Carbon Dioxide Removal and Mitigation Deterrence: A Tractable Benchmark Model

Daniel Heyen, Joshua Bißbort and Frederik Holtel

No 13011, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies are central to most climate mitigation pathways, yet their future availability risks weakening current abatement efforts — a phenomenon known as mitigation deterrence. This paper develops a transparent two-period benchmark model to explore how political economy forces and behavioral biases shape intertemporal climate choices. We allow for general functional forms as well as uncertainty about climate damages and CDR costs. We further demonstrate the framework’s flexibility by extending it with a simple political-economy module in which lobbying over mitigation and future CDR systematically depresses abatement. The model provides a useful starting point for future research on the complex interactions between CDR expectations, current mitigation efforts, and climate policy.

Keywords: carbon dioxide removal; negative emissions; mitigation deterrence; intergenerational climate policy; uncertainty; political economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D81 Q52 Q54 Q55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/cesifo1_wp13011.pdf (application/pdf)

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:ces:ceswps:_13011

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Klaus Wohlrabe ().