exports. Large disparities in carbon pricing between countries is raising concerns about competitiveness and emissions leakage, and BCAs are a potentially effective instrument for addressing such concerns. Design details are critical, however. For example, limiting coverage of the BCA to energy-intensive, trade-exposed industries facilitates administration, and initially benchmarking BCAs on domestic emissions intensities would help ease the transition for emissions-intensive trading partners. It is also important to consider how to apply BCAs across countries with different approaches to emissions mitigation. BCAs are challenging because they pose legal risks and may be at odds with the differentiated responsibilities of developing countries. Furthermore, BCAs provide only modest incentives for other large emitting countries to scale carbon pricing—an international carbon price floor would be far more effective in this regard.
Keywords:
Border carbon adjustment, climate mitigation, carbon pricing, competitiveness, emissions leakage, allowance allocation, design issues, World Trade Organization rules; IMF staff climate note; border carbon adjustments; climate mitigation; emissions leakage; BCA to energy-intensive; Greenhouse gas emissions; Climate change; Imports; Export subsidies; Global
Cover Policy Papers
Group of Twenty - Reinvigorating Trade to Support Growth: A Path Forward
International Monetary Fund
Reinvigorating trade integration should be a key component of the global policy agenda to boost growth. Trade policy’s new frontiers such as services, regulatory cooperation, and trade and investment complementarities carry high potential to bolster efficiency and productivity. But with governments differing on whether to continue the WTO Doha Round, there is an urgent need to identify a path for the global trading system in today’s more complex trade policy landscape. A long interregnum without a path forward would risk fragmenting the global trade system and undermining its governance. Tackling trade policy issues important to the global economy may require flexible approaches to multilateral negotiations, including modalities such as plurilaterals. Enhanced coherence efforts are also needed to ensure that regional trade agreements and multilateralism coexist productively.
Keywords:
PP; WTO member; agreement; negotiations; Doha round; WTO rule; WTO agreement; policy barrier; WTO's role; Trade policy; Trade agreements; Trade systems; Climate policy; Trade integration; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Coordinating Climate and Trade Policies: Pareto Efficiency and the Role of Border Tax Adjustments
Mr. Michael Keen and Mr. Christos Kotsogiannis
This paper explores the role of trade instruments in globally efficient climate policies, focusing on the central issue of whether some form of border tax adjustment (BTA) is warranted when carbon prices differ internationally. It shows that tariff policy has a role in easing cross-country distributional concerns that can make non-uniform carbon pricing efficient and, more particularly, that Pareto-efficiency requires a form of BTA when carbon taxes in some countries are constrained, a special case being identified in which this has the simple structure envisaged in practical policy discusions. It also stresses—a point that has been overlooked in the policy debate—that the efficiency case for BTA depends critically on whether climate policies are pursued by carbon taxation or by cap-and-trade.
Keywords:
WP; Pareto efficiency; Environmental taxation; cap-and-trade; international trade; border tax adjustments; tariff policy; producer price; tariff structure; policy debate; price elasticity; Carbon tax; Tariffs; Value-added tax; Emissions trading; Climate policy; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Trade Integration and Political Turbulence: Environmental Policy Consequences
Mr. Muthukumara Mani and Mr. Per G. Fredriksson
This paper seeks to contribute to the unresolved issue of the effect of economic integration on environmental policy. In particular, we discuss the joint impact of trade openness and political uncertainty. Our theory predicts that the effect of trade integreation on the environment is conditional on the degree of political uncertainty. Trade integration raises the stringency of environmental policies, but the effect is reduced when the degree of political uncertainty is great. Political uncertainty has a positive effect on environmental policy as it reduces lobbying efforts. Applying our model to a unique data set of primarily developing countries, the empirical findings support the theory and are robust under alterntive specifications.
Keywords:
WP; lobby group; least squares; incumbent government; Trade liberalization; political instability; lobbying; uncertainty; environmental regulations; policy choice; government turnover; producer lobby; utility function; Environmental policy; Corruption; Environmental taxes; Trade integration; North America