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Financing Low-Carbon Transitions through Carbon Pricing and Green Bonds

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Heine, D., Semmler, W., Mazzucato, M., Braga, J., Flaherty, M., Gevorkyan, A., Hayde, E., Radpour, S. Financing Low-Carbon Transitions through Carbon Pricing and Green Bonds. Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung, 88(2), 29-49. https://doi.org/10.3790/vjh.88.2.29
Heine, Dirk; Semmler, Willi; Mazzucato, Mariana; Braga, João Paulo; Flaherty, Michael; Gevorkyan, Arkady; Hayde, Erin and Radpour, Siavash "Financing Low-Carbon Transitions through Carbon Pricing and Green Bonds" Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung 88.2, , 29-49. https://doi.org/10.3790/vjh.88.2.29
Heine, Dirk/Semmler, Willi/Mazzucato, Mariana/Braga, João Paulo/Flaherty, Michael/Gevorkyan, Arkady/Hayde, Erin/Radpour, Siavash: Financing Low-Carbon Transitions through Carbon Pricing and Green Bonds, in: Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung, vol. 88, iss. 2, 29-49, [online] https://doi.org/10.3790/vjh.88.2.29

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Financing Low-Carbon Transitions through Carbon Pricing and Green Bonds

Heine, Dirk | Semmler, Willi | Mazzucato, Mariana | Braga, João Paulo | Flaherty, Michael | Gevorkyan, Arkady | Hayde, Erin | Radpour, Siavash

Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung, Vol. 88 (2019), Iss. 2 : pp. 29–49

22 Citations (CrossRef)

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Author Details

Dirk Heine, World Bank, Macroeconomics, Trade & Investment Global Practice, Global Macro and Debt; Université catholique de Louvain, Hoover Chair in Economic and Social Ethics, dheine@worldbank.org,

Willi Semmler, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics; University of Bielefeld, Faculty of Economics; International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Senior Researcher at IIASA, SemmlerW@newschool.edu

Mariana Mazzucato, University College London, Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, m.mazzucato@ucl.ac.uk

João Paulo Braga, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics, bragj553@newschool.edu

Michael Flaherty, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics, flahertym@newschool.edu

Arkady Gevorkyan, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Surveillance and Macro, arkady.gevorkyan@clev.frb.org

Erin Hayde, World Bank, Macroeconomics, Trade & Investment Global Practice; New School for Social Research, Department of Economics, hayde690@newschool.edu

Siavash Radpour, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics, radps229@newschool.edu

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Abstract

Summary: To finance the transition to low-carbon economies required to mitigate climate change, countries are increasingly using a combination of carbon pricing and green bonds. This paper studies the reasoning behind such policy mixes and the economic interaction effects that result from these different policy instruments. We model these interactions using an intertemporal model, related to Sachs (2015), which proposes a burden sharing between current and future generations. The issuance of green bonds helps to enable immediate investment in climate change mitigation and adaptation, and the bonds would be repaid by future generations in such a way that those who benefit from reduced future environmental damage share in the burden of financing mitigation efforts undertaken today. We examine the effects of combining green bonds and carbon pricing in a three-phase model. We are using a numerical solution procedure which allows for finite-horizon solutions and phase changes. We show that green bonds perform better when they are combined with carbon pricing. Our proposed policy option appears to be politically more feasible than a green transition based only on carbon pricing and is more prudent for debt sustainability than a green transition that relies overly on green bonds.