One way to perceive the electricity market is as a network of actors connected through transactions and monetary flows. By exploring the monetary flows in the electricity market, one adopts a holistic view which can provide insights on the interactions between different components of the benefits and costs, as well as on the possible conflicts or alliances between the involved actors of the system. The importance of such an analysis becomes even more evident when considering if the system’s state would change due to either the effectuation of a policy measure or a shift in the external drivers of the system. Additionally, by identifying conditions of conflicting interests between the involved actors, one can devise a roadmap of least-resistance for a policy measure to attain its goals. Our work is based on the premise that understanding and quantifying the monetary flows in the electricity market can contribute to the efficiency assessment of policy interventions in the market. We present a structured analytical framework and the results of a quantitative analysis, based on available public domain data, for the identification of the main drivers and interactions that governed the major monetary flows in the Greek wholesale electricity market, from 2009 to 2013 and the ex-post assessment of the market impact of the feed-in-tariffs scheme that was in place during this period.

Cities are critical actors in reducing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; the level of knowledge, skills, and capacity, especially regarding innovative project planning such as sustainable energy (SE) projects, is fundamental for cities to meet their untapped potential. A range of indicator-based frameworks have been developed, focusing on general city economic competitiveness, yet these are often disconnected from the actual city operation and processes relevant to the investment cycle of SE projects. This paper proposes an integrated methodology for developing a City Capability Assessment Framework focusing on city planning, financing, and implementation capacity for SE projects. A principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to the results of a European city-survey to uncover areas highly relevant for the successful implementation of local SE projects. The insights gained aid policymakers to better understand implementation barriers, leading to the development of more effective actions and policy interventions towards the implementation of SE projects. The proposed framework can further enhance cities’ efforts with the implementation of local SE projects and guide potential investors to properly evaluate city capabilities and potential, when choosing local investment projects.

Introducing carbon taxation could accelerate systemic change towards a decarbonised future. In this book chapter, we aim to test to which extent this policy can be considered a tipping intervention that can encourage fast green technological innovation and infrastructure development in coal and carbon-intensive regions (CCIRs) and how this policy affects the sectoral structure of the economy. We use a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model (ΜΕΜΟ) to assess the impacts of implementing a carbon tax on GDP and unemployment in Poland and Greece. These two countries are currently phasing out coal. Our results show that carbon tax implementation significantly affects the macroeconomic indicators and may also lead to considerable labour market effects on sectors other than mining, such as the light industry and construction in Greece and energy-intensive and advanced manufacturing industries in Poland. We also discuss funding and recycling revenue mechanisms that could enable the successful implementation of a carbon tax. We conclude that it would be more reasonable to treat carbon tax as an additional political tool that must be combined with other interventions coordinated with an overall broader full-system transformation narrative rather than a single tool that can determine or ex-ante detect any future tipping point.