An analysis of differing abatement incentives

In general, climate policies are evaluated with respect to their costs and benefits. But regularly an important category of benefits is omitted: ancillary or secondary benefits. In contrast to the main strand of literature on climate change the study presented here will analyze countries’ decisions on greenhouse gas abatement in an impure public good model which considers ancillary benefits. As can be shown by integrating ancillary benefits into the analysis, environmental regulations independent of the climate problem may well have an effect on countries’ greenhouse gas control. Consequently, different environmental programs should be coordinated carefully and should not be considered as being independent.