{"title":"Carbon emissions reduction in maritime supply chain under cap-and-trade and carbon tax policies","authors":"Tingsong Wang , Lingxin Xia , Yadong Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103815","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Maritime carbon emissions have evolved into a pressing global environmental challenge. The cap-and-trade and carbon tax are two market-oriented policies adopted by many governments to reduce carbon emissions. However, the existing research on emission reduction policies either focuses on some methods within a single policy category or focuses on comparisons at the macro policy level. There is a lack of in-depth analyses on the implementation details of these two policies, namely, the quota allocation methods in cap-and-trade and the tax rate structures of carbon taxes. Therefore, this study integrates three carbon trading quota allocation methods: grandfathering (G), benchmarking (B), and historical intensity (HI) and two tax rate forms: flat-rate tax (FT) and progressive tax (PT) to establish a game-theoretic framework involving the government, the port company, and the shipping company. This study also analyzes the impacts of these methods on carbon emissions within the maritime supply chain (MSC). The main findings are as follows: (1) Methods G, HI, FT, and PT achieve emission reductions by constraining production quantities, whereas Method B risks emission increases due to output expansion. (2) Method B maximizes profits by scaling production quantities, outperforming Methods G and PT. These three methods (G, B, and PT) exhibit profit growth under carbon price increases, whereas Methods HI and FT experience profit declines as carbon prices rise. (3) Method B maximizes short-term profits but risks higher emissions, and Methods G and PT balance profits and emissions, while Methods HI and FT underperform and should be avoided.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48378,"journal":{"name":"Transport Policy","volume":"173 ","pages":"Article 103815"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Transport Policy","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X25003580","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Maritime carbon emissions have evolved into a pressing global environmental challenge. The cap-and-trade and carbon tax are two market-oriented policies adopted by many governments to reduce carbon emissions. However, the existing research on emission reduction policies either focuses on some methods within a single policy category or focuses on comparisons at the macro policy level. There is a lack of in-depth analyses on the implementation details of these two policies, namely, the quota allocation methods in cap-and-trade and the tax rate structures of carbon taxes. Therefore, this study integrates three carbon trading quota allocation methods: grandfathering (G), benchmarking (B), and historical intensity (HI) and two tax rate forms: flat-rate tax (FT) and progressive tax (PT) to establish a game-theoretic framework involving the government, the port company, and the shipping company. This study also analyzes the impacts of these methods on carbon emissions within the maritime supply chain (MSC). The main findings are as follows: (1) Methods G, HI, FT, and PT achieve emission reductions by constraining production quantities, whereas Method B risks emission increases due to output expansion. (2) Method B maximizes profits by scaling production quantities, outperforming Methods G and PT. These three methods (G, B, and PT) exhibit profit growth under carbon price increases, whereas Methods HI and FT experience profit declines as carbon prices rise. (3) Method B maximizes short-term profits but risks higher emissions, and Methods G and PT balance profits and emissions, while Methods HI and FT underperform and should be avoided.
期刊介绍:
Transport Policy is an international journal aimed at bridging the gap between theory and practice in transport. Its subject areas reflect the concerns of policymakers in government, industry, voluntary organisations and the public at large, providing independent, original and rigorous analysis to understand how policy decisions have been taken, monitor their effects, and suggest how they may be improved. The journal treats the transport sector comprehensively, and in the context of other sectors including energy, housing, industry and planning. All modes are covered: land, sea and air; road and rail; public and private; motorised and non-motorised; passenger and freight.