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An increasing concern for climate change puts pressure on industrial firms to achieve carbon emission reductions. These could be realized through cooperation among firms in industrial chains, which leads to industrial symbiosis. By taking a real options approach, we make the timing component of the investment decisions explicit. This is important in assessing the impact of carbon-reducing investment over a specific time-span. We show that a joint venture between a CO2 emitting firm and a firm that can use the CO2 will result in a higher probability that an investment in CO2 capture will take place within a specific time period, which reduces the amount of CO2 emitted substantially. We also show that, in addition to industrial symbiosis, cooperation between firms can benefit from "market symbiosis" as well, in the sense that investments are more likely to take place in markets that are positively correlated. This is an important result, given that the EU has set binding targets to its Member States for reducing their emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Megaprojects are complex and contain multiple risks and uncertainties. The dominant 'predict and control' planning method mainly ignores risks and uncertainties, making megaprojects inflexible and vulnerable to unforeseen changes. Insights and methods from real options theory (ROT) in economics and finance have the potential to improve planning of megaprojects in three ways: (a) better management and assessment of risks and uncertainties, (b) a more transparent and explicit identification and communication of risks and uncertainties, and (c) a monetary valuation of flexibility. An in-depth literature review of 42 papers of real options applications to megaprojects serves as a benchmark to analyse if current real options literature meets these three expectations. Through this review, we identify the main trends, relevance and research gaps. While its theoretical relevance is illustrated, three main gaps impede real options' practical relevance for megaprojects: the applications paint an incomplete picture of megaprojects; its mathematical complexity; and the lack of empirical evidence of real-life cases. Based on a plea for more interactive research between scholars and planning practitioners, we provide an agenda for further research as to how ROT can better meet its expectations and fulfill its potential for the planning of megaprojects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]