Klimaschutzpolitik: Wie kann ein Politikmix gestaltet werden?
Policy makers in Germany and Europe have availed a variety of instruments to protect the climate. A centerpiece is the European Emission Trading System, which has been accompanied by several additional measures to foster innovation and investment, as well as to improve the provision of information and to regulate the application of new technologies. The resulting policy mix raises the question as to which policy measures are needed and by which criteria should they be evaluated. This article addresses these questions by presenting a consensus of recommendations emerging from the project “Ökonomie des Klimawandels (Economics of Climate Change)”, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Although consensus prevails that no single policy is sufficient to reach the multitude of climate policy goals, it is also recognized that each instrument should be evaluated on its own terms. Effectiveness, efficiency and political as well as institutional feasibility are among the key evaluation criteria. Moreover, instruments should be regularly monitored and, if necessary, removed. In this regard, it is regrettable that modern evaluation methods are rarely applied in Germany to date, although there has been considerable methodological progress in the recent past. Moving forward, it will be crucial to employ such methods, ideally drawing on comprehensive data sets tailored for the evaluation of the particular climate policy instrument in question.
Andor, M., M. Frondel, K. Neuhoff, S. Petrick and S. Rüster (2016), Klimaschutzpolitik: Wie kann ein Politikmix gestaltet werden?. List Forum für Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik, 42, 2, 145–159