History and social responses to environmental tax reform in the United Kingdom

This paper gives a short history of fuel taxation and the Climate Change Levy in the UK. The research described was based around the use of interviews and focus groups to inform the assessment of social responses to ETR policies and the development of improved designs for them. Interviews were conducted with selected policy makers and companies. Focus groups were conducted with quota samples of the general public. The research shows that the problem that ETR faces in terms of public acceptance is not so much outright hostility to environmental taxation as conceptual problems with the design. Similar conceptual problems were also found in the interviews with business people. These can be summarised as lack of trust about use of the revenues, difficulty in understanding the purpose of a tax shift and a desire for incentives for good behaviour as well as perceived ‘penalties’ for bad behaviour.     

Environmental tax reform: an assessment of social responses in Ireland

Environmental tax reform (ETR) is widely accepted to be a policy with desirable environmental, and other economic effects. The question arises then as to why its implementation has been so patchy. There is a broad literature on the economic impact of ETR, however, there have been very few research efforts devoted to understanding the roles and imperatives of the public, policy makers, businesses and other stakeholders who are addressed by ETR. This paper examines the impediments to ETR in Ireland. Focus groups were formed comprising of members of the general public and these provided a forum for detailed reactions to the ETR concept. Interviews were conducted with policy makers and key business people in an attempt to identify both the patterns of thinking behind ETR and the main obstacles to its introduction. Having presented the results, a theory of the main impediments to ETR is developed. The opinions of the members of the public, the business community and the policy makers highlight a number of issues that need to be addressed in the future design of ETR in Ireland. The principal potential impediments to ETR include: mistrust of the government, implausibility of the policy, means of hypothecation, information asymmetries, the political system, the structure of government, the macroeconomic environment, the impact on competitiveness, inequity between sectors, regressivity, elasticities and the level of the tax, terminology, and the marketing of ETR.     

Environmental and wider implications of political impediments to environmental tax reform

The most common notion of environmental tax reform (ETR) is the use of the revenue from environmental taxes to reduce distortionary labour taxes. The PETRAS project¹ has shown that there are a number of social and political impediments to implementing such reform. This paper firstly outlines some of the environmental and economic implications of environmental taxes generally. It goes on to explore three broad approaches to ETR, based on the allocation of the tax revenues, and explores the environmental and economic implications of each approach and the likelihood of political and social acceptance. Particular attention is paid to reducing regressive impacts and impacts on competitiveness. It is concluded that some combination of earmarking a proportion of revenues to environmental projects and diverting rest to reduce labour taxes is probably the best approach in light of the results of the project. The balance should depend upon local labour market and macroeconomic conditions, the extent to which environmental projects are already funded and the extent of government failure, i.e., the problems of resource allocation that occur as a result of government intervention in markets. Funding should only be provided to environmental projects if it can be shown that, in themselves, they are economically efficient. In addition, it is most important that a proportion of the funds be used to ameliorate any regressive impacts. It is also important to bear in mind that hypothecation or recycling of revenue is not the same as a tax shift, which is a reform of the entire system, so some of these approaches may take away from the integrity of ETR. The paper concludes with some of the initiatives that are likely to be necessary to facilitate social and political acceptance of this approach to ETR.     

Hydropower,social priorities and the rural–urban development divide: The case of large dams in Cambodia

Hydropower investment is a priority in many developing countries, as a means to increase electrification rates and promote national development. However, neglect of dam-affected people's needs, can make them vulnerable to the multifaceted impacts of such projects. Using the case of Cambodia's first large dam, the Kamchay dam, this paper reveals social priorities of affected communities and institutional actors linked to environmental and social implications of large hydropower projects using a preference ranking method. Qualitative research revealed concerns among dam-affected communities which included energy access, livelihood changes, environmental impacts, access to natural resources and compensation. Results also reveal divergence between national and local priorities, which in turn brings about an unequal distribution of costs and benefits of the Kamchay Dam between urban and rural areas. The paper provides recommendations to policy-makers, NGOs and international organizations regarding governance issues, consultation processes and mitigation measures.     

Asia energy mixes from socio-economic and environmental perspectives

Sustainable clean energy is the top social, economic, and environmental agenda of political leaders, policy makers, enlightened business executives, and civil society in Asia. Strong economic growth in Asia has caused a great demand for energy which has resulted in an enormous increase in CO₂ emissions. The association of Southeast Asian nations (ASEAN), India, China, South Korea and Japan are the most important regions in Asia as their economies have been growing steadily. These countries though heavily dependent on fossil fuels have stepped up their measures towards low-carbon society amid domestic affordability challenges and changing global mindset. This report highlights the current energy scenario in these countries and their effort towards an affordable and sustainable clean energy future. The energy policy to enhance energy security and improve environmental sustainability is also explicated in this article.     

Political connections and corporate environmental responsibility: Adopting or escaping?

Corporate environmental responsibility (CER) is increasingly viewed as an important business strategy by researchers, investors, and society as a whole. While prior research has emphasized the role of social pressures, firm-specific factors, as well as CEO characteristics in CER, little attention has been paid to the impacts of political connections. We propose a mechanism-based framework to study how political connections affect firm's propensity to engage in CER. Using comprehensive environmental information disclosure data on China's listed firms, augmented by unique data on political connections, we find that political connections have a positive effect on CER. This effect is more pronounced for state-owned firms and in cities with stringent environmental regulations. With respect to the channels through which political connections increase CER, we further find that political connections help firms to receive government grants, subsidies and tax reduction related to the environment protection, and implement government environmental policies.     

Social and political responses to ecological tax reform in Europe: an introduction to the special issue

This paper introduces the special issue on the Policies for Ecological Tax Reform: Assessment of Social Responses (PETRAS) project about responses to ecological tax reform (ETR) in Europe. Although ETR is widely accepted to be a policy with desirable effects, its implementation has been limited by problems of political acceptability. The project aimed to address the question of how to make such a policy more acceptable. It is the first study to examine in depth the thinking of members of the general public about the ETR policies and is also the first international comparative study of the thinking of ordinary business people about ETR policies. The PETRAS project methodology was based around the use of interviews and focus groups to inform the assessment of social responses to ETR policies and the development of improved designs for them. A number of issues emerged relating to awareness, trust, understanding of the purpose, visibility, incentives, regressivity, levels of taxation, terminology, communication about ETR and the use of alternative instruments. Together with these similarities, a pattern of differences between the countries can also be seen. The final section of this paper introduces the national studies described in the following papers.     

Incorporating socio-environmental considerations into project assessment models using multi-criteria analysis: A case study of Sri Lankan hydropower projects

Before commissioning any energy projects, conducting robust assessments of different options in terms of their economic and socio-environmental impacts is important for successful project implementation. Yet, there is currently a lack of tools that simultaneously assess sustainability impacts; instead, they are often investigated separately, which gives decision makers somehow disintegrated information. Thus the main objective of this study is to examine how to incorporate socio-environmental considerations into project assessment models. The multi-criteria analysis is applied to the case study of Sri Lankan hydropower projects as an illustrative example. The estimated quantitative relationship between economic, environmental and social impacts of hydropower development is presented in this study. Such estimation, using sustainability indicators of hydropower projects, enables us to understand marginal trade-offs among economic, environmental and social objectives of hydropower development. Hence, this would provide an overview of potential impacts of different scenarios that are designed to be implemented and indicate an optimum mix of hydropower generation.     

Ecological Tax Reform in Denmark: history and social acceptability

Despite the long-term and positive experience with Ecological Tax Reform (ETR), the PETRAS study indicates that awareness about the principles behind ETR is low among both businesses and the general public in Denmark. As well as the lack of awareness of ETR, attitudes towards environmental taxation appear negative. When explaining the political intentions behind ETR, attitudes seem to improve somewhat, but they still remain overall sceptical.     

Exploring the impact of technology development and adoption for sustainable hydroelectric power and storage technologies in the Pacific Northwest United States

A wide range of literature streams and methods were examined for this research, including sustainability, integrated resource planning, and construction of portfolios of electricity generation technologies. The research then focused on current and emerging HPSTs (hydropower generation and storage technologies), and technical, economic, social, and environmental sustainability objectives associated with those technologies in the PNW (Pacific Northwest) region of the United States. Candidate technologies obtained from the literature were examined using the Delphi Method, and then rated according to their perceived impacts using the AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process). GP (Goal Programming) was then used to determine an optimal mix of technologies to achieve sustainability objectives, using these weightings and assumptions related to specific scenarios regarding technology development, adoption, and availability. This research is important because few previous studies have systematically considered multiple objectives and criteria from multiple stakeholder experts for creating portfolios of sustainable electricity generation technologies. Previous research has also not comprehensively investigated the manner in which changing scenarios of technology development and availability rates may lead to various technological, economic, environmental, and social sustainability impacts with regard to planning of regional electrical generation and storage systems.     

Navigating the global carbon market: An analysis of the CDM's value chain and prevalent business models

From a slow start, the clean development mechanism (CDM) market has recently experienced enormous growth. However, the CDM market has been increasingly criticised, resulting in a lively debate about how to reform, complement, or replace it. In order to increase transparency and assist policy-makers in better understanding the current market, we depart from the traditional project-level perspective on CDM and analyse commercial activities by utilising data from UNEP Risoe's CDM Bazaar. To this end, we first establish a seven-step value chain by conducting a factor analysis on the commercial activities indicated in the Bazaar and, second, identify nine prevalent business models with a cluster analysis of all 495 participating organisations. Based on these analyses, we discuss potential impacts on the value chain of different policy scenarios that rely on carbon credits as incentive. We find that the importance of specific regulatory CDM know-how and general business activities such as finance varies strongly with the different policy scenarios. Our analysis serves to sensitise policy-makers and business about implications of different regulatory designs.     

Biofuels: Environment,technology and food security

The imminent decline of the world's oil production, its high market prices and environmental impacts have made the production of biofuels to reach unprecedent volumes over the last 10 years. This is why there have been intense debates among international organizations and political leaders in order to discuss the impacts of the biofuel use intensification.Besides assessing the causes of the rise in the demand and production of biofuels, this paper also shows the state of the art of their world's current production. It is also discussed different vegetable raw materials sources and technological paths to produce biofuels, as well as issues regarding production cost and the relation of their economic feasibility with oil international prices. The environmental impacts of programs that encourage biofuel production, farmland land requirements and the impacts on food production are also discussed, considering the life cycle analysis (LCA) as a tool.It is concluded that the rise in the use of biofuels is inevitable and that international cooperation, regulations and certification mechanisms must be established regarding the use of land, the mitigation of environmental and social impacts caused by biofuel production. It is also mandatory to establish appropriate working conditions and decent remuneration for workers of the biofuels production chain.     

The rise and fall of French Ecological Tax Reform: social acceptability versus political feasibility in the energy tax implementation process

The French government has a 10-year history of negotiations with industry, resulting in voluntary agreements on energy consumption. When implemented, these voluntary agreements produced very few results in terms of global reduction of greenhouse emissions (Politiques et Management Public 11(4) (1993) 47), hence the idea of an energy tax became increasingly attractive for many French decision-makers. Ecological/Environmental Tax Reform (ETR) should have been one of the major political decisions and successes of the past leftwing coalition government. Instead it became one of its major failures as the Constitutional Court decided to terminate the energy tax project in December 2000. Through insights gleaned from focus groups and interviews with business-people and decision-makers, an attempt is made to understand the failure of the energy tax project. Firstly, decision-makers lacked crucial information about public and business opinions and secondly, there were conflicts between the relevant administrations. The fuel revolts of 2000 ended any hope of resolving the conflicts and implementing ETR, which was ultimately found unconstitutional. This paper examines the political controversies raised by the ETR project and the reasons for its eventual collapse, in the hope of contributing new understanding to the body of knowledge on the political difficulties of introducing environmental policy instruments.     

The environmental impacts of arable coppice power generation — A case study from Cornwall, UK

This paper is concerned with the assessment of the environmental impacts associated with a 2.5MW biopower station, fuelled by arable coppice, to be developed at a rural site in Cornwall, South West England. The project represents a new form of energy production for the UK and the first one of its type to be subject to environmental assessment in this country. The study was carried out on behalf of South Western Power Ltd and in support of its application for planning consent to build and operate the facility. The environmental assessment (EA) was comprehensive and reviewed the possible impacts of the plant on air and water quality; noise; landscape; socio economics, ecology and cultural heritage. Impacts during the construction phase were also considered.The study concluded that, with the exception of visual amenity, the plant would have no significant environmental impacts. Mitigation measures to reduce visual impacts in the form of landscaping around the site were introduced to reduce visual intrusion. Positive benefits would be derived through employment potential and through reductions in greenhouse gases and other polluting emissions. The development of this type of renewable energy plant would represent a significant step towards establishing a new type of environmental benign energy production method in the UK.     

A framework for environmental assessment of CO2 capture and storage systems

Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) is increasingly seen as a way for society to enjoy the benefits of fossil fuel energy sources while avoiding the climate disruption associated with fossil CO₂ emissions. A decision to deploy CCS technology at scale should be based on robust information on its overall costs and benefits. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a framework for holistic assessment of the energy and environmental footprint of a system, and can provide crucial information to policy-makers, scientists, and engineers as they develop and deploy CCS systems. We identify seven key issues that should be considered to ensure that conclusions and recommendations from CCS LCA are robust: energy penalty, functional units, scale-up challenges, non-climate environmental impacts, uncertainty management, policy-making needs, and market effects. Several recent life-cycle studies have focused on detailed assessments of individual CCS technologies and applications. While such studies provide important data and information on technology performance, such case-specific data are inadequate to fully inform the decision making process. LCA should aim to describe the system-wide environmental implications of CCS deployment at scale, rather than a narrow analysis of technological performance of individual power plants.     

Firm performance and employment in the EU emissions trading scheme: An empirical assessment for Germany

This paper empirically investigates the role of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) for firm performance and employment in Germany. We provide an overview of relative allowance allocation within the EU ETS as well as an econometric analysis for a large sample of German firms covered by the scheme in order to assess the impacts of EU emissions regulation on both firm revenues and employment. The dataset indicates that the EU ETS was in an overall long position in 2005, although allowance allocation was very heterogeneous across member states. Our econometric analysis suggests that, within the first phase of the EU ETS, relative allowance allocation did not have a significant impact on firm performance and employment of regulated German firms.     

Towards a low carbon energy future – Renewable energy cooperation between Germany and Norway

Renewable energy is a cornerstone of German climate change policies. Germany has adopted particularly ambitious renewable energy targets, and is now implementing an Energiewende – a transition to a nuclear-free and low-carbon energy system. The transition could be eased through European cooperation. This article investigates the economic, political, environmental and technological factors that act as drivers and barriers to renewable energy cooperation between Germany and Norway. The article finds that German actors see Norwegian electricity as a means for enhancing the stability of their electricity system as Germany shifts to a greater reliance on renewables. In Norway the picture is more mixed. Norwegian state-owned electricity producers and grid operators are interested in cooperation largely out of profit motives, but expect Germany to create a favorable environment for investors. Energy-intensive industries and consumers on the other hand, are afraid that more electricity cooperation with Germany will raise electricity prices. The Norwegian environmental movement is split on the issue. Parts of the movement see renewable energy cooperation as an important step towards a European low-carbon energy future. Nature and outdoor organizations, however, argue that new renewable energy infrastructure, including pumped-storage hydropower, will result in major environmental impacts. If cooperation is to be achieved, these economic and environmental concerns will have to be taken seriously.     

Feed-in tariffs for photovoltaics: Learning by doing in Germany?

This paper examines the potential effects of Germany’s feed-in tariff policy for small roof-top solar PV systems installed between 2009 and 2030. Employing a partial equilibrium approach, we evaluate the policy by weighing the benefits from induced learning and avoided environmental externalities against the social costs of promoting residential PV. We use a dynamic optimization model that maximizes social welfare by accounting for learning-by-doing, technology diffusion, and yield-dependent demand. We find a wide range of effects on welfare, from net social costs of 2014 million € under a “business as usual” scenario to 7586 million € of net benefits under the positive prospects of PV’s development. Whereas the “business as usual” scenario underestimates actual price reductions, the positive scenario mirrors recent price developments and feed-in tariffs in the German residential PV market.     

The influence of consumers' environmental beliefs and attitudes on energy saving behaviours

With a heightened focus on the concept of sustainability in the past few decades, government, business and individuals have become increasingly aware of the need to reduce our environmental footprint. Consequently there has been much research on consumer environmental behaviour, and the beliefs, norms and attitudes that influence this behaviour. In this article we develop a conceptual framework of consumer environmental behaviour and its antecedents, and test hypotheses within the framework by means of a survey of green consumers. The results show that general environmental beliefs do influence norms on environmental actions and prices, but only norms on price are correlated with environmental attitudes; both intrinsic and extrinsic environmental drivers together with social norms and community influence are associated with environmental attitudes, but cost barriers may have a negative influence. It was also found that there was a strong association between environmental attitudes and energy saving behaviours but the latter was not in any way influenced by government policies or subsidies.     

The quantification of the embodied impacts of construction projects on energy,environment, and society based on I–O LCA

With rapid social development and large-scale construction of infrastructure in China, construction projects have become one of the driving forces for the national economy, whose energy consumption, environmental emissions, and social impacts are significant. To completely understand the role of construction projects in Chinese society, this study developed input–output life-cycle assessment models based on 2002, 2005, and 2007 economic benchmarks. Inventory indicators included 10 types of energy, 7 kinds of environmental emissions, and 7 kinds of social impacts. Results show that embodied energy of construction projects in China accounts for 25–30% of total energy consumption; embodied SO₂ emissions are being controlled, and the intensities of embodied NO_x and CO₂ have been reduced. However, given that the construction sector related employment is 17% of the total employment in China, the accidents and fatalities related to the construction sector are significant and represent approximately 50% of the national total. The embodied human and capital investments in science and technology (ST) increased from 2002 to 2007. The embodied full time equivalent (FTE) of each ST person also increased while the personal ST funding and intramural expenditures decreased. This might result from the time lag between RD activities and large-scale implementation.