Håkon Sælen - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Håkon Sælen

Although the Paris Agreement arguably made some progress, interest in supplementary approaches to... more Although the Paris Agreement arguably made some progress, interest in supplementary approaches to climate change co-operation persist. This article examines the conditions under which a climate club might emerge and grow. Using agent-based simulations, it shows that even with less than a handful of major actors as initial members, a club can eventually reduce global emissions effectively. To succeed, a club must be initiated by the ‘right’ constellation of enthusiastic actors, offer sufficiently large incentives for reluctant countries and be reasonably unconstrained by conflicts between members over issues beyond climate change. A climate club is particularly likely to persist and grow if initiated by the United States and the European Union. The combination of club-good benefits and conditional commitments can produce broad participation under many conditions.

Responses from a survey on the acceptability of restrictions on leisure air travel, conducted in ... more Responses from a survey on the acceptability of restrictions on leisure air travel, conducted in September 2020 in Norway. We conducted an online survey with a sample of the adult Norwegian population in September 2020, with 1010 respondents, implemented by the survey company YouGov. Before starting the survey, respondents were provided with information about the purpose of the survey, what taking part in the survey would mean for them, and contact information to obtain additional information. The questionnaire contained 7 questions relating to air travel restrictions motivated by mitigating climate change, 7 parallel (as near identical as possible) questions relating to air travel restrictions motivated by minimizing the spread of the COVID-19 virus, with the order of the two blocks randomized to control for any order effects, and a further 6 general questions, supplemented by 8 socio-economic questions already answered by the survey panel members. An English translation of the full questionnaire is provided

WIREs Climate Change, 2019

Oxford Economic Papers, 2017

Under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, each Party sets its own mitigation target by submitting a... more Under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, each Party sets its own mitigation target by submitting a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) every …ve years. An important question is whether including conditional components in NDCs might enhance the agreement's e¤ ectiveness. We report the results of a closely controlled laboratory experiment-based on a mixed sequential-simultaneous public good game with one leader and three followers-that helps answer this question. The experiment investigates how two factors in ‡uence the e¤ ectiveness of leadership based on intrinsically conditional commitments. Measuring e¤ ectiveness in terms of followers' and total contributions, we …nd that it may help if the conditional promise is credible and if its implementation in ‡uences followers' welfare substantially. Importantly, however, for both factors we …nd a signi…cant e¤ ect only if the leader does not reap disproportionate gains from the group's e¤ orts. These …ndings have important implications concerning the future success of the Paris agreement.

On October 24-25 2013 the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Government of Belgium invited selec... more On October 24-25 2013 the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Government of Belgium invited selected representatives of Parties, NGOs, and academia to a workshop on operationalizing equity in the context of the 2015 agreement, with particular reference to the negotiations track from Warsaw to Paris. The first day was devoted to academic presentation and follow-up discussions. The second day featured a roundtable discussion between negotiators under Chatham House Rules. This report is not exhaustive, but focuses on key ideas and questions that arose during the discussions. The second day is prioritized, as presentations from the first day are available online. No attempt was made to arrive at consensus at the workshop, only to raise important issues and debate constructive ideas. Hence, this report should be read as an inventory of ideas that received support from at least some workshop participants, not as a summary of consensual conclusions. Any biases or omissions should be attributed to the rapporteurs. The report is divided into four main parts which were discussed during the second day: 1) The scope and role of equity in the 2015 agreement, 2) differentiation, 3) indicators, and 4) review and timing.

Ecological Economics, 2011

Energy Policy, 2011

ABSTRACT While strongly recommended by economists, it has often been politically difficult to imp... more ABSTRACT While strongly recommended by economists, it has often been politically difficult to impose taxes on externalities. There is a substantial literature on public attitudes towards environmental taxes. There has, however, been few comprehensive attempts to understand attitudes towards environmental taxes. The main research question in this paper is which factors influence support for fuel taxation. We propose a model of attitudes towards fuel taxation, and test this model as well as more specific hypotheses, using data from a representative survey of the adult Norwegian population. Our results suggest that support for fuel taxation is best predicted by beliefs about environmental consequences, followed by beliefs about consequences to others. Beliefs about consequences to self (self-interest) is the factor that explains the least variation in support for fuel taxation. The academically interesting result that support cannot be well explained without capturing a broad range of motivational factors is also highly policy relevant. It implies that there is no magic formula for increasing public support for environmental taxes. There are, however, some issues which can be addressed: trust in how well the government spends the revenue, and the perception that taxation does very little to change behaviour and thus to reduce environmental problems.

There is currently a large knowledge gap in terms of understanding how consumers make decisions w... more There is currently a large knowledge gap in terms of understanding how consumers make decisions which involve an energy consumption component. In particular, it is unclear which factors are salient in consumers’ decisions, the relative importance of these factors and how these factors change by consumer group and product type. It has long been recognised that consumers fail to minimize the total costs of their energy-consuming investments due to a range of market and non-market based failures. This has become known as the ‘Energy Efficiency Gap’. A better understanding of consumer behaviour is particularly important when it comes to addressing this gap and encouraging more efficient purchases. Specifically, how important is energy consumption information in the consumer decision making process and how does this change depending on the consumer type, location and the product in question?

Journal of Consumer Policy, 2013