This collection of documents is for those wishing to gain a comprehensive understanding of Flexible Fees. For More information please contact the Foundation.
Below is the presentation from Anders Höglund, the originator of the concept of flexible emission fees. Anders introduces the background to the concept.
The video above explains the Foundation’s emissions fee mechanism in more practical terms with an example of application to phosphorous conservation.
For a more detailed explanation, see our White Paper.
A recent report from The Nordic Council of Ministers ( title: Flexible emission fees – An incentive for driving sustainable production and consumption) is optimistic that growth and environmental goals can be reconciled. If the conclusions of the report can be implemented, it could set a new direction towards sustainable development.
This report contains research into academic literature relevant to flexible emissions fees.
Our updated White Paper explains why we need to discourage supply chains from emitting waste into the natural environment. It also explains that what we call waste could be a resource in another supply chain if the economic context were to encourage recycling. Höglund’s Mechanism, is presented as a tool to focus market forces to create an economic system that delivers real value: essential services in a sustainable way.
The paper also describes the planetary boundaries approach put forward by the Stockholm Resilience Centre and gives several worked examples as to how the flexible mechanism could be applied to two of the four top priorities: carbon dioxide and phosphorus.
Read the paper here. whitepaper January 2011 version
For a deeper explanation, see the background paper on emission fees.
This blog article draws a parallel between flexible emission fees and congestion charges. “Flexible emissions charges are a floating congestion charge for nature“.
A background paper A new method to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases, by Anders Höglund, describes how to do something that has baffled many economists: reveal the cost for reducing environmental emissions.
Read the paper here theemissionsfeefuturesmarket-alh2010c_1_1
A Flexible Pollution Tax by Mark Sanctuary and Anders Höglund
The report outlines a method to put a price on emissions targeted by government for substantial reduction or complete elimination.
The fee provides a mechanism by which pollution can be reduced in an economically efficient manner. The basic principle for the mechanism is that the pollution abatement should be cost efficient, not only concerning the distribution between the measures of abatement but also concerning the speed by which the total amount of pollutant emissions is reduced over time. The concept combines those efficiency advantages of a pollution tax with an innovative way of setting the level of the fee using the decisions of individual firms acting on an open market.
Höglund’s fee does not consider damages to the environment when setting the level of the fee. Rather, the level of the tax is dependent on the development and adoption of cleaner technology. Höglund’s tax also subjects polluting firms to short-term volatility. This drives firms to buy and sell pollution contracts on market in order to hedge their abatement decisions.
Rapporten “En flexibel miljöskatt” på Svenska. The report in Swedish.
Presentation on Phosphorous and the application of flexible fees to the address phosphorous depletion, from Arno Rosemarin PhD, a Senior Research Fellow at Stockholm Environment Institute. Dr Rosemarin was invited due to his extensive research into the challenge of phosphorous.