CAREER: Institutions for Carbon Abatement in Developing Countries

今天，全球温室气体排放量的大部分增长来自低收入和中等收入国家。因此，减少全球碳排放将要求发展中国家更多地使用可再生能源，而不是化石能源。这样的增长没有先例可循。发达国家用来促进绿色能源转型的许多机构--如由私人投资推动的广泛能源市场，或以市场为基础的环境监管--在发展中国家要么不存在，要么相对较新。这个职业项目将研究促进绿色增长的机构在发展中国家是如何运作的，以及如何加强这些机构。这项研究将确定政策工具，以降低穷人的能源成本，并促进造成较少污染的绿色经济增长。这项职业研究的结果将提高能源市场的效率，改善全球碳减排政策，为研究生和本科生培训以及数据收集和传播做出贡献。该研究项目的结果还将确立美国在“清洁”能源研究和政策方面的全球领先地位。该研究项目将研究几个机构在发展中国家碳减排方面的成效。该计划包括三个部分：(I)支持可再生能源私人投资的机构；(Ii)以市场为基础的环境监管；(Iii)国际碳抵消。第一部分将利用太阳能行业整个历史的数据，研究帮助执行合同的机构如何帮助低收入国家降低可再生能源价格。实证分析将衡量在发展中国家普遍存在的合同风险对绿色能源采用价格的影响。第二部分将使用一项针对当地空气污染引入排污权交易的大型新颖实验的数据，以估计一个基于市场监管的收益模型。第三部分将研究清洁发展机制(CDM)，这是迄今为止世界上最大的此类转移计划，如何影响低收入国家的温室气体排放，特别是最大和增长最快的排放国。这些转移的主要机制，包括抵消机制，尚未就其效力或成本进行充分研究。纵观这几个机构，该项目作为一个整体，将研究实践中次佳的环境和能源政策，并建议可行的政策变化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Most of the global growth in greenhouse gas emissions today comes from low- and middle-income countries. Reducing global carbon emissions will therefore require developing countries to use more renewable energy instead of fossil energy. There is no prior model for such growth. Many of the institutions being used to promote a green energy transition in developed countries—like broad energy markets driven by private investment, or market-based environmental regulation—either do not exist or are relatively new in developing countries. This CAREER project will study how institutions for green growth are working in developing countries and how they could be made stronger. The study will identify policy tools that can lower the cost of energy for the poor and promote green economic growth that causes less pollution. The results of this CAREER research will improve efficiency in energy markets, improve policies for carbon abatement globally, contributions to graduate and undergraduate student training, and data collection and dissemination. The results of this research project will also establish the US as a global leader in “clean” energy research and policy.This research project will study the efficacy of several institutions for carbon abatement in developing countries. The program has three parts: (i) institutions to support private investment in renewable energy, (ii) market-based environmental regulation and (iii) international carbon offsets. The first part will study how institutions to help enforce contracts have helped to bring down renewable energy prices in low income countries using data on the entire history of solar power industry. The empirical analysis will measure the effect of contractual risk, which is widespread in developing countries, on the price of green energy adoption. The second part will use data from a large, novel experiment introducing emissions trading for local air pollution to estimate a model of the gains from market-based regulation. The third part will study how the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the largest such transfer program in the world to date, has affected greenhouse gas emissions in low income countries, especially the largest and fastest growing emitters. The main mechanisms for these transfers, including offset mechanisms, have not been well studied for their efficacy or costs. Looking across these several institutions, the project as a whole will study second-best environmental and energy policy in practice and recommend policy changes that can work.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.