Is Germany fit for FiT55 in its climate policy design?: Addressing competitiveness, efficiency and equity concerns

Marius Bickmann, Christoph Böhringer, Robert Grundke and Thomas Rutherford

No 1840, OECD Economics Department Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: This study assesses the economic efficiency and incidence of alternative climate policy scenarios for Germany using a multi-sector multi-region computable general equilibrium model. Scenarios combine CO2 pricing with regulatory measures to meet EU Fit For 55 emissions reduction targets, exploring different options for recycling emissions pricing revenue. Incorporating international market responses and emissions abatement outside EU, we quantify sectoral impacts of climate policies and their incidence on heterogeneous households using German household survey data. Results indicate that compliance with EU FiT55 lowers GDP and disposable income relative to a scenario without additional climate policy changes. Yet, climate policy design strongly influences trade-offs between allocative efficiency, industry competitiveness, and equity. Recycling CO2 pricing revenues as lump-sum transfers to households reduces regressivity of emissions abatement. In contrast, using revenues to subsidise renewable electricity production increases regressivity and hampers allocative efficiency, but benefits emission-intensive and trade-exposed (EITE) industries by lowering electricity prices. Replacing differential CO2 pricing for EITE industries and the remaining economy with uniform emissions pricing improves allocative efficiency but raises CO2 and electricity prices hurting EITE industries. Tariffs on embodied carbon in imports support the competitiveness of EITE industries less than pre-existing output-based rebates but reduce the regressivity of emissions abatement.

Keywords: climate policy design; CO2 Pricing; competitiveness; Computable General Equilibrium; cost effectiveness; distributional impacts; Germany; Incidence; Microsimulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C68 D58 H22 H23 Q52 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-08-14
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1840-en

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