NDLI: The social cost of carbon: implications for modernizing our electricity system

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Building local environmental knowledge in undergraduates with experiential wilderness skills and awareness training: the case of environmental sentinels

Ten practical advantages of a human rights approach to environmental advocacy

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences : Volume 3, Issue 3, September 2013

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences : Volume 3, Issue 2, June 2013

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences : Volume 3, Issue 1, March 2013

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences : Volume 2

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences : Volume 1

The social cost of carbon: implications for modernizing our electricity system

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Johnson, Laurie T. Yeh, Starla Hope, Chris
Copyright Year	2013
Abstract	The US government must use an official estimate of the “social cost of carbon” (SCC) to estimate carbon emission reduction benefits for proposed environmental standards expected to reduce CO$_{2}$ emissions. The SCC is a monetized value of the marginal benefit of reducing one metric ton of CO$_{2}$. Estimates of the SCC vary widely. The US government uses values of $11, $33, and $52 per metric ton of CO$_{2}$, classifying the middle value as the central figure and the two others for use in sensitivity analyses. Three other estimates using the same government model but lower discount rates put the figures at $62, $122, and $266/ton. In this article, we calculate, on a cents-per-kilowatt-hour basis, the environmental cost of CO$_{2}$ emissions from fossil fuel generation and add it to production costs. With this, we compare the total social cost (generation plus environmental costs) of building new generation from traditional fossil fuels versus cleaner technologies. We also examine the cost of replacing existing coal generation with cleaner options, ranging from conventional natural gas to solar photovoltaic. We find that for most SCC values, it is more economically efficient (from a social cost–benefit perspective) for the new generation to come from any of these cleaner sources rather than conventional coal, and in several instances, the cleanest sources are preferable to conventional natural gas. For existing generation, for five of the six SCC estimates we examined, replacing the average existing coal plant with conventional natural gas, natural gas with carbon capture and storage, or wind increases economic efficiency. At the two highest SCCs, solar photovoltaic and coal with carbon capture and storage are also more efficient than maintaining a typical coal plant.
Starting Page	369
Ending Page	375
Page Count	7
File Format	PDF
ISSN	21906483
Journal	Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences
Volume Number	3
Issue Number	4
e-ISSN	21906491
Language	English
Publisher	Springer US
Publisher Date	2013-09-13
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Social cost of carbon Cost–benefit analysis Climate change Regulatory impact analysis Environment Sustainable Development
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Geography, Planning and Development Environmental Science

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
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9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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