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GTAP Research: Energy

GTAP Environmental and Energy Research
Many economic analyses of climate policies have used computable general equilibrium (CGE) models of the global economy. This class of model permits the analysis of policy impacts while considering all the substitutions and exchanges that occur in the global economy. The GTAP Model and data base at Purdue has been used extensively to evaluate costs of abatement and to assess the spill-over effects of greenhouse gases (GHG) abatement policies via international trade and sectoral interaction. During the past decade, the Global Trade Analysis Project has filled an important need in the integrated assessment (IA) community by providing regular updates of world-wide input-output and bilateral trade data sets with significant disaggregation of regions and sectors, plus energy volume data. GTAP has successfully integrated global energy data sets - in particular, extended energy balances and energy prices and taxes, compiled by the International Energy Agency (IEA) - into the GTAP input-output tables and bilateral trade data (first implementation). With its data base now covering inputs/outputs and bilateral trade of 57 commodities (and producing industries) and 113 countries/regions, GTAP is able to capture broad sectoral interactions within domestic economies and international trade effects as well.

Recently, growing research demands for integrated assessment (IA) of climate change issues and bio-fuels have motivated construction of data bases and models related to GHG emissions, Land use, and Biofuels which can be used with CGE models.


GHG Emissions
Based on the GTAP energy volume data, we further estimated the CO2 emissions by fuel and by user for each country/region. This gives more accurate estimates of CO2 emission coefficients, which is essential in the derivation of marginal abatement costs - one of the key factors in the global market of emissions trading. In addition to the GTAP energy data sets, the GTAP-E model has been developed to better describe the behavior of energy consumers in the face of higher energy prices. For example, taxes on CO2 emissions would prompt energy consumers to use less-polluting energy, such as natural gas as opposed to coal. In addition, GTAP-E also allows for analyses of the "carbon leakage" effect and global emissions trading.

With funding from EPA, we are currently extending the GTAP Data Base further to include non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions - CH4, N2O, and F-gases. Emissions of these gases are linked to the underlying economic drivers of emissions - mostly agriculture. In this EPA project, we also aim to further extend the GTAP Data Base to allow it to support analyses of the linkages between land use changes and net GHG emissions from agriculture and forestry. We develop a new GTAP-based model - named GTAPE-AEZ -- to illustrate how the GHG emissions from agricultural and forestry activities could be integrated into the standard GTAP Model or other similar CGE models.


Land Use
Growing research demands for integrated assessment of GHGs issues also motivated construction of a Data Base of land use and GHG emissions for use with CGE models. This project, funded by the Methane and Sequestration Branch of the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), aims to further extend the GTAP Data Base to fill the gap that links land use changes and GHGs emissions from agriculture and forestry. The extended GTAP Data Base covers major GHGs from all sources, with a special focus on GHG emissions related to changes in land use and management practices in agriculture and forestry (e.g., deforestation and afforestation). The EPA sponsored project also identifies a methodological approach to integrate GHGs emissions from agricultural and forestry activities into the standard GTAP Model. Cost features of alternative GHG abatement technologies are also incorporated into the model.

Further Land Use research may also be found on the GTAP website.


Bio-fuels
Most recently the GTAP Model and data base have been extended to improve the treatment of biofuel by products and accurately represent global land use. The modified model, nick-named GTAP-BIO (Birur et al., 2008) further modifies the GTAP-E model (Burniaux and Truong, 2002 and modified by McDougall and Golub, 2009) to incorporate the potential for biofuels to substitute for petroleum products. Biofuels were also introduced into this GTAP Data Base (Taheripour et al., 2007). The modified data base includes data on production, consumption and trade of biofuels including grain based ethanol, sugarcane ethanol, and biodiesel from oilseeds, as well as data on biofuel by-products.




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Last Modified: 11/8/2021 1:04:44 PM