Climate change: responsibilities and policy : four essays in environmental economics

This thesis investigates empirically three important aspects in the context of climate change: regulatory responsibility, the measurement of observed environmental policy stringency as well as the impact of the latter on anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Although distinct, all three aspects are inherently interrelated, and a proper understanding is crucial in order to effectively combat climate change. Part 1 contains two introductory descriptive analyses on the distribution of greenhouse gas emissions on the world surface. This provides a detailed quantitative basis, allowing to shed light on the responsibility debate in the context of human induced climate change. The results clearly indicate the historical responsibility of the West, but suggest that the responsibility of countries in terms of applied regulations is converging, while the one of specific sectors and zones is rapidly diverging. Part 2 outlines a coherent methodological framework allowing to measure environmental policy stringency and implements the latter for several pollutant specific policies. Part 3 investigates empirically the relationship between greenhouse gas policy stringency and anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Results indicate that increased greenhouse gas policy stringency lowers national CO2 emissions, although by a rather small extent. Moreover, results show that increased policy stringency improves CO2 efficiency of sectors and alters the sectoral composition of economies by increasing the share of relatively clean sectors.

Thèse de doctorat : Université de Neuchâtel, 2015 ; 2494