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Optimal Policies to Promote Efficient Distributed Generation of Electricity / David P. Brown &#38;  David E. M. Sappington. University of Alberta, Jan. 2016, 49 p. (Working Paper No. 2016-01) http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:albaec:2016_001&#38;r=eneWe analyze the design of policies to promote ecient distributed generation (DG) of electricity. The optimal policy varies with the set of instruments available to the regulator and with the prevailing DG production technology. DG capacity charges often play a valuable role in inducing optimal investment in DG capacity, allowing payments for DG production to induce the optimal production of electricity using non-intermittent DG technologies. Net metering can be optimal in certain settings, but often is not optimal, especially for non-intermittent DG technologies.Technology Invention and Diffusion in Residential Energy Consumption. A Stochastic Frontier Approach / R. Schmalensee, R. N. Stavins. Milan : Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, 2015, 31 p. (Nota di Lavoro 107.2015) http://www.feem.it/userfiles/attach/2015122310754NDL2015-107.pdfThis essay provides an overview of the major emissions trading programs of the past thirty years on which significant documentation exists, and draws a number of important lessons for future applications of this environmental policy instrument. References to a larger number of other emissions trading programs that have been implemented or proposed are included.Second-Best Analysis of European Energy Policy: Is One Bird in the Hand Worth Two in the Bush? / M. Hübler, O. Schenker, C. Fischer. Milan, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, 2015, 45 p. (Nota di Lavoro 106.2015) http://www.feem.it/userfiles/attach/201512181237374NDL2015-106.pdfThis paper studies policy instruments that correct insufficient learning-by-doing (LbD) and research and development (R&#38;D) of renewable electricity technologies and insufficient investments in energy efficiency (EE) in the presence of carbon pricing. The theoretical model analysis shows how to re-adjust the first-best in second-best situations, in which one of the policy instruments is restricted. Calibrated to the European power sector, the first-best choice of all instruments reduces the climate policy cost by one third. Feed-in tariffs turn out to be good substitutes for LbD, but not for R&#38;D or EE subsidies.Bargaining to Lose the Global Commons / N. Chichilnisky-Heal,  G. Chichilnisky. Milan : Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, 2015, 12 p. (Nota di lavoro ; 2015.103) http://www.feem.it/userfiles/attach/20151215103484NDL2015-103.pdfIn "Bargaining to Lose: The Permeability Approach to Post Transition Resource Extraction"  Natasha Chichilnisky-Heal introduces an original and fertile explanation for the resource curse. Her "permeability" approach questions the treatment of the state as a decision maker having the public good as an objective, and replaces it by the results of a bargaining game between the state and International organizations. Her new theory is illustrated with unique hands-on experience in the case of copper and gold mines in Mongolia and Zambia, and focuses on a bargaining game between the state and key financial organizations: the Bretton Woods Institutions (IMF, World Bank) and MNCs. This piece extends and generalizes "Bargaining to lose" providing economic models that validate the original conclusions, and exploring its implications for the global commons: the atmosphere, the oceans and biodiversity. Chichilnisky-Heal’s "permeable state" is a transition to a new globalized society where the sovereign state - a relatively recent creation - is receding giving rise to a new set of global economic agents and institutions that better explain the dynamics of the global commons. We show that the permeable state complements other explanations for the resource curse as a global market failure magnified by globalization and based on the lack of well-defined property rights on natural resources during the pre-industrial period. We generalize Chichilnisky-Heal’s "bargaining to lose" approach to the resource curse and explore its natural implications for the environmental crisis on the global commons. The solutions that Chichilnisky-Heal proposes, e.g. limiting the Bretton Woods’ Institutions’ ‘seat at the negotiation table’ of resource extraction contracts, could help resolve the environmental crisis that is based on over-extraction of global resources.Sensitivity to Energy Technology Costs: A Multi-model Comparison Analysis / Valentina Bosetti, Giacomo Marangoni, Emanuele Borgonovo, Laura Diaz Anadon, Robert Barron, Haewon C. McJeon, Savvas Politis, Paul Frileyhttp://www.feem.it/userfiles/attach/2015129121484NDL2015-098.pdfIn the present paper we use the output of multiple expert elicitation surveys on the future cost of key low-carbon technologies and use it as input of three Integrated Assessment models, GCAM, MARKAL_US and WITCH. By means of a large set of simulations we aim to assess the implications of these subjective distributions of technological costs over key model outputs. We are able to detect what sources of technology uncertainty are more influential, how this differs across models, and whether and how results are affected by the time horizon, the metric considered or the stringency of the climate policy. In unconstrained emission scenarios, within the range of future technology performances considered in the present analysis, the cost of nuclear energy is shown to dominate all others in affecting future emissions. Climate-constrained scenarios, stress the relevance, in addition to that of nuclear energy, of biofuels, as they represent the main source of decarbonization of the transportation sector and bioenergy, since the latter can be coupled with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) to produce negative emissions.Identifying energy efficiency improvements and saving potential in energy networks, including analysis of the value of demand response : final report / Ecofys. European Commission. DG Energy, 18 December 2015, 183 p. https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/GRIDEE_4NT_364174_000_01_TOTALDOC%20-%2018-1-2016.pdfThis report covers the identification and assessment of measures to improve the efficiency of electricity and gas networks. It focusses on the use of demand response to reduce losses and optimalise grid planning and operation.