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 less influential in corporate investment decisions than market prices and technology-specific regulations like feed-in tariffs. While technology providers view long-term targets as significantly more relevant than the EU ETS for RD&D and sales, power generators see the EU ETS as slightly more relevant for new plant adoption. The research emphasizes that a coordinated policy mix of stringent, predictable instruments and ambitious long-term targets is necessary to drive low-carbon innovation.

• Climate policy elements are typically rated as less relevant than other business environment factors for investment decisions. Market prices for fuels and electricity, as well as technology-specific regulations such as feed-in tariffs for renewable energies, are identified as the most relevant factors for both RD&D and the adoption of new plants.
• There is a distinct difference in how technology providers and power generators perceive climate policy. Technology providers view long-term climate policy targets as significantly more relevant than the EU ETS for both RD&D and product demand. Conversely, power generators rate the EU ETS as slightly more relevant than long-term targets for the adoption of new plants, though long-term targets are more relevant for their RD&D.
• The relevance of long-term climate policy targets is highly correlated with the relevance of the EU ETS for power generators across both RD&D and adoption. For technology providers, long-term targets are highly correlated with both the EU ETS and technology-specific support policies regarding sales and RD&D.
• Technology providers' perception of the relevance of technology-specific policies is strongly influenced by their product portfolio; those with a higher share of sales in fossil-fuel based power generation assign lower relevance to these policies.
• Power generators with higher long-term CO2 price expectations and greater certainty regarding those expectations assign a higher relevance to the EU ETS when making investment decisions for new plants.
• The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is consistently rated as the least important factor among all decision factors for both power generators and technology providers.

APA

Rogge, K. S., Schmidt, T. S., & Schneider, M. (2011). Relative Importance of different Climate Policy Elements for Corporate Climate Innovation Activities. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Relative-Importance-of-Policy-Elements.pdf

Chicago

Rogge, Karoline S., Tobias S. Schmidt, and Malte Schneider. Relative Importance of different Climate Policy Elements for Corporate Climate Innovation Activities. Climate Policy Initiative, 2011. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Relative-Importance-of-Policy-Elements.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 Policy Initiative |date=January 2011 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Relative-Importance-of-Policy-Elements.pdf |access-date=17 August 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 Policy Initiative}, year = {2011}, month = jan, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Relative-Importance-of-Policy-Elements.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }