Climate policy and dynamic efficiency gains A case study on Norwegian CO 2 -taxes and technological innovation in the petroleum sector

Atle Christer Christiansen

Climate Policy, 2001, vol. 1, issue 4, 499-515

Abstract: Against increasing scientific evidence of human-induced global warming, and prevailing uncertainties regarding the fate of the Kyoto Protocol, the use of environmental taxes has been gaining increasing popularity in the OECD region. Economists often conjecture that such instruments provide a continuous incentive for technological innovation, which is likely to be a key determinant for success or failure in climate policy, at least in the long turn. However, there is little empirical evidence available to justify claims of that kind. The objective of this paper is to provide such evidence, by assessing the impacts of Norwegian CO 2 -taxes, the key instrument in Norway's climate policy, on technological innovation in upstream petroleum operations. The balance of evidence suggests that the introduction of CO 2 -taxes has provided some incentive for innovation that has shifted petroleum operations in a less emission-intensive direction. That said, the pattern of technological change pertains mostly to incremental process innovations, cumulative improvements, and adaptations of technologies already available. These insights may assist policymakers when formulating policy strategies and selecting instruments for climate change mitigation.

Date: 2001
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.3763/cpol.2001.0150 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tcpoxx:v:1:y:2001:i:4:p:499-515

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tcpo20

DOI: 10.3763/cpol.2001.0150

Access Statistics for this article

Climate Policy is currently edited by Professor Michael Grubb

More articles in Climate Policy from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().