LASSI AHLVIK
University of Helsinki
ERC STARTING GRANT
GRETA – Green tax reform for a just climate transition
FRANCESCO LAMPERTI
Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies
ERC STARTING GRANT
FIND – Finance and Innovation to couple Negative emissions and sustainable Development
ALESSANDRO TAVONI
University of Bologna
ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANT
GREEN TIPPING – From Niches to Norms: Drivers and Diffusion of Green Social Tipping
LASSI AHLVIK
University of Helsinki
ERC STARTING GRANT
GRETA – Green tax reform for a just climate transition
Start date: Jan 1st 2024 End date: Dec 31st 2028
Ambitious climate policy generates winners and losers in society. The project analyses the effects of climate policy on various societal groups, investigates people’s notions of fairness and strives to understand how harmful effects can be mitigated through taxation. The study combines information economics, which aims to make the tax system as effective as possible while relying on incomplete information, with Finnish registers of individuals and businesses.
The goal of the project is to combine the models for pricing externalities and the theory of optimal taxation so that policies favourable to the climate and income distribution can be presented with the help of empirically estimated variables. These variables will be estimated using Finnish registry datasets and the energy price shock caused by the energy crisis of 2022. Another goal is to understand, through surveys, what kind of burden-sharing Finns perceive as fair and acceptable.
There is growing concern regarding the implementation of climate policy that costs, instead of being evenly distributed, will put the most strain on the most vulnerable individuals in society. The project supports the devising of a green transition in Finland and Europe that is considered socially fair.
FRANCESCO LAMPERTI
Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies
ERC STARTING GRANT
FIND – Finance and Innovation to couple Negative emissions and sustainable Development
Start date: Jan 1st 2024 End date: Dec 31st 2028
The FIND project will develop an innovative framework to assess the feasibility and social desirability of limiting global warming through the diffusion of negative emission technologies. Current global climate action is deeply insufficient to deliver the objectives of the Paris Agreement and containing global warming to 1.5 °C will likely require the deployment of carbon dioxide removals. However, the technologies to sequestrate and store carbon from the atmosphere are currently immature, risky, and highly questioned. Understanding the effective diffusion potential of carbon removal methods and their socioeconomic and environmental impacts is pivotal to design future climate action. The FIND project aims to ensure that negative emission technologies act as an enabler, not a barrier, of long-run sustainable development. It brings together different disciplines – namely, climate science, economics, innovation studies, climate finance, integrated assessment, and agent-based modelling – in a coherent and synergic whole. FIND is designed to provide breakthrough evidence about two crucial and under-investigated aspects of carbon removal solutions: (i) how their techno-economic paradigms evolve and relate to the broader technological landscape, and (ii) how immature and uncertain technologies can be financed to provide social value rather than speculative interest. By combing innovation, finance, and political economy into a quantitative theory of carbon removal operationalization unfolding at global scale, FIND will expand the state-of-the-art in climate-energy-economy modelling and reassess decarbonization pathways. The project will evaluate climate and non-climate policies to create robust, no-regret policy portfolios supporting a rapid and sustainable path to a net-zero society. FIND will be of high relevance for public policy and civil society, especially considering Europe’s commitment to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 while spurring green and inclusive growth.
ALESSANDRO TAVONI
University of Bologna
ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANT
GREEN TIPPING – From Niches to Norms: Drivers and Diffusion of Green Social Tipping
Start date: Sep 1st 2023 End date: Aug 31st 2028
GREEN TIPPING aims to identify cost-effective and scalable interventions to identify social tipping points, overcome inertia and precipitate change towards climate-friendly actions.
The project has 4 main objectives resulting in 4 modules:
1. Posit: Identify preconditions for green tipping → Adoption thresholds & potential for norm change
2. Test: Evaluate STI performance at scale → Increased climate contributions & policy support
3. Refine: Calibrate models, improve STI, identify susceptible targets to maximize intervention efficacy
4. Validate: Assess tipping potential in the field → Role of STI in instigating change among the (un)treated
