Title
Optimal allocation of carbon credits to emitting agents in a carbon economy
Abstract
Reduction of carbon emissions is of paramount importance in the context of global warming. Countries and global companies are now engaged in understanding systematic ways of achieving well defined emission targets. In fact, carbon credits have become significant and strategic instruments of finance for countries and global companies. In this paper, we formulate and suggest a solution to the carbon allocation problem, which involves determining a cost minimizing allocation of carbon credits among different emitting agents. We address this challenge in the context of a global company which is faced with the challenge of determining an allocation of carbon credit caps among its divisions in a cost effective way. The problem is formulated as a reverse auction problem where the company plays the role of a buyer or carbon planning authority and the different divisions within the company are the emitting agents that specify cost curves for carbon credit reductions. Two natural variants of the problem: (a) with unlimited budget and (b) with limited budget are considered. Suitable assumptions are made on the cost curves and in each of the two cases we show that the resulting problem formulation is a knapsack problem that can be solved optimally using a greedy heuristic. The solution of the allocation problem provides critical decision support to global companies engaged seriously in green programs.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1109/COASE.2010.5584129
Automation Science and Engineering
Keywords
Field
DocType
air pollution,carbon,global warming,knapsack problems,carbon credits optimal allocation,carbon economy,carbon emission reduction,carbon planning authority,global warming,greedy heuristic,knapsack problem,reverse auction problem
Resource management,Cost curve,Mathematical optimization,Carbon credit,Greedy algorithm,Knapsack problem,Procurement,Reverse auction,Greenhouse gas,Environmental economics,Business
Conference
ISBN
Citations 
PageRank 
978-1-4244-5447-1
3
1.20
References 
Authors
2
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Arava, R.131.20
Bagchi, D.241.61
Suresh, P.341.95
Y. Narahari469998.97