Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Röttgers, Dirk
• Anderson, Brilé

Titel

Power struggle: DECARBONISING THE ELECTRICITY SECTOR - EFFECTS OF CLIMATE POLICIES, POLICY MISALIGNMENTS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY FACTORS ON DECARBONISATION

Ist Teil von

• OECD Environment Working Papers, 2018 (139), p.1-51

Ort / Verlag

Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

OECD iLibrary

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This analysis investigates the effects of select climate policies, non-climate policies, as well as political economy factors on the decarbonisation of electricity in OECD countries from 2000 to 2015. Effects are analysed on the three phases of decarbonisation: (1) increasing the share of renewables installed, (2) increasing the use of renewables in generation, and (3) reducing the emissions from electricity. Results for climate policies show that higher feed-in-tariffs (in terms of USD/kWh) and higher renewable energy quotas significantly increase the installation of renewables and the use of renewables in generation, while fossil fuel subsidies significantly reduce their installation and use. However, there is no robust effect of these factors on emissions. This could be symptomatic of "weak" climate policies (e.g., uneven low carbon prices) or the continued use of highly emission-intensive sources in the "non-green" side of electricity. In contrast, political economy factors, such as governmental rents from fossil fuels and jobs in the fossil fuel industry, significantly increase electricity emissions, in addition to reducing the installation and use of renewables. The implication is that climate policies and a singular focus on ramping up renewables, in themselves, are insufficient to decarbonise. Addressing the non-green side of electricity either by attenuating vested interests in fossil fuels (e.g., via labour market reforms or identifying alternative streams of government) or reducing the use of high emission-intensive sources is also useful in any decarbonisation strategy.