PI: Lawrence Goulder, Departments of Environmental and Resource Economics, and Economics. External Collaborators: Xiliang Zhang, Director of the Institute of Energy, Environment and the Economy at Tsinghua University, and Professor of Systems Engineering Tsinghua; and Da Zhang, Assistant Professor, Institute of Energy, Environment, and Economy at Tsinghua
This project will develop a new and unique tool for assessing quantitatively the likely environmental and economic impacts of China’s new emissions trading system. Environmental impacts will include changes in emissions of CO2 and local air pollutants and the economic impacts will include changes in production levels, costs, net revenues, and consumer real income. These impacts will be assessed both for the nation as a whole and for individual provinces. At first, the model will be used to gauge the implications of power sector reform for the costs of achieving CO2 emissions reductions, with future projects focused on extending this to yield greater incentives for renewables and understanding local pollution and public health.