There are several approaches to implement carbon pricing through public policies,
mostly using the instrument of government taxes. In addition, emission quota or
so-called caps may be applied to determine the required level of the tax. If these
quotas are company specific, their enforcement can be arranged via a system of
permits or certificates, to allow a certain amount of carbon to be emitted. Eventually,
permits can be made tradeable, to allow a re-distribution of emissions. In what
follows, we will not go into these instruments in more detail and instead represent
measures in a stylized way through price increases of logistics services.
Typically, such a policy question can be answered in some more detail using
empirical, quantitative, predictive models of logistics systems, reproducing the
decision-making of companies. Models can be built that include also dynamic
behaviour of firms, so that one can evaluate whether the expected time to impact
of carbon taxation is in line with the long-term targets. Modelling of behaviour of
firms is not a trivial task. There is little generalized knowledge about how logistics
decisions typically will respond to policies. To model them explicitly, we must take
recourse to aggregate and stylized models of the freight system, econometrically
estimated against observed decisions and flows (Tavasszy et al. 2019). We are not
aware of any research about expected time duration of responses of firms to taxation
measures; studies are generally static-comparative in nature.
Our objective is to contribute with a comparative discussion of a series of recent
modelling studies at city, corridor, country, continent and global level. All the cases
relate to the reorganization responses of logistics decision-makers, in the context of
carbon pricing. The city case involves an application of an agent-based model to
evaluate a carbon credit point system for city logistics. Decisions involved include
order size, in-shop inventories, routing and truck type. The corridor case involves
carbon pricing of container transport in the hinterland of the port of Rotterdam over a
multimodal network. The country and continental cases describe the effects of
network wide truck charging, with a focus on mode choice, vehicle type and routing.
The global case concerns a full economic impact analysis of internalization of
external costs of supply chains, also looking at the effect of changes in sourcing
decisions of companies.
The paper is built up as follows. Section 2 introduces a conceptual framework of
logistics reorganization measures that firms may take in response to decarbonization
policies. We build on this framework of decisions throughout the paper, with
empirical cases. In section 3, we present an overview of the cases, in terms of their
main characteristics and the general expectations from the literature, concerning
lessons to be learned. Sections 4, 5, 6, and 7 each describe a case in itself, at the scale
of a municipality, a corridor, nations and the world, respectively. Section 8 synthesizes and discusses the findings across case studies, reaching back to expected
lessons stated in Sect. 3. Section 9 concludes the paper with a summary of findings
and some recommendations for research and policy.
18
L. Tavasszy
mostly using the instrument of government taxes. In addition, emission quota or
so-called caps may be applied to determine the required level of the tax. If these
quotas are company specific, their enforcement can be arranged via a system of
permits or certificates, to allow a certain amount of carbon to be emitted. Eventually,
permits can be made tradeable, to allow a re-distribution of emissions. In what
follows, we will not go into these instruments in more detail and instead represent
measures in a stylized way through price increases of logistics services.
Typically, such a policy question can be answered in some more detail using
empirical, quantitative, predictive models of logistics systems, reproducing the
decision-making of companies. Models can be built that include also dynamic
behaviour of firms, so that one can evaluate whether the expected time to impact
of carbon taxation is in line with the long-term targets. Modelling of behaviour of
firms is not a trivial task. There is little generalized knowledge about how logistics
decisions typically will respond to policies. To model them explicitly, we must take
recourse to aggregate and stylized models of the freight system, econometrically
estimated against observed decisions and flows (Tavasszy et al. 2019). We are not
aware of any research about expected time duration of responses of firms to taxation
measures; studies are generally static-comparative in nature.
Our objective is to contribute with a comparative discussion of a series of recent
modelling studies at city, corridor, country, continent and global level. All the cases
relate to the reorganization responses of logistics decision-makers, in the context of
carbon pricing. The city case involves an application of an agent-based model to
evaluate a carbon credit point system for city logistics. Decisions involved include
order size, in-shop inventories, routing and truck type. The corridor case involves
carbon pricing of container transport in the hinterland of the port of Rotterdam over a
multimodal network. The country and continental cases describe the effects of
network wide truck charging, with a focus on mode choice, vehicle type and routing.
The global case concerns a full economic impact analysis of internalization of
external costs of supply chains, also looking at the effect of changes in sourcing
decisions of companies.
The paper is built up as follows. Section 2 introduces a conceptual framework of
logistics reorganization measures that firms may take in response to decarbonization
policies. We build on this framework of decisions throughout the paper, with
empirical cases. In section 3, we present an overview of the cases, in terms of their
main characteristics and the general expectations from the literature, concerning
lessons to be learned. Sections 4, 5, 6, and 7 each describe a case in itself, at the scale
of a municipality, a corridor, nations and the world, respectively. Section 8 synthesizes and discusses the findings across case studies, reaching back to expected
lessons stated in Sect. 3. Section 9 concludes the paper with a summary of findings
and some recommendations for research and policy.
18
L. Tavasszy