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NORKLIMA-Klimaendringer og konsekvenser for Norge

Designing feasible and efficient climate policies

Awarded: NOK 3.7 mill.

Project Number:

190768

Application Type:

Project Period:

2009 - 2011

Subject Fields:

No policy can be implemented or sustained for any length of time without public support. Several important examples of failures to implement new Piougivan tax schemes bear testimony to this. In order to design Pigouvian taxes that are both efficient and f easible we need to understand why it is so difficult to implement policies that could potentially increase overall welfare. A limited number of studies on public perceptions of environmental taxes and green tax reform help provide an answer to this puzzl e. They show that Pigouian taxes are viewed solely as a means or raising revenue, rather than in terms of their incentive effects, there is great distrust that governments willl do as promised with the revenues, and that there is a strong preference for e armarking the revenues to environmental projects. The relatively few studies in this field leave many important questions unaddressed: - There is very little systematic knowledge about the Norwegian general public?s perceptions of environmental policy in struments. - Emissions trading schemes and personal carbon offsets have not been afforded the same attention as environmental taxes. - There has been no systematic comparison of the efficiency of policy options when there are constraints on what is politi cally feasible due to public perceptions of the policy. The project will address this knowledge gap through 3 work packages: WP1: Public attitudes to climate change policies in Norway: A focus group study of public attitudes will be used to design a repr esentative telephone survey of the Norwegian general public's attitidues to the issue. WP2: An experimental investigation of the acceptability of environmental policy instruments: A lab experiment will be designed to test the acceptability of alternative policy instruments. WP3: Implications for designing feasible and efficient mitigation policies: This WP will bring together the findings from the first two WPs to provide policy recommendations.

Funding scheme:

NORKLIMA-Klimaendringer og konsekvenser for Norge