Relative Importance of different Climate Policy Elements for Corporate Climate Innovation Activities

The study finds that climate policy elements, including the EU ETS and long-term targets, are generally rated as less relevant to corporate investment decisions in the power sector than market factors and technology-specific regulations like feed-in tariffs. For technology providers, long-term targets are significantly more relevant than the EU ETS for both RD&D and sales. Power generators show a high correlation between the perceived relevance of the EU ETS and long-term targets. The research also indicates that technology providers' reliance on technology-specific policies is strongly linked to their product portfolios, while power generators' relevance ratings are less dependent on their technology portfolios. Higher long-term CO2 price expectations and greater certainty about those prices correlate with a higher perceived relevance of the EU ETS for new plant investments.

• Climate policy elements are typically viewed as less influential than other business environment factors. Market prices for fuels and electricity, as well as technology-specific regulations such as feed-in tariffs, are identified as the most relevant factors for both RD&D and the adoption of new plants.
• Technology providers perceive long-term climate policy targets as significantly more important than the EU ETS for their RD&D investments and product demand. For these firms, technology-specific regulation is the most relevant decision factor for both sales and RD&D.
• For power generators, the perceived relevance of long-term climate policy targets is highly correlated with the relevance of the EU ETS for both RD&D and adoption. However, these targets do not correlate with technology-specific support policies for power generators.
• The technology portfolio of power generators does not significantly correlate with the relevance they assign to decision factors for new plants or RD&D. In contrast, technology providers' ratings for technology-specific policies are strongly influenced by their portfolio: those with a higher share of fossil-fuel based power generation sales assign lower relevance to these policies.
• Power generators' expectations for CO2 prices in 2020 are higher than for 2012, though they associate greater uncertainty with the 2020 projections. There is a correlation where generators with higher long-term CO2 price expectations and higher certainty about them rate the EU ETS as more relevant for new plant investment decisions.

APA

Rogge, K. S., Schmidt, T. S., & Schneider, M. (2011). Relative Importance of different Climate Policy Elements for Corporate Climate Innovation Activities. Climate Strategies. https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/cplci-relative-importance-of-different-climate-policy-elements-110131.pdf

Chicago

Rogge, Karoline S., Tobias S. Schmidt, and Malte Schneider. Relative Importance of different Climate Policy Elements for Corporate Climate Innovation Activities. Climate Strategies, 2011. https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/cplci-relative-importance-of-different-climate-policy-elements-110131.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Rogge |first1=Karoline S. |last2=Schmidt |first2=Tobias S. |last3=Schneider |first3=Malte |title=Relative Importance of different Climate Policy Elements for Corporate Climate Innovation Activities |publisher=Climate Strategies |date=January 2011 |url=https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/cplci-relative-importance-of-different-climate-policy-elements-110131.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rogge2011relative, author = {Rogge, Karoline S. and Schmidt, Tobias S. and Schneider, Malte}, title = {{Relative Importance of different Climate Policy Elements for Corporate Climate Innovation Activities}}, institution = {Climate Strategies}, year = {2011}, month = jan, url = {https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/cplci-relative-importance-of-different-climate-policy-elements-110131.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }