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Transportation is one of the main contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Climate regulations on transportation are often a mix of sector-specific regulations and economy-wide measures (such as emission pricing). In this paper we consider how different and partly overlapping climate regulations interact and what are the effects on economic welfare, abatement costs and emissions? Our focus is on Norway, a nation where high taxation of conventional fossil-fuelled cars has paved the floor for another pillar of climate policies: promotion of electric vehicles (EVs) in private transport. Our contribution to the literature is two-fold. First, we analyse the costs and impacts of the partly overlapping climate regulations in transportation—the cap on domestic non-ETS emissions and the goal of all new cars for private households being EVs—focussing on the outcome in 2030. Second, we respond to a gap in the literature through a methodological development in economy-wide computable general equilibrium (CGE) approaches for climate policy by introducing EV technologies as an explicit transport equipment choice for private households. We find that, for the case of Norway, combining a specific EV target with policy to cap emissions through a uniform carbon price more than doubles the welfare costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate policies may have adverse geographically unequal socio-economic impacts that, if left unaddressed, may hamper their implementation. This paper examines factors explaining rural-urban perceptions of the effects of climate policy on agriculture and rural areas. The paper adds to current knowledge by jointly analysing socio-economic factors and factors describing the distinct role geographical locations play in shaping these perceptions. We conduct a novel statistical analysis utilising a large preference survey of the Norwegian adult population spatially matched at the municipality level with indexes capturing centrality and the relative importance, and, hence, vulnerability of agriculture to effects of climate change. Our analysis does not identify a principal conflict between the goals of climate policy, rural policy, and agricultural policy across geographical locations. Conflicts along the rural-urban gradient arise around the priority given to the three policy areas, and the concrete impact of climate mitigation measures on rural areas. Centrality more than agricultural properties explains the formation of resistance to policies. The policy process should therefore acknowledge rural concerns, and climate mitigation options should be more carefully designed to avoid further rural-urban polarisation. • We study the effects of climate policy on agriculture and rural areas in Norway. • 'Places' seem more important than 'people' in explaining rural-urban perceptions. • Overall climate, agriculture, and rural policy objectives are compatible. • Differences in the priority between these policy areas cause a rural-urban divide. • Acceptable climate policies must take rural concerns into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is little knowledge of how policymakers manage governance networks ("metagovern") within climate policy and especially at non-executive levels of public management. One strategy to metagovern is through using intermediary actors such as funding bodies. However, as novel actors within climate governance, such "climate intermediaries" are under-researched. We address these gaps by exploring the metagovernance through an intermediary actor, namely the Norwegian "Klimasats" Fund. We find that the logic of funding bodies lends itself to "carrots" as opposed to "sticks", weakening the potential for transformation. Funding bodies can also increase existing differences in climate action between larger and smaller local authorities. However, funding bodies have a beneficial bi-directional functionality, incentivising local innovation whilst feeding lessons both up to and across government. Funding bodies also have the power to make local actors into intermediaries in their own right and can influence policy discourses. Thus, in assessing metagovernance at the non-executive level and using intermediary actors such as funding bodies, we reveal significant challenges, but also surprising opportunities, for the low-carbon transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their similarities, Scandinavian countries have adopted starkly different automobile tax regimes. The Danish system entails very high and convex tax rates with moderate CO2 differentiation. In Norway, tax rates are high and convex with strong CO2 differentiation and total exemptions for zero emission vehicles, even from value added tax. Sweden practices feebates – CO2 dependent subsidization along with moderate taxation. Relying on a disaggregate discrete choice model of automobile purchase, we simulate the demand for passenger cars as of 2016 in Norway under a set of conditions resembling, respectively, the Danish, Norwegian or Swedish fiscal incentives before and after recent reforms. In all cases, implications are derived in terms of energy technology market shares, average type approval CO2 emission rates, and aggregate fiscal revenue. The automobile taxation system is seen to have remarkable impacts on all three accounts. In essence, among the three jurisdictions examined, the Norwegian fiscal regime has by far the strongest CO2 abatement effect. The Danish system is less effective in terms of CO2 abatement, but provides twice as much government revenue. The Swedish feebate strategy is by far the least effective in terms of both CO2 mitigation and revenue collection. Automobile taxation is a powerful greenhouse gas abatement instrument. Tax exemptions for battery electric cars accelerate their market uptake. The disparate experiences of the three Scandinavian countries are quite instructive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Examines French nuclear power, British smart meters, Norwegian electric vehicles, and German solar energy. • Identifies and analyzes 44 whole-systems injustices spread across three spatial scales. • Micro scale injustices concern immediate local impacts on family livelihood, community health and the environment. • Meso scale injustices include national-scale issues such as rising prices for electricity or unequal access to low-carbon technology. • Macro scale injustices include global issues such as the extraction of minerals and metals and the circulation of waste flows. The need for multi-scalar analysis of energy and low-carbon systems is becoming more apparent as a way to assess the holistic socioeconomic and environmental impacts of energy transitions across a variety of scales and lifecycle stages. This paper conducts a whole systems energy justice analysis of four European low-carbon transitions—nuclear power in France, smart meters in Great Britain, electric vehicles in Norway, and solar photovoltaic panels in Germany. It asks: in what ways may each of these transitions result in injustices that extend beyond communities and countries, i.e., across the whole system? It utilizes a mixed-methods research design based on 64 semi-structured research interviews with experts across all four transitions, five public focus groups, and the collection of 58 comments from twelve public internet forums to answer this question. Drawing inductively from these data, the paper identifies and analyzes 44 injustices spread across three spatial scales. Micro scale injustices concern immediate local impacts on family livelihood, community health and the environment. Meso scale injustices include national-scale issues such as rising prices for electricity and gas or unequal access to low-carbon technology. Macro scale injustices include global issues such as the extraction of minerals and metals and the circulation of waste flows. The paper then discusses these collective injustices in terms of their spatiality and temporality, before offering conclusions for energy and climate research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way Norway is spearheading electrification in the transport sector is of global interest. In this study, we used the Norwegian Emissions from Road Vehicle Exhaust (NERVE) model, a bottom-up high-resolution traffic emission model, to calculate all emissions in Norway (2009–2020) and evaluate potential co-benefit and trade-offs of policies to target climate change mitigation, air quality and socioeconomic factors. Results for municipal data with regard to traffic growth, road network influences, vehicle composition, emissions and energy consumption are presented. Light vehicle CO 2 emissions per kilometer have been reduced by 22% since 2009, mainly driven by an increasing bio-fuel mixing and battery electric vehicles (BEV) share. BEVs are mostly located in and around the main cities, areas with young vehicle fleets, and strong local incentives. Beneficiaries of BEVs incentives have been a subset of the population with strong economic indicators. The incentivized growth in the share of diesel-fuelled passenger vehicles has been turned, and together with Euro6 emission standards, light vehicle NOx emissions have been halved since peaking in 2014. BEVs represent an investment in emission reductions in years to come, and current sales set Norway up for an accelerated decline in all exhaust emissions despite the continual growth in traffic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a stylized economic model for passenger transport in the greater Oslo area, in which the agents' choices of car ownership, transport pattern, and electric vehicle (EV) charging are jointly determined. If enough EVs charge during peak hours, costly grid expansions may be needed. We examine how the distribution system operators can mitigate these costs with different pricing schemes and how this, in turn, affects the transport market equilibrium. We find that applying tariffs differentiated between peak and off-peak periods will help strike a better balance between grid investment costs and EV-owners' disutility of charging during off-peak hours. • Urban transport model where heterogeneous agents choose transport patterns and cars. • If some agents choose electric cars, they also need to choose charging times. • Efficient reaching of climate goals in the Oslo area requires a large shift to EVs. • The massive shift to EVs lead to added costs to the distribution grid. • The costs of climate policy are larger in the transport sector compared to the grid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the lenses of "wicked policy problems" this article compares how Norway and Sweden organize for climate policies and analyzes the coordination challenges encountered by the two countries. Both countries' policy fields display characteristics of complexity, divergence, fragmentation and uncertainty, indicating a substantial degree of organizational wickedness. The conditions for dealing with such wickedness is affected by contextual factors such as ministerial rule and the petroleum industry's pivotal role in Norway, enhancing the role of administrative silos; and Swedish traditions to delegate responsibility in the governance system and prohibition of ministerial rule allows a slightly more unified approach to policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Urban transport model where heterogeneous agents choose type of car and transport use. • Current policies in the Oslo area lead to massive penetration of BEVs and large emission reductions. • However, they also lead to more congestion and reduced use of public transport. • Road congestion and public transportation must be priced efficiently to maximize welfare. • Conflict between ambitious emission reduction goals and welfare maximization. Norway has the world's highest share of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in its passenger car fleet, thanks to a set of policies that has included high purchase taxes for fossil fueled cars, and no tolls, no VAT, and free parking for BEVs. This paper uses a very stylized transport model for the greater Oslo area to give insights into the effects of different transport policies. With this model we go beyond the market penetration studies for EVs, as it brings together both car choice and transport patterns with mode choice for a set of heterogeneous representative model agents. We illustrate the possible effects of current policies on congestion, CO 2 emissions and other urban transport externalities, public transport use and crowding, tax revenues and welfare. On this basis, we explore other road toll, public transport fare and tax policies that can lead to better outcomes for the Oslo transport market while still respecting the CO 2 -cap that reflects the goals of Norwegian policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) is a climate change mitigation policy in which rich countries provide payments to developing countries for protecting their forests. In 2009, the countries of Norway and Guyana entered into one of the first bilateral REDD+ programs, with Norway offering to pay US$250 million to Guyana if annual deforestation rates remained below 0.056% from 2010 to 2015. To quantify the impact of this national REDD+ program, we construct a counterfactual times-series trajectory of annual tree cover loss using synthetic matching. This analytical approach allows us to quantify tree cover loss that would have occurred in the absence of the Norway-Guyana REDD+ program. We found that the Norway-Guyana REDD+ program reduced tree cover loss by 35% during the implementation period (2010 to 2015), equivalent to 12.8 million tons of avoided CO2 emissions. Our analysis indicates that national REDD+ payments attenuated the effect of increases in gold prices, an internationally traded commodity that is the primary deforestation driver in Guyana. Overall, we found strong evidence that the program met the additionality criteria of REDD+. However, we found that tree cover loss increased after the payments ended, and therefore, our results suggest that without continued payments, forest protection is not guaranteed. On the issue of leakage, which is complex and difficult to quantify, a multinational REDD+ program for a region could address leakage that results from differences in forest policies between neighboring countries [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transfer of European Union (EU) policies has predominantly been studied as an EU-driven process. Transcending this EU-centric perspective, we provide a novel conceptualization of the role of third country actors as initiators and drivers, rather than as reactive receivers, of policy transfer. Based on our novel conceptual framework, we identify four strategies through which governments may overcome domestic veto-players and build stakeholder support. Specifically, third country governments may promote the transfer of EU policies by legitimizing policy choices, distributing the costs and benefits associated with a policy; rely on learning from the EU as a ‘resource’; and lock in a certain policy through an agreement with the EU. We demonstrate the empirical relevance of these strategies with respect to the transfer of the EU Emission Trading System to Norway, Switzerland and Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]