Work Package 4: Synthesis and Policy Recommendations

Description

Policy recommendations for Austria were developed based on the modelling results, a literature review and stakeholder discussions. First, the modelling results delivered insights into the impacts of a carbon tax or a balanced mix of policy instruments for achieving decarbonisation of passenger transport and residential buildings. Another result regards the specific vulnerabilities of the defined household types in terms of reduced income, consumption and employment possibilities. Different implications for sub-groups of the population, defined by quantiles of the income distribution as well as by characteristics such as regional distribution were discussed. Specific attention was paid to the gender dimension of distributional burdens related to the introduction of price mechanisms.

Given the model results we developed recommendations on how potential negative effects of the climate policy instruments on the (most vulnerable) household types can be mitigated. This included a comprehensive discussion of the role of different revenue recycling options as well as a literature survey regarding other targeted measures.

The policy recommendations were developed in cooperation with stakeholders (e.g. interest groups, ministries, NGOs) ensuring the usability of the project results in policy making. A stakeholder workshop (WP5) was organised to discuss the policy recommendations.