Too little oil, too much coal: optimal carbon tax and when to phase in oil, coal and renewables

Too little oil, too much coal: optimal carbon tax and when to phase in oil, coal and renewables / F. van der Ploeg, and C. Withagen. CESifo Working Paper No. 3526, Jul 2011, 37 p. http://www.cesifo-group.de/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/1209084.PDF Our main message is that it is optimal to use less coal and more oil once one takes account ofcoal being a backstop which emits much more CO2 than oil. The way of achieving this is tohave a steeply rising carbon tax during the initial oil-only phase, a ..