www.centre-cired.fr

CIRED was founded in 1973 to harmonize environmental economic research, natural resource management and economic development, an issue which known today as sustainable development. CIRED worked in the last thirty years, both in developed and in developing countries, on several subjects such as energy, waste management, transportation, water or food.

During the late 80s, CIRED research focused more and more on global environmental issues (stratospheric ozone, acid rain, climate change) and on the application of the precautionary principle.

CIRED provides expertise to several international organisations (European Community, OECD, World Bank) as well as to the Intergovernmental Panel on climate change.

The research team is organized around four main themes.

On ecological issues with uncertain and even controversial knowledge, both on the ecological phenomenon itself and on the cost efficiency of technological and institutional responses to it. Due to the potential role of environmental and technological irreversibilities, there is a time lag between the moment of the policy decision and the moment where the information is available. This time lag opens up a space for the strategic use of information uncertainties.

Environment, basic needs and public services (energy and transportation services and networks), equity and inter-regional transfers. On the one hand, we deal here with the contradictions between the effects induced by those tools (taxes, norms, standards, emission permits, delegation contracts) on agents' behaviour, on technical change and on the spatial distribution. On the other hand, we are concerned about their short and medium term effects on income distribution and on market competitiveness.

Economic dimensions of international coordination, links between the environmental agreements and the World Trade Organization, negotiation processes.

Optimal control models based on reduced biogeophysical models (in collaboration with IPSL), on energy forecasting and on computable general equilibrium models for growth and labour impacts of environmental policies.