1887

OECD Economics Department Working Papers

Working papers from the Economics Department of the OECD that cover the full range of the Department’s work including the economic situation, policy analysis and projections; fiscal policy, public expenditure and taxation; and structural issues including ageing, growth and productivity, migration, environment, human capital, housing, trade and investment, labour markets, regulatory reform, competition, health, and other issues.

The views expressed in these papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of the governments of its member countries.

English, French

Estimating the CO2 emission and revenue effects of carbon pricing

New evidence from a large cross-country dataset

This paper estimates the long-run elasticity of emissions and carbon-related government revenues to carbon pricing. It is based on the OECD Effective Carbon Rates database, the most comprehensive cross-country longitudinal database on direct and indirect carbon pricing. Econometric estimates suggest that a EUR 10 increase in carbon pricing decreases CO2 emissions from fossil fuels by 3.7% on average in the long term. In such a scenario, carbon-related government revenues would triple at global level, though over time they are expected to dwindle as additional increases in carbon pricing result in further reductions in emissions. Broadening carbon pricing to currently unpriced emissions contributes to two thirds of the effects on emissions and revenues. At the country level, emissions and government revenues responses differ depending on countries’ sectoral structure and fuel sources. Dynamic simulations based on these estimates reveal that even large effective carbon rates (about EUR 1000 per tonne by late 2030s) will not suffice to meet net-zero emission targets. A sensitivity analysis shows that this result is robust to a large range of elasticity estimates. Reaching net zero then calls for complementary policies aiming at broadening and raising carbon prices, and drastically increasing the substitution of clean energy sources for fossil fuels through innovation and reallocation.

English

Keywords: carbon-related revenues, mitigation policy, carbon price elasticity, Effective carbon rates
JEL: Q54: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Environmental Economics / Climate; Natural Disasters and Their Management; Global Warming; Q41: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Energy / Energy: Demand and Supply; Prices; Q48: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Energy / Energy: Government Policy; H23: Public Economics / Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue / Taxation and Subsidies: Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies; C23: Mathematical and Quantitative Methods / Single Equation Models; Single Variables / Single Equation Models; Single Variables: Panel Data Models; Spatio-temporal Models
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error