Interactions of energy and climate policy instruments

The EU and its member states are developing their own policies targeting at energy supply, energy demand and environmental goals that are indirectly linked to energy use. As these policies are implemented in an already policy crowded environment, interactions of these instruments take place, which can be complementary, competitive and even self exclusive. Oikonomou tested White Certificates for energy efficiency improvement in the end-use sectors. A core lesson is that when evaluating ex-ante instruments, a variety of economic and technological methods must be applied.

Based on these methods, several endogenous and exogenous conditions affect the performance of White Certificates schemes with other policy instruments. Due to the innovative character of White Certificates and the uncertainty of hidden costs embedded into it, ex-ante evaluations should focus not only on the effectiveness and efficiency of the scheme, but on several other criteria which express the political acceptability and socioeconomic effects. Finally, White Certificates can make effective use of market forces and can assist in overcoming market barriers towards energy efficiency. It is expected that under certain preconditions it can be integrated with other policy instruments and allows to achieve cost effectively multiple environmental objectives.

Curriculum vitae
Vlasis Oikonomou (Greece, 1978) studied economics at the University of Economics and Business in Athens and environmental management at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. After that he was researcher at the Copernicus Instituut of the University of Utrecht. He conducted his PhD research at SOM research School at the FEB. Oikonomou will be awarded his PhD in economics and business on 27 May 2010 (2.45pm). Thesis supervidor is prof.dr. C.J. Jepma, and the thesis title: Interactions of White Certificates for energy efficiency and other energy and climate policy instruments. Currently Oikonomou works at the Joint Implementation Network, an information platform on environmental subjects in Groningen.