Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Climate system science
- Part II Impacts and adaptation
- Part III Mitigation of greenhouse gases
- 15 Bottom-up modeling of energy and greenhouse gas emissions: approaches, results, and challenges to inclusion of end-use technologies
- 16 Technology in an integrated assessment model: the potential regional deployment of carbon capture and storage in the context of global CO2 stabilization
- 17 Hydrogen for light-duty vehicles: opportunities and barriers in the United States
- 18 The role of expectations in modeling costs of climate change policies
- 19 A sensitivity analysis of forest carbon sequestration
- 20 Insights from EMF-associated agricultural and forestry greenhouse gas mitigation studies
- 21 Global agricultural land-use data for integrated assessment modeling
- 22 Past, present, and future of non-CO2 gas mitigation analysis
- 23 How (and why) do climate policy costs differ among countries?
- 24 Lessons for mitigation from the foundations of monetary policy in the United States
- Part IV Policy design and decisionmaking under uncertainty
- Index
- Plate section
- References
15 - Bottom-up modeling of energy and greenhouse gas emissions: approaches, results, and challenges to inclusion of end-use technologies
from Part III - Mitigation of greenhouse gases
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 December 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Climate system science
- Part II Impacts and adaptation
- Part III Mitigation of greenhouse gases
- 15 Bottom-up modeling of energy and greenhouse gas emissions: approaches, results, and challenges to inclusion of end-use technologies
- 16 Technology in an integrated assessment model: the potential regional deployment of carbon capture and storage in the context of global CO2 stabilization
- 17 Hydrogen for light-duty vehicles: opportunities and barriers in the United States
- 18 The role of expectations in modeling costs of climate change policies
- 19 A sensitivity analysis of forest carbon sequestration
- 20 Insights from EMF-associated agricultural and forestry greenhouse gas mitigation studies
- 21 Global agricultural land-use data for integrated assessment modeling
- 22 Past, present, and future of non-CO2 gas mitigation analysis
- 23 How (and why) do climate policy costs differ among countries?
- 24 Lessons for mitigation from the foundations of monetary policy in the United States
- Part IV Policy design and decisionmaking under uncertainty
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
Introduction
Two general approaches have been used for the integrated assessment of energy demand and supply – the so-called “bottom-up” and “top-down” approaches. The bottom-up approach focuses on individual technologies for delivering energy services, such as household durable goods and industrial process technologies. For such technologies, the approach attempts to estimate the costs and benefits associated with investments in alternative fuels and technologies, and increased energy efficiency, often in the context of reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emission or other environmental impacts. The top-down method assumes a general equilibrium or macroeconomic perspective, wherein costs are defined in terms of changes in economic output, income, or GDP, typically from the imposition of energy or emissions taxes.
A fundamental difference between the two approaches is in the perspective each typically takes on consumer and firm behavior, and the performance of markets for energy efficiency. The bottom-up approach typically assumes that various market factors (“barriers”) prevent consumers from taking actions that would be in their private self-interest, that is, would result in the provision of energy services at lower cost. These market barriers include lack of information about energy efficiency opportunities, lack of access to capital to finance energy efficiency investment, and misplaced incentives which separate responsibilities for making capital investments and paying operating costs. In contrast, the top-down approach typically assumes that consumers and firms correctly perceive, and act in, their private self-interest (are utility and profit maximizers), and that unregulated markets serve to deliver optimal investments in energy efficiency as a function of prevailing prices.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Human-Induced Climate ChangeAn Interdisciplinary Assessment, pp. 171 - 180Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
References
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