Achieving the massive target of reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in the household sector requires that consumers be made aware of this issue. If consumers update their energy-saving awareness and related behaviors, the energy-efficiency effect can be expected to continue. For this purpose, this study analyzes the indirect effects of the housing eco-points system subsidy…
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Should the EU ETS be Extended to Road Transport and Heating Fuels?
This paper considers the current proposal to extend the EU ETS to cover CO2 emissions from the combustion of heating and road transport fuels. We argue that increased coverage of the EU ETS, together with a binding cap consistent with a net zero trajectory, would provide an EU-wide quantity backstop ensuring that the EU’s cumulative…
Conceptual and Institutional Prerequisites for Guiding Equitable Progress Towards Universal Rural Electrification
Rural electrification is a means not an end, explicitly or implicitly aimed at improving the socio-economic conditions and living standards of those living in rural areas. Yet, most policies and programs aimed at rural electrification solely target and are evaluated on extending connections, with mixed results. In this article, we argue that next generation electrification…
Prosumer Empowerment through Community Power Purchase Agreements: A Market Design for Swarm Grids
In this paper, we are proposing a policy innovation for both a more sustainable and a more inclusive electrification strategy, particularly for improved energy access in the Global South: combining the extension of national grids whilst taking advantage of existing decentralized renewable energy infrastructure allowing their collective feed-in to the national grid. We are introducing…
Who Knows What: Information Barriers to Efficient DER Roll-out in the U.S.
Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) are increasingly popular. Their relevance to the functioning of energy systems and emissions reduction has spurred a flurry of policy discussions and research into the measures needed to facilitate integration of these resources. However, the majority of that work focuses on systems characterized by complete and perfect information, while in reality,…
Electricity market reform in Japan after Fukushima
This study reviews the status, progress, and policy issues related to the reform of the Japanese electricity market undertaken in response to the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in March of 2011. The reform has three stages: (1) establishment of a neutral organization of network operation, (2) extension of retail competition to household…
The Effect of Community Reinvestment Funds on Local Acceptance of Unconventional Gas Development
A survey with an embedded experimental design is employed to determine whether local public support for an unconventional gas development (UGD) project is influenced by a policy that commits a portion of private revenues from UGD to the state or local government. The public opinion survey (N = 2,700) oversamples residents living in counties of…
A Global South Perspective on Stranded Regions: Insights from the Decline of Coal Mining in Cesar, Colombia
The sharp decline in fossil fuel demand related to the Covid-19 pandemic put in evidence some of the impacts that can be created by the energy transition. By putting into conversation the literature on economic decline in extractive regions and debates on stranded fossil fuel assets, this paper presents the case of the region of…
Electricity Markets in the Resource-Rich Countries of the MENA: Adapting for the Transition Era
The Middle East and North Africa’s (MENA) resource-rich economies are pursuing two parallel strategies in their electricity sectors: (i) increasing and integrating renewables into their power generation mix to mitigate the impact of rising domestic oil and gas demand on their economies and boost hydrocarbon export capacities; and (ii) undertaking power sector reforms to attract…
Comparing Interstate Regulation and Investment in US Gas and Electric Transmission
The interstate electric and natural gas sectors in the United States share some common regulatory elements, although the simpler economics of network expansion in gas pipelines allow the industry to operate on a contract-based framework that would be highly inefficient in electric transmission. The strong incentives for new pipeline development have allowed new gas pipeline…