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Advantages Of Marginal Abatement Cost (MAC) Curve

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Marginal abatement cost (MAC) curve is a popular tool for assessing abatement options because it approaches the complex issue of cost-effective options in a simple and straightforward manner. MAC curve demonstrates graphically the cost effective way to reduce carbon emissions. Specifically, MAC curves contrast the marginal abatement cost (€/tCO2 eq.) on the y axis for varying amounts of emission reductions (thousand tCO2 eq.). These emission reductions are compared relative to the business as usual economic activity where no CO2 reduction policy will be implemented. A negative abatement cost indicates that the business as usual economic activity costs more than the implementation of an abatement policy. The popularity of MAC curves concept …show more content…

Expert-based MAC curves are developed based on assumptions made by experts and they present detailed technological options. Each bar represents an abatement option. The width of the bar represents the abatement potential of this abatement option and the height of the bar represents the cost for each year, relative to the business as usual economic activity. The width of all bars together reveals the total abatement potential. Furthermore, the left side of the curve demonstrates the cheapest abatement options and as we move to the right side the costs are being raised. Among the advantages of this type of MAC curve is the easy understanding, the simple representation of the technological options and the ability to account for marker distortions. On the other hand, the principal disadvantage is the simplification of the assumptions. Furthermore, other drawbacks of expert-based MAC curve are the inability to account for any possible interactions among the abatement options or for any other interactions, time uncertainty and inconsistency of business as usual emissions (Kesicki, …show more content…

The government and scientific communities in United Kingdom have also adopted the concept of expert-based MAC curve. Atomic Energy Authority (2008) published a report for Ecofys and Committee on Climate Change with MAC curves for industrial, domestic and non-domestic sectors. The Stationary Office (2008) has issued a report regarding UK’s emission targets towards 2050, the mitigation choices between CO2 and other GHG emissions and other guidelines regarding the optimal abatement strategy. They include expert-based MAC curves in their analysis for energy, residential, non-domestic buildings, industrial and transport sectors. The Department of Energy & Climate Change (2009a,b) constructed MAC curves for the entire UK economy including domestic, non-domestic, transport, industry, agriculture and wastes sectors. The target of the reports is to assess the mitigation policies under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and those which are not included in the ETS and to propose the optimal mitigation strategy for United Kingdom. Johnson et al. (2009) constructed expert-based MAC curves for Mexico including agriculture and forestry, oil and gas, energy end-use, transport and electricity sectors. O’Brien et al. (2014) also used an expert-based MAC curve in order to evaluated abatement

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