Karl Steininger

University of Graz | KFU Graz · Department of Economics and Wegener Center

Die Klimakrise betrifft uns alle - Doch wie kann ein klimafreundliches Leben für alle erreicht werden? Zahlreiche wissenschaftliche Sachstandsberichte bestätigen schon lange den umfassenden Handlungsbedarf, um die Klimaziele zu erreichen. Dieser betrifft alle Lebensbereiche: von Arbeit und Pflege über Wohnen bis zu Mobilität, Ernährung und Freizei...

Zusammenfassung Die Einleitung gibt zuerst das Verständnis der zentralen Begriffe wieder (klimafreundliches Leben, Strukturen sowie Gestalten von Strukturen). Diese fungieren als Vermittler zwischen verschiedenen Milieus, Diskursen, Werthaltungen und Disziplinen. Weiters gibt die Einleitung einen Überblick über die Rolle unterschiedlicher gesellsch...

Zusammenfassung The technical summary is aimed at a professional audience and summarizes the most important findings of the report, but without going into all the details. Each chapter is summarized on approximately two pages. For the relevant statements, an evaluation with regard to agreement and literature basis is given. In contrast to the summa...

Zusammenfassung The Summary for Policy Makers presents the main results in condensed form. The summary is the result of an internal coordination process and is therefore supported by all coordinating lead authors. For each statement, the relevant chapters and the correspondence and scope of the literature are indicated. Details on the statements ca...

Zusammenfassung Die Zusammenfassung für Entscheidungstragende gibt die wesentlichen Ergebnisse in verdichteter Form wieder. Die Zusammenfassung ist das Ergebnis eines internen Abstimmungsprozess und wird daher von allen koordinierenden Leitautor_innen mitgetragen. Bei jeder Aussage sind die relevanten Kapiteln und die Übereinstimmung und der Umfang...

Zusammenfassung Die technische Zusammenfassung richtet sich an das Fachpublikum und fasst die wichtigsten Ergebnisse des Berichtes zusammen, ohne aber alle Details auszuführen. Jedes Kapitel wird auf ungefähr zwei Seiten zusammengefasst. Hierbei wird bei den relevanten Aussagen eine Bewertung mit Hinblick auf Übereinstimmung und Literaturbasis ange...

Thus far, living in a climate-friendly way in Austria is difficult. In most areas of life, from work and housing to nutrition, mobility and leisure activities, existing structures promote climate-harmful behaviour and make climate-friendly living difficult (high agreement, strong literature base). {chap 3-9} The present report confirms the relevanc...

This technical summary provides an overview of the main statements of the APCC SR Structures for Climate-Friendly Living chapters. Based on scientific literature, the report assesses different approaches for transforming structures in order to make climate-friendly living in Austria possible and make it permanently and quickly the new status quo.

Zusammenfassung Stahlschrott ist ein wesentlicher Sekundärrohstoff im Stahlherstellungsprozess und ein wichtiger Grundpfeiler für eine CO 2 -arme Stahlindustrie. Im Vergleich zur Stahlproduktion durch die Primärroute benötigt das Einschmelzen von Stahlschrott weniger Ressourcen und birgt somit sowohl umwelttechnische als auch wirtschaftliche Vortei...

In the context of the European Green Deal, the European Commission and the European Parliament proposed to intensify Europe’s ambition for its 2030 climate targets. In the case of Austria, the current government set itself the goal of being carbon neutral by 2040. The Federal Chancellery of Austria also presented a plan to introduce a carbon price...

In our new MSc programme "Climate Change and Transformation Science", you will learn with internationally leading experts in climate science, climate economics and transformation science. You can choose to focus on natural science or social science aspects and study * the climate system, climate dynamics and climate change, * the connected risks of...

In implementing the European Green Deal to align with the Paris Agreement, the EU has raised its climate ambition and in 2022 is negotiating the distribution of increased mitigation effort among Member States. Such partitioning of targets among subsidiary entities is becoming a major challenge for implementation of climate policies around the globe...

Humans currently perceive glaciers as icons of a pristine high mountain landscape. Glaciers attract millions of visitors every year and add to building Alpine identity, but also provide ecosystem services. Using Austria’s largest glacier as an example, we show that abundant water availability would allow artificial management to conserve the glacie...

Electrification of all economic sectors and solar photovoltaics (PV) becoming the lowest-cost electricity generation technology in ever more regions give rise to new potential gains of trade. We develop a stylized analytical model to minimize unit energy cost in autarky, open it to different trade configurations, and evaluate it empirically. We ide...

Countries’ nationally determined contributions to mitigate global warming translate to claims of country specific shares of the remaining carbon budget. The remaining global budget is limited by the aim of staying well below 2 °C, however. Here we show how fairness concerns quantitatively condition the allocation of this global carbon budget across...

Transformation to climate neutrality of the transport sector raises multiple challenges at a time, with potentially conflicting objectives and further external effects. This calls for a balanced policy package of which empirical assessment is needed in order to i) quantify its effectiveness and ii) reveal effects of potential overlaps and interacti...

In implementing the Green Deal to align with the Paris Agreement, the EU has increased its climate ambition and is currently negotiating how the increased mitigation effort should be distributed among Member States. Such partitioning of targets among subsidiary entities is becoming a major challenge for implementation of climate policies around the...

We explore the macroeconomic and distributional impacts of unilateral carbon pricing in Austrian economic sectors, which are not covered by the EU emission trading scheme ETS, under various assumptions of revenue usage. We use a recursive-dynamic computable general equilibrium model with twelve groups of private households, differentiated by income...

In this paper we take up the challenge to integrate new aspects into macroeconomic modelling and to consider economic activities from an outcome-oriented perspective, so called functionalities. The basic idea is, that functionalities lie behind the demand for commodities and services and therefore are the actual reason for economic activities. Func...

The goal of this study, commissioned by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Digitalization and Economic Affairs, is to provide a scientific analysis of the economy-wide effects of the enhanced EU 2030 climate targets for Austria. It derives recommendations, including on the necessary framework conditions in Austria and beyond its borders that are need...

In order to meet the climate targets as set out in the Paris agreement – i.e. to stay “well below 2°C” of global warming – a transformation of the socioeconomic system towards climate neutrality is required. This transformation is connected to radical changes in most aspects of our daily lives, especially with respect to mobility and housing. This...

In order to achieve emission reduction targets in the passenger transport sector, the demand side and especially the mobility behavior of consumers deserve special attention. It is unlikely that such behavior will change without significant political intervention, nor will single policy instruments be sufficient to induce the needed changes. In thi...

To avoid uncontrollable and uncompensated effects of climate change, within the ratification of the Paris Agreement, 197 countries including Austria have committed to limit their emissions of greenhouse gases to hold the warming below 2°C. Achievement of this objective will oblige Austrian society to stay within a carbon budget of 1000 Mt CO2eq unt...

Whereas Spain used to have one of the most restrictive photovoltaic self-consumption (PVSC) regulations in the world, the new regulation (RD-L 15/2018 & RD 244/2019) improves the economic conditions of PVSC systems, simplifies administrative procedures and allows shared self-consumption. We analyze the impact of the new PVSC regulation on residenti...

Target values for creating carbon budgets for buildings are important for developing climate-neutral building stocks. A lack of clarity currently exists for defining carbon budgets for buildings and what constitutes a unit of assessment—particularly the distinction between production- and consumption-based accounting. These different perspectives o...

The objective of the United Nations Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2°C, with efforts to reach 1.5°C, requires a strict limitation of future global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions based on a global carbon budget. Applying equity considerations allows for the derivation of national carbon budgets. A key question then arises: How...

Limiting global warming in line with the goals in the Paris Agreement will require substantial technological and behavioural transformations. This challenge drives many of the current modelling trends. This article undertakes a review of 17 state-of-the-art recursive-dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) models and assesses the key methodolo...

The climate targets agreed in Paris 2015 render deep decarbonization of energy-and emission-intensive industries crucial. Policy makers are interested in the macroeconomic consequences of such decarbonization pathways and often rely on integrated modelling studies. However, the underlying modelling assumptions and uncertainties often remain unquest...

Das CCCA wurde gebeten eine Stellungnahme zum Factsheet „Kostenwahrheit CO2“ (Entwurfsversion 20.03.2020) des Bundesministeriums für Klimaschutz (BMK) abzugeben. Das BMK sucht im Sinne des Regierungsprogrammes Wege um Kostenwahrheit für CO2-Emissionen herzustellen. Das BMK orientiert sich dabei an der „Methodenkonvention 3.0“ des deutschen Umweltbu...

Tipping points have become a key concept in research on climate change, indicating points of abrupt transition in biophysical systems as well as transformative changes in adaptation and mitigation strategies. However, the potential existence of tipping points in socio-economic systems has remained underexplored, whereas they might be highly policy...

Limiting global warming in line with the goals in the Paris Agreement will require substantial technological and behavioural transformations. This challenge drives many of the current modelling trends. This paper undertakes a review of 17 state-of-the-art recursive-dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) models and assesses the key methodologi...

Increasing penetration of zero marginal cost variable renewable technologies cause the decline of wholesale electricity prices due to the merit-order effect. This causes a “cannibalization effect” through which increasing renewable technologies’ penetration undermines their own value. We calculate solar and wind daily unit revenues (generation weig...

Ziel des Ref-NEKP ist im Sinne guter wissenschaftsseitiger Praxis im Dialog zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik keinen Plan vorzulegen, der vorgibt, was politisch zu machen sei, sondern mögliche Umsetzungswege darzustellen, mit denen Österreich wirklich seinen fairen und angemessenen Beitrag zu den Pariser Klimazielen erreichen kann (Stichwort policy...

Ziel des Ref-NEKP ist im Sinne guter wissenschaftsseitiger Praxis im Dialog zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik keinen Plan vorzulegen, der vorgibt, was politisch zu machen sei, sondern mögliche Umsetzungswege darzustellen, mit denen Österreich wirklich seinen fairen und angemessenen Beitrag zu den Pariser Klimazielen erreichen kann (Stichwort policy...

To mitigate climate change, societies strive to transform the energy sector towards greenhouse gas emission neutrality, a move which assessment studies often indicate incurs large macroeconomic costs. In this context the weighted average costs of capital (WACC) are especially important, as renewables are highly capital intensive. In particular, inv...

Climate change, along with socioeconomic development, will increase the economic impacts of floods. While the factors that influence flood risk to private property have been extensively studied, the risk that natural disasters pose to public infrastructure and the resulting implications on public sector budgets, have received less attention. We add...

In March 2019, German-speaking scientists and scholars calling themselves Scientists for Future, published a statement in support of the youth protesters in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (Fridays for Future, Klimastreik/Climate Strike), verifying the scientific evidence that the youth protestors refer to. In this article, they provide the full...

To limit global temperature increase below +2°C, societies need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions radically within the next few decades. Amongst other mitigation measures, this requires transforming process-emission intensive industries towards emission neutrality. One way to this end is the renewables-based electrification of industries. We prese...

Climate change is one of the most serious threats to the human habitat. The required structural change to limit anthropogenic forcing is expected to fundamentally change daily social and economic life. The production of iron and steel is a special case of economic activities since it is not only associated with combustion but particularly with proc...

With the increasing share of renewables in electricity generation in Europe, implied economy-wide macroeconomic feedbacks and spill-over effects to other sectors and actors are of rising importance. We quantify the macroeconomic effects of a large-scale expansion of wind and photovoltaics (PV) in Europe, employing a global multi-regional multi-sect...

Figure A1. Relation between indicators across profitability indexes Figure A2. Social profitability index at 0% discount rate (SPI(0)) and social rate of return (SRR) as a function of the PV penetration [%] and the social cost of carbon (SCC [€/tCO2]). Cost approach excluding overproduction costs Figure A3. Social profitability index at 0% discount...

Spring frosts, as experienced in Europe in April 2016 and 2017, pose a considerable risk to agricultural production, with the potential to cause significant damages to agricultural yields. Meteorological blocking events (stable high-pressure systems) have been shown to be one of the factors that trigger cold spells in spring. While current knowledg...

There is growing recognition that implementation of low-carbon policies in urban passenger transport has near-term health co-benefits through increased physical activity and improved air quality. Nevertheless, co-benefits and related cost reductions are often not taken into account in decision processes, likely because they are not easy to capture....

While Germany has led the market in photovoltaic (PV) implementation throughout the last decade, there has been increasing criticism of PV support policies due to their high cost. Although declining, the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) from PV is still above the German wholesale electricity price. However, using LCOE as an evaluation yardstick...

Greenhouse gas emissions can be addressed at the points of both production and consumption of goods and services. In a world of inhomogeneous climate policy, missing out policies on either production or consumption leaves an important policy area idle, rendering climate policy inefficient and potentially ineffective. While consumption-based emissio...

Having achieved grid parity, photovoltaic (PV) self-consumption will play a key role in the transition to a low-carbon energy system. Spain, whilst among the EU countries with highest solar irradiation, has recently passed one of the most restrictive self-consumption regulations. We study the implications of this regulation in comparison with alter...

Limiting global warming to prevent dangerous climate change requires drastically reducing global greenhouse gases emissions and a transformation towards a low-carbon society. Existing energy- and climate-economic modeling approaches that are informing policy and decision makers in shaping the future net-zero emissions society are increasingly seen...

Zu den großen Herausforderungen des 21. Jahrhunderts gehören der Klimawandel und der globale Wandel. Die Umwelt- und Klimaforschung ist an der Universität Graz in einer für diesen Bereich notwendigen Breite abgedeckt. Die Disziplinen befruchten einander gegenseitig in ihrer internationalen Sichtbarkeit. Dazu trägt auch das jüngst eingerichtete Dokt...

Die derzeit in Ausarbeitung befindliche integrierte Energie- und Klimastrategie für Österreich erweckt den Eindruck, dass grundlegende Zusammenhänge im Energiesystem nicht ausreichend Berücksichtigung finden, um eine konstruktive und langfristig tragfähige Perspektive zu entwickeln. Eine Fokussierung auf energierelevante Dienstleistungen, wie therm...

Die derzeit in Ausarbeitung befindliche integrierte Energie- und Klimastrategie für Österreich erweckt den Eindruck, dass grundlegende Zusammenhänge im Energiesystem nicht ausreichend Berücksichtigung finden, um eine konstruktive und langfristig tragfähige Perspektive zu entwickeln. Eine Fokussierung auf energierelevante Dienstleistungen, wie therm...

Climate change triggers manifold impacts at the national to local level, which in turn have various economy-wide implications (e.g. on welfare, employment, or tax revenues). In its response, society needs to prioritize which of these impacts to address and what share of resources to spend on each respective adaptation. A prerequisite to achieving t...

On looking at the development of greenhouse gas emissions over the last few decades, we find that while some countries and regions (such as the EU) have succeeded in reducing territorial emissions, their consumption patterns have often resulted in an increase in emissions elsewhere on the globe (consumption-based emissions). We thus argue that give...

Ökonomische und ethische Auswirkungen von Naturgefahren in alpinen Tälern

Negotiating reductions in greenhouse gas emission involves the allocation of emissions and of emission reductions to specific agents, and notably, within the current UN framework, to associated countries. As production takes place in supply chains, increasingly extending over several countries, there are various options available in which emissions...

The first step in an economic assessment of climate change impacts at the country level is the identification of so-called “impact fields”. These fields can be either single economic sectors, parts of sectors or aggregates of sectors. For the case of Austria that is explored in this book, 12 impact fields are identified and investigated regarding c...

This chapter evaluates the aggregate macroeconomic effects of the quantifiable impact chains in ten impact fields for Austria: Agriculture, Forestry, Water Supply and Sanitation, Buildings (with a focus on heating and cooling), Electricity, Transport, Manufacturing and Trade, Cities and Urban Green, Catastrophe Management, and Tourism. First, the c...

The sector “Manufacturing and Trade” exhibits relatively high climate sensitivity as it depends on climate sensitive raw materials and intermediary inputs (such as agricultural products, timber and energy). In addition, changes in climatic stimuli (such as in temperature and relative humidity) may also influence production processes and/or the prod...

Expansion of urban green is triggered by settlement growth that preserves appropriate urban green shares and—potentially—by explicit policy to counter local temperature increase in urban environments in the future. Both issues are considered here. Green space expansion because of urban growth in Austria’s six larger cities is assumed to reach 144 h...

Impact assessment at the national level requires sectoral detail, economy-wide integration, and a consistent framework and toolbox to do so. This chapter discusses the issues and derives the requirements for climate scenarios and local indicators, shared socioeconomic pathways, and economic evaluation to allow for and ensure consistent integration....