Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing policymakers worldwide, and the stakes are particularly high for Asia and the Pacific. This paper analyzes how fiscal policy can address challenges from climate change in Asia and the Pacific. It aims to answer how policymakers can best promote mitigation, adaptation, and the transition to a low-carbon economy, emphasizing the economic and social implications of reforms, potential policy trade-offs, and country circumstances. The recommendations are grounded in quantitative analysis using country-specific estimates, and granular household, industry, and firm-level data.
'Environmental Taxation in China and Asia-Pacific contains a rich collection of papers addressing issues of vital importance to policy formulation in a spectrum of environmental areas. While not everyone would agree to all that is said in each of the papers, the book will certainly trigger fruitful debates. It is also a great source of information on environmental policy developments in major economies that will need to play an increasing role in addressing major issues such as climate change mitigation.' Nils Axel Braathen, Principal Administrator OECD, Environment Directorate 'Another outstanding volume on environmental taxation, this time with focus on China and the Asia-Pacific. Legal, economic and policy contributions offer great insight in the present situation and future developments in this fascinating part of the world.' Kurt Deketelaere, K.U. Leuven, Belgium, University of Dundee, UK and University of Qatar Environmental Taxation in China and Asia-Pacific contains an integrated set of detailed chapters providing insights and analysis on how fiscal policy can be used to achieve environmental sustainability. Highly topical chapters include energy tax policy in China, environmental fiscal reform, carbon tax policy in northeast Asia and environmental taxation strategies in China, Asia and Australia, as well as many other relevant topics. Written by distinguished environmental taxation scholars from around the world, the emphasis of this book is on finding solutions to environmental problems which merit serious consideration by policy makers as well as academics in environmental law and other academic disciplines.
This report provides actionable advice on how to design and implement fiscal policies for both development and climate action. Building on more than two decades of research in development and environmental economics, it argues that well-designed environmental tax reforms are especially valuable in developing countries, where they can reduce emissions, increase domestic revenues, and generate positive welfare effects such as cleaner water, safer roads, and improvements in human health. Moreover, these reforms need not harm competitiveness. New empirical evidence from Indonesia and Mexico suggests that under certain conditions, raising fuel prices can actually increase firm productivity. Finally, the report discusses the role of fiscal policy in strengthening resilience to climate change. It provides evidence that preventive public investments and measures to build fiscal buffers can help safeguard stability and growth in the face of rising climate risks. In this way, environmental tax reforms and climate risk-management strategies can lay the much-needed fiscal foundation for development and climate action.
This report shows how adopting good practices around climate-resilient fiscal planning can help decision-makers in Asia and the Pacific ramp up public and private resources to plug the yawning adaptation financing gap. Outlining a three-step framework, the report explains the need to effectively assess the rising impacts of climate change, develop a fiscal risk management strategy, and optimize available resources. It underscores why coherent action hinges on a solid understanding of the impacts of climate change and how central finance agencies can better integrate climate risk into decision-making to lead the drive towards economic resilience.
The Asia–Pacific Integrated Model (AIM) brings together more than 20 computer simulation models for development and analysis of policy in such diverse fields as climate change mitigation, air pollution abatement, and ecosystem preservation. This first book in a series on the development of AIM focuses on climate change issues and the evaluation of policy options to stabilize the global climate. It presents an overview of the models developed to date, their structure, and the results and analyses presented to policymakers and researchers at the levels of individual Asian countries, the Asia–Pacific region, and the world at large. The contents vary in scope from local to global issues, with discussions of the effects of climate policies, cost analyses of climate policies with their effects on trade, and global scenario analyses. Also included are impact analyses and the effects of promoting environmental technologies.
This paper reviews the fiscal implications of climate change, and the potential role of the Fund in addressing them. It stresses that: • The potential fiscal implications are immediate as well as lasting, and liable to affect—in differing forms and degree—all Fund members. • Climate change is a global externality problem, calling for some degree of international fiscal cooperation... • ...and has features—an intertemporal mismatch between the (early) costs of action to address climate change and (later) benefits, pervasive uncertainties and irreversibilities (including risk of catastrophe), and sharp asymmetries in the effects on different countries—that raise difficult technical and ethical issues, and hinder policy coordination. • In addition to itself impacting the public finances, climate change calls for deploying fiscal instruments to mitigate its extent and adapt to its remaining effects.
Pacific island countries need to build their fiscal and economic resilience to climate change and natural disasters as these have lasting consequences on their livelihoods, economies, and fiscal balances. Climate change and natural disasters can have lasting consequences on livelihoods, economies, and fiscal balances-spanning immediate reconstruction costs and fiscal shocks to long-term halts in tourism and agriculture economies. Globally, the most exposed to these impacts are the Pacific island countries. The Asian Development Bank is working closely with its Pacific developing member countries to prepare for and respond to the effects of climate change and natural hazards. This publication examines the often-overlooked dimension of resilience planning-how to brace economies for shocks caused by climate change and hazard events. It analyzes the exposure and vulnerability of Pacific economies to disaster events and outlines key resources for building fiscal and economic resilience.
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies display large variation in terms of income per capita. The richest APEC economies have an income per capita about twenty times higher than the poorest ones. So far most work on fiscal policy and climate change has been written with developed economies in mind. This report on the use of fiscal policies for mitigating and adapting to climate change effects corrects that bias with a particular focus on the developing economies of APEC. It also plays close attention to lessons that could be learnt from the advanced economies of APEC and elsewhere. On mitigation, the report notes that achieving the ambitious targets adopted by APEC economies will depend crucially the choice of fiscal policy instruments. These choices will depend, in turn, on the characteristics of developing economies, particularly of their energy sectors. Specifically, mitigation in developing countries requires a broad-based response with four key components. First, carbon pricing will be critical, but will not be sufficient and in some economies and some sectors may have little or no impact due to pre-existing distortions. Second, energy sector reforms that liberalize markets and establish effective regulators so that policies can support appropriate carbon prices and cost pass-through in the energy sector will be key. Third, broader economic reforms may also be important to off-set current bias towards capital and energy intensive economic growth. Fourth, technology-based mitigation policies will also be needed, but, given the mixed track record in this area, must be chosen with care. Given the many uncertainties involved, and the multiple reforms needed, a verifiable quantity anchor for mitigation policy is recommended for developing economies, such as the energy-intensity target recently adopted by China. On the adaptation side, fiscal analysis has so far largely focused on cost projections, but for policy makers adaptation instruments and decision-making tools are as or more important. Adaptation instruments include the provision of public and club goods (such as infrastructure), public sector pricing reform (in particular of water) and financial instruments (microcredit and insurance) which can be cost-effective alternatives to subsidies. Key to the right choice of instruments (which will vary from location to location) will be the correct use of appropriate decision-making tools. In particular, the social costs and benefits of alternat...
The small states of the Asia and Pacific region face unique challenges in raising their growth potential and living standards. These countries are particularly vulnerable because of their small populations, geographical isolation and dispersion, narrow export and production bases, lack of economies of scale, limited access to international capital markets, exposure to shocks (including climate change), and heavy reliance on aid. In providing public services, they face higher fixed government costs relative to other states because public services must be provided regardless of their small population size. Low access to credit by the private sector is an impediment to inclusive growth. Capacity constraints are another key challenge. The small states also face more limited policy tools. Five out of 13 countries do not have a central bank and the scope for diversifying their economies is narrow. Given their large development needs, fiscal policies have been, at times, pro-cyclical. Within the Asia-Pacific small states group, the micro states are subject to more vulnerability and macroeconomic volatility than the rest of the Asia-Pacific small states.
