Disentangling the effects of Swiss energy and climate policies

摘要

Switzerland is embarking on a new energy strategy by phasingout nuclear power, increasing renewables and energy efficiencyas well as meeting its Kyoto target of the Second CommitmentPeriod. We contribute to this new cruise by disentangling theeffects of the Swiss economic policies to promote energy efficiencyand the use of less CO2 intensive energy sources. Thosepolicies encompass a CO2 levy, an emissions trading scheme(ETS), a renewable feed-in tariff as well as some national andinternational offsetting and target agreements.The policies target different sectors and are linked in variousways either by exchanging tradable units or by serving as exemptioncriteria. For example, companies can negotiate targetagreements or participate in the Swiss ETS in order to be exemptedfrom the CO2 levy. Given these interactions, those policiesform a world-wide unique instrument-mix in combininga tax, emissions trading, voluntary agreements, subsidies andproject-based mechanisms on a national and international level.Our findings show that this combination of policies leads toinefficiencies. For example, external costs of road-based mobilityhave been inadequately internalised and emissions abatementefforts are unevenly spread among sectors. They also revealthat, due to the interactions, the emission reductions fromeach policy are difficult to predict and complex rules are requiredto avoid double counting. Finally, meeting future targetsdomestically seems ambitious, when less surplus is carried overfrom the previous commitment periods, given the low emissionsintensity of the Swiss electricity-mix and high efficiencyin the industry sector.