Adopting Carbon Pricing Tools at the Local Level: A City Case Study in Portugal

Abstract

Debates on carbon costs and carbon pricing to accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are emerging as cities develop local policies and programs to achieve carbon neutrality. This paper focuses on how cities formulate economic instruments and adopt carbon pricing experiments to support their climate objectives. Extensive literature is available on science-policymaking interface Integrated Assessment Models (IAM) and on the two mainstream approaches of carbon cost formulation—Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) and Marginal Abatement Cost (MAC). Although, the literature on how governments develop climate policy instruments, particularly towards a local carbon cost, is recent. We start by reviewing these essential concepts and tools for carbon cost formulation. We then critically review a set of local carbon pricing experiments, totaling fourteen international cities, and confirm a great demand for scientifically robust, verifiable, and transferable carbon cost methodologies at the local level. We thus propose an approach to assess the short-term technology cost of CO2 emission reduction in the mobility sector in Matosinhos municipality, Portugal. Our approach shows that a carbon cost methodology at the local level with robust, verifiable, and transferable results is possible. We advocate for a methodological advance to estimate versatile CO2 prices suitable for local conditions.

Rethinking of Green Economy: A Literature Review

“…Carbon pricing is a policy tool that puts a price on carbon emissions, creating an economic incentive for companies to reduce their emissions. Cities are developing local policies and programs to achieve carbon neutrality, and carbon pricing tools are emerging as a way to accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (Ferreira et al, 2022). However, there is a need for scientifically robust, verifiable, and transferable carbon cost methodologies at the local level.…”

Social Determinants, Motivation, and Communication: How People Perceive and Choose Sustainable Mobility at a Local Level in Portugal

“…For cities, this often means the adoption or introduction of new technologies and making them accessible for citizens at low cost, and has been seen practiced in the transport sector. On the one hand, cities are critical actors for climate action and curbing CO 2 emissions [4][5][6]. Urban sustainable mobility pilots have become a popular way to test the credibility and effectiveness of climate solutions [7,8].…”