Clean growth
Given that the threat of human induced climate change is considered the greatest challenge of our time, economic growth has to be sustainable.
We examine the determinants of the main culprit in climate change: greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Our focus is businesses, responsible for about one-third of GHG emissions in industrialised countries. We find that management practices account for a considerable amount of the variation in emissions found, even in similar business sectors. The programme has carried out evaluations of emissions-reduction schemes such as the European Emissions Trading Scheme and the Climate Change Levy as well as considering impacts on competitiveness and economic performance, a major issue for policy makers.
Businesses are not only polluters but can be innovators in the development of new emission-reducing products, services and processes. An important focus of our research is the drivers of clean innovation (including taxation of dirty innovation) and how policy can efficiently incentivise it. Research using patent citations data suggests that knowledge spillovers from clean innovation exceed those from dirty (carbon-based) innovation. This suggests that short-run as well as longer-run growth effects would occur from a transition to cleaner technologies and climate change policies.
Turning from producers to consumers of energy, we are conducting random controlled trials to see which behavioural incentives and technology (eg smart meters) work to reduce domestic energy consumption or shift its demand to match the natural variations of renewable resources such as solar or wind.
Featured Work
Clean growth publications
Raphael Calel, Jonathan Colmer, Antoine Dechezleprêtre and Matthieu Glachant
29 October 2021
Pia Andres, Ralf Martin, Penny Mealy, Esin Serin, Arjun Shah and Anna Valero
22 September 2021
Nicholas Stern and Anna Valero
1 June 2021
Jonathan Colmer, Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls and Ulrich J. Wagner
17 November 2020
Antoine Dechezleprêtre, Cal B. Muckley and Parvati Neelakantan
2 July 2020
Philippe Aghion, Roland Bénabou, Ralf Martin and Alexandra Roulet
31 March 2020
Ralf Martin, Sam Unsworth, Anna Valero and Dennis Verhoeven
13 February 2020
Antoine Dechezleprêtre, Caterina Gennaioli, Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls and Thomas Stoerk
11 February 2019
James Rydge, Ralf Martin and Anna Valero
3 December 2018
Genevieve Alberts, Zeynep Gurguc, Pantelis Koutroumpis, Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls and Tamaryn Napp
1 September 2016
Ralf Martin, Ulrich J. Wagner and Laure B. de Preux
1 September 2014
Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls, Ulrich J. Wagner and Laure B. de Preux
1 August 2014
Philippe Aghion, Antoine Dechezleprêtre, David Hemous, Ralf Martin and John Van Reenen
30 November 2012