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EU ETS breakdown

The EU emissions trading system reform have made it so difficult to understand that reputable economist results are diametrically different regarding its function, writes CERE’s Per-Olov Johansson on Svenska Dagbladet September 24th, 2020.

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Uncertain which environmental issue the plastic bag tax is addressing

Sweden has a goal to come out of the pandemic a bit more sustainable and will therefore keep the new tax on plastic carrier bags. A tax CERE’s Runar Brännlund is very sceptic to, something he voiced on Swedish Radio on September 22nd, 2020.

Runar claims that it is uncertain which environmental issue the tax is supposed to be addressing and consequently what effect it has on this unknown issue. He questions the presence of a proper cost-benefit analysis since the tax only cover carrier plastic bags and no other plastic packaging. Which means that the market can increase their pre-packaging without consequence and the amount of plastic could remain the same.

Listen to the radio segment (only in Swedish); Professorn: "Oklart vilken effekt skatt på bärplastkassar har". Sveriges radio September 22, 2020

Tax on plastic bags a fiasco?

Runar Brännlund claims that there are multiple reasons that the tax has failed. One aspect being that the taxed plastic bags, that aren't even an environmental issue, are being replaced by products that, from a environmental point of view, actually is problematic. (only in Swedish)

Too much faith in demand flexibility

Mattias Vesterberg takes a closer look at demand flexibility in a SNS report and on Dagens industry. Trusting in the households willingness to adapt are often unrealistic, says Mattias Vesterberg.

Over the summer, southern Sweden have suffered from electricity shortages, which, according to Mattias, points to the challenges the Swedish electricity market is facing. One of the discussed solutions is that households should actively face the challenges by adjusting their electricity use hours when more electricity is available. This, however, is quite the task considering that household use electricity for heating when it’s cold, light when its dark, and cooking when they are hungry and at home. That the household would be flexible here is often unrealistic according to Mattias Vesterberg.

The Dagens industri debate article ”Hushållen löser inte elbristen”, published September 13th, 2020. (only in Swedish)

The SNS report (2020) ”Den svenska elmarknaden: Är hushållen en kraft att räkna med?” (only in Swedish).

Meet visiting researcher Parisa Pakrooh

Parisa Pakrooh is a PhD student within the field of Energy Economics (Fossil Fuels) and Climate Change at the University of Tabriz, Iran. She has come to CERE for a longer stay of at least six months to further develop her knowledge within the field at a center known for its experience on energy and environmental economics. (Read more by clicking the headline)

Pakrooh is on the last leg of her PhD studies and will be an asset to CERE with her knowledge on agricultural economics, agricultural policies, natural resources and environmental economics. Her thesis titled “Investigating Economic Policies Effect on Fossil Energy Resources Consumption in the Agricultural Sector of Iran” is finished and awaiting graduation and her focus lately has been solely on energy and environmental economics.

CERE researchers appointed guest Professors at LTU

CERE researchers Göran Bostedt and Tommy Lundgren have been appointed guest professors at the Luleå Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Technology and Social Sciences. Lundgren will spend September and October this fall in Luleå to help out with a course and work on common projects (Bio4energy) and Bostedt will also teach and assist in mentoring.

goran bostedtTommy Lundgren

OECD collaboration

Widely accepted guidelines for standard Total Factor Productivity (TFP) measurement allow for cross-country agricultural productivity comparisons. However, current practices to incorporate environmental effects of economic activity still vary by country, making any similar comparison along environmental dimensions problematic. To address this need for standard environmental accounting guidelines, the OECD Network on Agricultural TFP and the Environment formed in 2017 to advance the development of cross-country environmentally-adjusted TFP indicators.

The Network brings together experts in productivity and measurement from academia (among others, Moriah Bostian and Tommy Lundgren of CERE), leading national statistics agencies, and international organizations, to better connect theory to practice. This paper provides an overview of the relevant index theory and current agency guidelines, originally to be presented at the annual Network meeting scheduled for May 2020 in Paris, but canceled due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Read the CERE Working Paper: Valuing ecosystem services for agricultural TFP, to learn more.

Editor-in-chief(s)

Tommy LundgrenTommy Lundgren and Moriah Bostian in winter attire both smiling. will be heading a team of Editor-in-chiefs including Moriah Bostian (affiliated with CERE and Lewis & Clark College) and Shunsuke Managi (CERE MoU, Urban Institute, Kyushu University) for the publication of the Encyclopedia of Energy, Natural Resource, and Environmental Economics (Elsevier), a major reference work including about 150 articles by frontline scholars in their respective fields. This is the 2nd edition, the first edited by J. Shogren (U. of Wyoming) came out in 2013. 

The 2nd edition of the Encyclopedia is planned to be published in 2023.

The photo is from the Ammarnäs Winter Workshop in 2019 which both Bostian and Lundgren attended. The photo is a cut out from a larger group photo taken at the Winter Workshop. Photo CERE. 

Towards sustainable energy consumption

New thesis by Aemiro Melkamu Daniel provides attributes that demand flexibility contract providers can use to design compensation schemes and effectively market contracts for people willing to offer electricity demand flexibility. The thesis investigates concerns related to residential electricity demand flexibility (potential to reduce electricity consumption during peak load situations) in Sweden and household fuel choice in urban Ethiopia. Aemiro defends his thesis Friday April 3rd, 2020. Follow the dissertation online. (click on headline to learn more)

Aemiro nailing his thesis to the wall

Paper I and paper II in the thesis respectively address household heterogeneity in valuing electricity demand flexibility attributes and in the use of choice decision rules for demand flexibility electricity contracts. Paper III examines the effect of disclosing pro-environmental information on preferences for load restrictions in Swedish households while the last paper explores the determinants of fuel choice in urban Ethiopia where households use one or more types of fuels to meet their energy demand.

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