9.2 Economic, Social, and Environmental Impacts of Policies and Measures on
Prices, Economic Output, Employment, Competitiveness, and Trade Relations at
the Sector and Sub-sector Levels
Studies of the impact of mitigation policies on sectors can be divided into
those which adopt a general approach and cover all the sectors of the economy
in question, and those which concentrate on one sector or group of sectors,
leaving aside indirect effects on the rest of the economy. The general studies
are discussed in 9.2.1, and the sector studies are
considered in the sections that follow.
The studies can also be arranged according to the methodology of the analysis:
- top-down studies, that capture general effects on the economy and tend to
consider price-driven policies such as carbon taxes rather than technology
policies;
- bottom-up studies that do not consider general effects but examine technology-driven
options1
; and
- financial cost-benefit analyses of individual mitigation measures, which
do not include impacts on social factors, but sometimes do include the ancillary
benefits (e.g., ADB-GEF-UNDP, 1998a).
The general studies tend to be top-down, although there have been major comprehensive
bottom-up studies (e.g., Krause et al., 1992). Many of the individual
sector studies are bottom-up or cost-benefit. The top-down and bottom-up methodologies
are compared in Section 9.4.1.1.
9.2.1 Impacts from Multisectoral Studies
These studies tend to use large-scale models as a framework for the analysis.
Important differences between the studies arise from the type of model being
used (computable general equilibrium (CGE) or econometric), the method chosen
for the recycling of any tax revenues, and the treatment of the world oil market.
Two topics, the effects of carbon taxes (and more recently traded emission permits)
and the removal of energy subsidies, have been assessed in some detail.
9.2.1.1 Effects of Carbon Taxes and Auctioned Emission
Permits
Table 9.1 gives some details of studies of mitigation
policies for which sectoral effects are available. These are all at a country
or world-region level (e.g., the European Union). The table also shows the outcomes
of different policies on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, GDP and
sectoral outputs. For some studies a range of outcomes is shown, corresponding
to the range published for GDP depending on some critical assumption, such as
the method chosen to recycle government revenues. The effects are shown as differences
from the reference scenario or the base in the final year of the projection.
Note that the macroeconomic results of these studies are covered in Chapter
8.
Table 9.1: Some multisectoral studies of carbon
dioxide mitigation |
|
Region or
reference
country |
China
Garbaccio
et al.
(1999)
|
EU-6
DRI
(1994)
|
EU-11
Barker
(1999)
|
New
Zealand
Bertram
et al.
(1993)
|
UK
Cambridge
Econo-
metrics
(1998)
|
USA
CRA
and DRI
(1994)
|
USA
Jorgenson
et al.
(1999)
|
USA
McKibbin
et al.
(1999)
|
|
Funding body |
US Dept of
Energy
|
EC
|
EC
|
NZ Min
of
Environ-
ment
|
FFF-FOE
|
Electric
Power
Research
Institute
|
|
US EPA
|
Model |
|
DRI-models
|
E3ME
|
ESSAM
|
MDM-E3
|
DRI
|
JWS
|
G-cubed
|
Model type |
Static CGE
|
Macro
|
Macro
|
CGE
|
Macro
|
Macro
|
Dynamic
CGE
|
Dynamic
CGE
|
Policy |
Carbon tax
|
Carbon tax
|
Carbon tax
|
Carbon &
energy taxes
|
Carbon tax
|
Carbon tax
|
Emission
permits
|
Emission
permits
|
Recycling mode |
All other
taxes
|
Employer
taxes
|
Employer
taxes
|
Corporate
tax
|
Employer
taxes
|
Lump-
sum
|
Personal
income
|
Lump-
sum
|
Industries |
29
|
20-30
|
30
|
28
|
49
|
About 100
|
35
|
12
|
Fuel types |
4
|
17
|
11
|
4
|
10
|
4
|
4
|
5
|
Period |
1992 to 2032
|
1992 to 2010
|
1970 to 2010
|
1987 to 1997
|
1960 to 2010
|
1990 to 2010
|
1996 to 2020
|
1996 to 2020
|
Effect year |
2032
|
2010
|
2010
|
1996/97
|
2010
|
2010
|
2020
|
2010
|
Model run |
15%
|
INT
|
Mult-coord.
|
324
|
C72F11
|
$100/tC
|
Personal
|
Unilateral
US
|
CO2
GDP |
-15%
+1%
|
-15%
+0.9%
|
-10%
+1.4%
|
-46%
+4.6%
|
-4.4%
+0.1%
|
-15.3%
-2.3%
|
-31%
+0.6%
|
-29.6%
-0.7%
|
Output: coal |
-19%
|
Energy -7%
|
-8%
|
-24%
|
0%
|
-25%
|
-52%
|
-40%
|
: refined oil
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
: gas
|
|
|
-4
|
-41
|
-4
|
-18
|
-25
|
-14
|
: electricity
|
|
|
-3
|
-17
|
-1
|
-17
|
-12
|
-6
|
: agriculture
|
|
-7
|
+3
|
+4
|
+0
|
|
+4
|
-1
|
: forestry
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
: food, etc.
|
+0 (year 1)
|
Manufac-
turing +1
|
+2
|
+3
|
+0
|
|
+5
|
Nondur-
ables -1
|
: chemicals
|
+1 (year 1)
|
|
+2
|
+6
|
-0
|
|
-0
|
..
|
steel
|
+1 (year 1)
|
|
+1
|
-26
|
-1
|
-5
|
-3
|
Durables 1
|
: construction
|
+1 (year 1)
|
..
|
+1
|
+0
|
+0
|
|
+1
|
..
|
: transport
|
+1 (year 1)
|
-2
|
+0
|
+5
|
+0
|
-4
|
+1
|
-2
|
: services
|
+0 (year 1)
|
+1
|
+1
|
+6
|
+0
|
-2
|
+3
|
-0
|
: consumers
expenditure
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Several conclusions are well established in this literature.
- The nature of the recycling of revenues from new taxes or permit schemes
is critical to the sectoral effects (and the overall GDP effects - see Chapters
7 and 8 for a detailed discussion
of the recycling literature). In some of the studies (e.g. Garbaccio et
al., 1999, 2000), GDP is increased above the reference scenario when
rates for some burdensome tax are reduced. Those studies that report reductions
in GDP do not always provide a range of recycling options, suggesting that
policy packages that increase GDP have not been explored.
- Reductions in fossil fuel output below the reference case will not impact
all fossil fuels equally. Fuels have different costs and price sensitivities,
they respond differently to mitigation policies, energy-efficiency technology
is fuel and combustion device specific, and reductions in demand can affect
imports differently from output. Large effects on gas output are discussed
below in Section 9.2.3.2.
- In most instances the relative decline in output does not imply an absolute
decline of the sector; rather it implies a decline in its rate of growth.
This is particularly true for the oil sector, where under present technology
there is a captive market in the use of oil for personal transportation, which
is expected to increase substantially over the foreseeable future (this is
not shown in Table 9.1, but reflected in the literature).
- The sectoral results suggest that agriculture usually benefits2.
The effects on manufacturing are mixed and the reasons for these results are
explored below. Finally, the service sectors generally increase their output
as a result of the policy shifts; since services are such a large proportion
of GDP, if the overall economy has higher output this usually implies that
services have higher output.
It is worth placing these results and the tasks faced by mitigation policy
in an historical perspective. CO2 emissions have tended to grow more
slowly than GDP in a number of countries over the last 40 years (Proops et
al., 1993; Price et al., 1998; Baumert et al.,
1999). The reasons for such trends vary but include:
- a shift away from coal and oil, and towards nuclear and gas as the sources
of energy;
- improvements in energy efficiency by industry and households; and
- a shift from heavy manufacturing towards more service and information-based
economic activity.
These trends will be encouraged and strengthened by mitigation policies.
|