Perceived fairness and public acceptability of carbon pricing: a review of the literature

While carbon pricing is widely seen as a crucial element of climate policy and has been implemented in many countries, it also has met with strong resistance. We provide a comprehensive overview of public perceptions of the fairness of carbon pricing and how these affect policy acceptability. To this end, we review evidence from empirical studies on how individuals judge personal, distributional and procedural aspects of carbon taxes and cap-and-trade. In addition, we examine preferences for particular redistributive and other uses of revenues generated by carbon pricing and their role in instrument acceptability. Our results indicate a high concern over distributional effects, particularly in relation to policy impacts on poor people, in turn reducing policy acceptability. In addition, people show little trust in the capacities of governments to put the revenues of carbon pricing to good use. Somewhat surprisingly, most studies do not indicate clear public preferences for using revenues to ensure fairer policy outcomes, notably by reducing its regressive effects. Instead, many people prefer using revenues for ‘environmental projects’ of various kinds. We end by providing recommendations for improving public acceptability of carbon pricing. One suggestion to increase policy acceptability is combining the redistribution of revenue to vulnerable groups with the funding for environmental projects, such as on renewable energy.

Key policy insights

• If people perceive carbon pricing instruments as fair, this increases policy acceptability and support.

• People’s satisfaction with information provided by the government about the policy instrument increases acceptability.

• While people express high concern over uneven distribution of the policy burden, they often prefer using carbon pricing revenues for environmental projects instead of compensation for inequitable outcomes.

• Recent studies find that people’s preferences shift to using revenues for making policy fairer if they better understand the functioning of carbon pricing, notably that relatively high prices of CO₂-intensive goods and services reduce their consumption.

• Combining the redistribution of revenue to support both vulnerable groups and environmental projects, such as on renewable energy, seems to most increase policy acceptability.

     

The most frequent interfaces in olivine aggregates: the GBCD and its importance for grain boundary related processes

Rocks consist of crystal grains separated by grain boundaries that impact the bulk rock properties. Recent studies on metals and ceramics showed that the grain boundary plane orientation is more significant for grain boundary properties than other characteristics such as the sigma value or disorientation (in the Earth’s science community more frequently termed misorientation). We determined the grain boundary character distribution (GBCD) of synthetic and natural polycrystalline olivine, the most abundant mineral of Earth’s upper mantle. We show that grain boundaries of olivine preferentially contain low index planes, in agreement with recent findings on other oxides (e.g. MgO, TiO₂, Al₂O₃ etc.). Furthermore, we find evidence for a preferred orientation relationship of 90° disorientations about the [001] direction forming tilt and twist grain boundaries, as well as a preference for the 60° disorientation about the [100] axis. Our data indicate that the GBCD, which is an intrinsic property of any mineral aggregate, is fundamental for understanding and predicting grain boundary related processes.     

Analyses of possible changes in intense and extreme wind speeds over northern Europe under climate change scenarios

Dynamical downscaling of ECHAM5 using HIRHAM5 and RCA3 for a northern European domain focused on Scandinavia indicates sustained extreme wind speeds with long recurrence intervals (50?years) and intense winds are not likely to evolve out of the historical envelope of variability until the end of C21st. Even then, significant changes are indicated only in the SW of the domain and across the central Baltic Sea where there is some evidence for relatively small magnitude increases in the 50?year return period wind speed (of up to 15%). There are marked differences in results based on the two Regional Climate Models. Additionally, internal (inherent) variability and initial conditions exert a strong impact on projected wind climates throughout the twenty-first century. Simulations of wind gusts by one of the RCMs (RCA3) indicate some evidence for increased magnitudes (of up to +10%) in the southwest of the domain and across the central Baltic Sea by the end of the current century. As in prior downscaling of ECHAM4, dynamical downscaling of ECHAM5 indicates a tendency towards increased energy density and thus wind power generation potential over the course of the C21st. However, caution should be used in interpreting this inference given the high degree of wind climate projection spread that derives from the specific AOGCM and RCM used in the downscaling.     

The urban heat island in the city of Poznań as derived from Landsat 5 TM

Deforestation is expanding and accelerating into the remaining areas of undisturbed forest, and the quality of the remaining forests is declining today. Assessing the climatic impacts of deforestation can help to rectify this alarming situation. In this paper, how historical deforestation may affect global climate through interactive ocean and surface albedo is examined using an Earth system model of intermediate complexity (EMIC). Control and anomaly integrations are performed for 1000 years. In the anomaly case, cropland is significantly expanded since AD 1700. The response of climate in deforested areas is not uniform between the regions. In the background of a global cooling of 0.08 °C occurring with cooler surface air above 0.4 °C across 30° N to 75° N from March to September, the surface albedo increase has a global cooling effect in response to global-scale replacement of forests by cropland, especially over northern mid-high latitudes. The northern mid-latitude (30° N–60° N) suffers a prominent cooling in June, suggesting that this area is most sensitive to cropland expansion through surface albedo. Most regions show a consistent trend between the overall cooling in response to historical deforestation and its resulting cooling due to surface albedo anomaly. Furthermore, the effect of the interactive ocean on shaping the climate response to deforestation is greater than that of prescribed SSTs in most years with a maximum spread of 0.05 °C. This difference is more prominent after year 1800 than that before due to the more marked deforestation. These findings show the importance of the land cover change and the land surface albedo, stressing the necessity to analyze other biogeophysical processes of deforestation using interactive ocean.     

High‐Precision Measurement of 187Os/188Os Isotope Ratios of Nanogram to Picogram Amounts of Os in Geological Samples by N‐TIMS using Faraday Cups Equipped with 1013 Ω Amplifiers

N(¹⁸⁷Os)/N(¹⁸⁸Os) ratios of six geological reference materials were measured using static Faraday cups (FCs) with 10¹³ Ω amplifiers by N‐TIMS. Our results show that the repeatability precision was 2–3‰ (2 RSD, n = 3), when taking ~ 1 g of BHVO‐2 with 76 pg g^?1 of Os mass fraction and ~ 2 g of BCR‐2 with 21 pg g^?1 of Os mass fraction for each sample, whether measured by FCs or by secondary electron multiplier. The repeatability precision measured by FCs was 1–0.2‰ (2 RSD, n = 3) when taking ~ 1 g of BIR‐2 with 350 pg g^?1 of Os mass fraction, ~ 1 g of WGB‐1 with 493 pg g^?1 of Os mass fraction or ~ 0.5 g of WPR‐1 with 13.3 ng g^?1 of Os mass fraction for each sample, which is much better than those measured by secondary electron multiplier. Instead, when taking ~ 2 g of AGV‐2 with 4 pg g^?1 Os mass fraction, the repeatability precision measured by secondary electron multiplier is 3–4‰ (RSD, n = 3), which is better than those measured by FCs. Of the six reference materials analysed, WPR‐1 and BIR‐1a are the most homogeneous with regard to Os isotopic composition (2 RSD of 0.08% and 0.23%, respectively) when test portion masses are 0.5–1 g.     

European advanced marine electronic instrumentation : A US perspective

This article presents a US perspective on the influence of government policies on the nature and development of advanced marine electronic instrumentation (MEI) technologies in Europe. US firms traditionally have enjoyed a strong international competitive advantage in the MEI field, but European institutions are undergoing rapid changes that may affect the competitive position of firms in advanced technology industries. These include the consolidation of firms in specific markets and the increased emphasis on centralized, collaborative ‘technology transfer’ research efforts across sectors and across national borders. We expect broadly defined marine markets to grow in Europe. The best policy for US firms may well be one of cautious optimism and close attention to the potential for business relationships with established and emerging European firms.     

High-resolution modelling of a coastal harbour in the presence of strong tides and significant river runoff

Ocean Dynamics - In the context of Canada’s Ocean Protection Plan (OPP), improved coastal and near-shore modelling is needed to enhance marine safety and emergency response capacity in the...     

Thermal-orbital evolution of Io and Europa

Coupled thermal-orbital evolution models of Europa and Io are presented. It is assumed that Io, Europa, and Ganymede evolve in the Laplace resonance and that tidal dissipation of orbital energy is an internal heat source for both Io and Europa. While dissipation in Io occurs in the mantle as in the mantle dissipation model of Segatz et al. (1988, Icarus 75, 187), two models for Europa are considered. In the first model dissipation occurs in the silicate mantle while in the second model dissipation occurs in the ice shell. In the latter model, ice shell melting and variations of the shell thickness above an ocean are explicitly included. The rheology of both the ice and the rock is cast in terms of a viscoelastic Maxwell rheology with viscosity and shear modulus depending on the average temperature of the dissipating layer. Heat transfer by convection is calculated using a parameterization for strongly temperature-dependent viscosity convection. Both models are consistent with the present orbital elements of Io, Europa, and Ganymede. It is shown that there may be phases of quasi-steady evolution with large or small dissipation rates (in comparison with radiogenic heating), phases with runaway heating or cooling and oscillatory phases during which the eccentricity and the tidal heating rate will oscillate. Europa's ice thickness varies between roughly 3 and 70 km (dissipation in the silicate layer) or 10 and 60 km (dissipation in the ice layer), suggesting that Europa's ocean existed for geological timescales. The variation in ice thickness, including both convective and purely conductive phases, may be reflected in the formation of different geological surface features on Europa. Both models suggest that at present Europa's ice thickness is several tens of km thick and is increasing, while the eccentricity decreases, implying that the satellites evolve out of resonance. Including lithospheric growth in the models makes it impossible to match the high heat flux constraint for Io. Other heat transfer processes than conduction through the lithosphere must be important for the present Io.