Willingness to Pay for a Climate Backstop: Liquid Fuel Producers and Direct CO 2 Air Capture
通过敏感性分析，研究了液体燃料生产商在何种条件下会资助直接空气二氧化碳捕获技术的开发，发现开发成本通常超过个体收益，但严格碳政策等因素可能促使单边投资。
We conduct a sensitivity analysis to describe conditions under which liquid fuel producers would fund the development of a climate backstop. We estimate (1) the cost to develop competitively priced direct CO 2 air capture technology, a possible climate backstop and (2) the effect of this technology on the value of liquid fuel reserves by country and fuel. Under most assumptions, development costs exceed individual benefits. A particularly robust result is that carbon prices generate large benefits for conventional oil producers—making a climate backstop unappealing for them. Unilateral investment does become more likely under: stringent carbon policy, social discount rates, improved technical outcomes, and high price elasticity of demand for liquid fuels. Early stage investment is inexpensive and could provide a hedge against such developments, particularly for fuels on the margin, such as tar sands and gas-to-liquids. Since only a few entities benefit, free riding is not an important disincentive to investment, although uncertainty about who benefits probably is. doi: 10.5547/ISSN0195-6574-EJ-Vol33-No1-3