Economics Discussion Paper Series

Design Concerns for Agricultural Soil Carbon Markets: An Economic Research Agenda

The market for agricultural soil carbon credits has grown exponentially in recent years, opening up a new set of opportunities and risks in the fight against climate change. However, both scientific and economic research is urgently needed to develop an underlying basis for these credits. This paper offers an economic framework to help researchers and policymakers understand the challenges involved in establishing an agricultural greenhouse gases (GHG) market that achieves environmental goals and creates large-scale change.

Author: Kelsey Larson

Read the paper

Policy Options for Addressing Methane Emissions from the Coal Sector

Methane is a potent but short-lived greenhouse gas (GHG), in which reduction is necessary to keep the achievement of the Paris Agreement objectives within reach. The extraction, transport and consumption of coal is a major source of CO2 and the fourth-largest source of anthropogenic methane emissions after livestock, rice production and the oil and gas supply chains. At the same time, coal remains the world's second source of primary energy and is a core input in strategic industries such as iron and steel production.

Author: Maria Olczak

Read the paper

Read our blog post

Advancing Effective and Equitable Crediting for Natural Climate Solutions: Equity Considerations on the Demand Side of NCS Crediting

Significant equity considerations arise around both the generation and use of emissions reductions associated with Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) carbon credits. This paper focuses on the demand side, referring to the use of carbon credits generated through NCS for compliance with regulatory obligations or to meet voluntary commitments.

Authors: Julia Ilhardt, Nina Randazzo, Fern Uennatornwaranggoon and Devyani Singh

Read the paper

Read our blog post

Advancing Effective and Equitable Crediting for Natural Climate Solutions: Mitigating Credit Transaction Risk Through Contract Design

Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) have the potential to provide one-third of the climate mitigation needed to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees. But to achieve this goal, investments in NCS need to rapidly scale up, including private sector investments. Private actors seeking to engage in NCS credit transactions will encounter a variety of risks related to market dynamics and market perceptions.

Authors: Alexander Golub, Clayton Munnings, Alicia Robinson, Julia Ilhardt, Devyani Singh, Suzi Kerr and Christine Gerbode

Read the paper

Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Beyond the Nationally Determined Contributions in Chile: An Assessment of Alternatives

In support of the Climate Action Teams initiative, we evaluate Chile's potential for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation beyond its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) through implementing ambitious actions. An open multisector model is used to project GHG emissions. The results indicate that additional efforts are required to meet Chile's NDC commitments.

Authors: José Miguel Valdes, Álvaro Lorca, Cristian Salas, Francisco Pinto, Rocío Herrera, Alejandro Bañados, Raúl Urtubia, Patricio Castillo, Lucas Maulén and Diego González.

Read the paper

Improving Household and Community Disaster Recovery: Evidence on the Role of Insurance

We study the role of insurance in improving household and community disaster recovery. Harnessing unique survey data of residents impacted by four land-falling hurricanes in the U.S., we find that insured households are less likely to experience high financial burdens in both the short and longer-run post-disaster and are less likely to have unmet funding needs. Insurance also provides spillover benefits for the local economy.

Authors: Xuesong You and Carolyn Kousky.

Read the paper

Potential Greenhouse Gas Reductions Beyond Chile's Nationally Determined Contribution to 2030: Preliminary Modelling Results

A prospective emissions open-access model was developed by a modeling team from the Global Change Center of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile to explore mitigation opportunities beyond Chile’s NDC. This paper shares the results, which represent a first approximation of the mitigation potential and its costs.

Authors: Andrés Pica-Téllez, Álvaro Lorca, Raúl Urtubia, Luis Abdon Cifuentes, José Miguel Valdes. Viviana Cerda-Gho, Catalina Veloso, Diego González, Horacio Gilabert, Francisco Meza, Francisco Pinto, Valentina Jara, Catalina Marinkovic-De la Cruz, Sebastián Vicuña, Juan Pablo Montero.

Read the paper

Policy Instrument Options for Addressing Methane Emissions from the Oil and Gas Sector

This paper outlines different policy instrument options for both oil and gas producing as well as –importing countries and is intended as a descriptive guide for those interested in exploring different public policy instruments and how they can be designed to address methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.

Authors: Kristina Mohlin, Maureen Lackner, Huong Nguyen, Aaron Wolfe.

Read the paper

Read our blog post

Forest Protection and Permanence of Reduced Emissions

This research models the application of different policy pathways to slow down and stop deforestation, and finds that REDD+ works as an initial intervention to help shift tropical nations towards a zero-deforestation trajectory.

Authors: Margaret McCallister, Andrey Krasovskiy, Anton Platov, Alexander Golub, Breno Pietracci, and Gabriela Leslie.

Read the paper

Cost-Reflective Residential Electricity Tariff Design: Synthesis of research findings on the impacts on customer bills, adoption of distributed energy resources and pollution

This synthesis paper summarizes the findings from a research project on the impacts of residential electricity tariff design on adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs), pollution and customer bills.

Authors: Kristina Mohlin, Beia Spiller, Karen Tapia-Ahumada and Burcin Unel.

Read the paper

Agricultural Climate Change Adaptation: A Review of Recent Approaches

This report reviews two recent approaches to studying climate change adaptation in agriculture: panel data methods and spatial general equilibrium models.

Author: Tara Sullivan.

Read the paper

The U.S. Gas Pipeline Transportation Market

This paper outlines the regulations and main features of the U.S. gas transportation market to facilitate analyses of how to improve the design and regulation of this market for the energy transition.

Author: Kristina Mohlin.

Read the paper

Pricing Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Production

This brief assesses how a price on methane from oil and gas production could complement existing regulations and incentivize companies to further increase their mitigation and monitoring efforts to achieve methane emission reductions.

Authors: Maureen Lackner, Jonathan R. Camuzeaux, Suzi Kerr and Kristina Mohlin.

Read the paper

The Plastic Economy

This report reviews the literature on the impacts of plastic, explores environmentally-friendly plastic alternatives, and examines plastic regulations and discusses evidence of their efficacy at reducing plastic use and pollution.

Authors: Lihini De Silva, Jacqueline Doremus and Rebecca L. C. Taylor.

Read the paper

The Health Benefits of Solar Power Generation

This paper estimates the impact of solar energy deployment on health outcomes in Chile, identifying some of the important co-benefits of renewable energy investments in developing countries.

Authors: Nathaly Rivera, Cristobal Ruiz-Tagle, and Beia Spiller.

Read the paper
Blog post

Water Management in the Western U.S.

This report discusses water management in the western U.S. and investigates related problems. Topics include fragmented water management, groundwater market design, and agricultural adaptation to reduced water supplies.

Author: Shanchao Wang.

Read the paper

The Role of Electricity Tariff Design in Distributed Energy Resource Deployment

This work simulates the effect of electricity tariffs on household adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs), providing insights into tariff design and the role of DERs in a future decarbonized electricity system.

Authors: Beia Spiller, Ricardo Esparza, Kristina Mohlin, Karen Tapia-Ahumada and Burcin Unel.

Read the paper

Agricultural Offset Potential in the United States

This article describes efforts undertaken by EDF over the past decade to design and implement agricultural GHG offset credit markets for several crops and geographies.

Authors: Jeremy Proville, Robert Parkhurst, Steven Koller, Sara Kroopf, Justin S. Baker and William A. Salas.

Read the paper
Blog post

Wholesale Electricity Market Design for Decarbonization

This paper presents an overview of the most salient challenges involved with decarbonizing electricity markets through wholesale market design, identifying areas where economic research can advance this crucial policy goal.

Author: Christopher Holt.

Read the paper
Blog post