footer all slides 2014-02-06 SLUUMU

Tax on flight and bonus malus ineffective

CERE’s Runar Brännlund explains in an article on SvD debate what he considers to be political decisions comprised of a mess of more or less useless subsidies and taxes. Decisions discussed are the taxation on air travels introduced April 1st, 2018 and the bonus malus taxation on cars being introduced July 1st, 2018.

Runar calls the political decisions for green washing, only creating an image of powerful and effective measures but in practice it means costs and a redistribution of resources between different groups in society, without any real climate effect. If the objective is to reduce global emissions, then the EU ETS already in place, is a better tool and can be expanded to include more countries and sectors. Closer to home the carbon tax is a known effective tool and any revenue from it can be used to compensate for undesired distribution effects.

The article in SvD "Professor: Flygskatten och bonus-malus saknar effekt" was published online June 13, 2018. (only in Swedish)
Read the report that the article refers to; "En analys av svenska miljöskatters effektivitet" Svenskt näringsliv (Confederation of Swedish Enterprise) June 2018. (only in Swedish)

”Snabba tåg stöds varken av klimat eller ekonomi”

There is no translation available.

CERE:s Bengt Kriström och Per-Olov Johansson skriver på SvD debatt den 28 april, 2018 om vad de anser vara en ”samstämmighet mellan ekonomiska experter vad gäller en satsning på höghastighetsbanor i Sverige”. Förutom att projektet ”har få eller inga möjligheter att bli samhällsekonomiskt lönsamt. En av de avgörande faktorerna är befolkningsunderlaget – Sverige har helt enkelt en för liten befolkning” menar de.

”Höghastighetstågen kan möjligen något minska utsläppen av växthusgaser men till en hög kostnad. En koldioxidminskning kan kosta upp till 40 gånger mer än i det billigaste alternativet.”

Läs hela artikeln ”Snabba tåg stöds varken av klimat eller ekonomi”

Emissions amplified by governmental billions

The newspaper Syre, writes about the goal of phasing out subsidies that are damaging to the climate and the environment. The goal is widely supported politically but not entirely unproblematic. CERE’s Runar Brännlund say that here are good grounds for the existance of reduced environmental taxes.

“The general reason used is competition. However, I would say that it is more adequate to describe it as an issue of carbon leakage. The obligation to pay full tax could in, for example, the agricultural sector mean that large parts of the business would have to shut down. This would lead to increased import from elsewhere, that in the end would potentially mean higher emissions.

We therefore need to make an analysis of which effects each case would have on the global emissions with a changed tax rate, says Runar Brännlund. At the moment, there is a lacko of clear motives as to why Swedish subsidies remain, this was established by, for instance, OECD in a review from 2014.”

Read the full article ”Statliga miljarder göder utsläppen” (only in Swedish), published online April 12th, 2017.

Workshop on Waste Economics

Sliperiet, Room “White Box”
May 8th, 2018, 09:00 – 16:00

The workshop on waste economics will address issues relating to municipal waste management. The focus will be on the waste hierarchy and how environmental effects and sustainability can be worked into a social welfare framework. At the very heart of the discussion will be the question of how fast we should climb the waste hierarchy ladder. The workshop will also address the importance of considering incentive structures and market dynamics when designing policies aiming for a circular economy. For more information about the presentations, see the attached program.

The workshop targets a broad audience and constitutes a platform where researchers and stakeholders can meet and exchange ideas. All presentations and discussion will be in English.

Sign up for the workshop by sending an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. no later than April 30. Please indicate if you have any special preferences regarding lunch (vegetarian, allergies etc). The seats are limited to around 50.

The Green Technology and Environmental Economics Research and Collaboration Platform focus on interdisciplinary research and development by integrating environmental system analysis, process integration and environmental economics expertise. The platform focuses on environmental analyses and relates to Sweden’s environmental quality objectives and the development of sustainable cities. The platform is a joint initiative from Umeå University and the Umeå Municipality Companies Umeå Energi, VAKIN and Dåva DAC.

pdfProgram

Dynamic residential pricing of electricity: is it beneficial for households and the electric system?

RESEARCH: Most plausible scenarios of dynamic pricing of residential electricity is likely to lead to households reducing electricity usage along with their monthly bill. In view of the timing of the reduction in demand, Dynamic pricing could play a role in integration of intermittent energy sources. CERE member Chandra Kiran explains findings in the new working paper. Click on headline to read more
Illustration: Mona Bonta Bergman

"The intellectual collapse of environmental policy"

CERE's Per-Olov Johansson and Bengt Kriström states their views on what they call the intellectual collapse of environmental policy in Barometern. They claim that it is "no longer about difficult tradeoffs, not even about making impact assessments". They argue that environmental policy moves away from evidence-based policies towards measures without scientific support that are unnecessarily costly, and that both the environment and taxpayers could benefit from improved environmental policies.

"The Swedish environmental policy of today lives in an intellectual vacuum that in the long run, both the environment and taxpayers pick up the bill for. Introducing new tools for environmental policy supported by solid economic theory is replaced by symbolic politics without principles. The environmental policy has lost its intellectual vitality."

Read the full article "Miljöpolitikens intellektuella kollaps" (The intellectual collapse of the environmental policy) in Barometern, published February 19, 2018. Please note: only in Swedish.

Quotes translated by webmaster. 

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