46 Int. J. Global Environmental Issues, Vol. 10, Nos. 1/2, 2010 Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. AGE assessment of interactions between climate change policy instruments and pre-existing taxes: the case of Ireland Wiepke Wissema* Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland Environmental Economics and Natural Resources Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands E-mail: wwissema@gmail.com *Corresponding author Rob Dellink Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands Environmental Economics and Natural Resources Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands E-mail: rob.dellink@wur.nl Abstract: We introduce a computable general equilibrium model for Ireland to investigate the impact of climate policy on the Irish economy, taking special notice of interactions with the existing tax structure. To this end, we extend the model with a detailed representation of the tax system using separate tax data on all transactions, both intermediate and final demand. We simulate the implementation of auctioned CO 2 emissions trading and specific CO 2 taxation in Ireland and compare different methods to recycle the revenues. The extended tax specification facilitates a thorough second-best analysis. Keywords: applied general equilibrium; climate change; energy taxes; Ireland. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Wissema, W. and Dellink, R. (2010) ‘AGE assessment of interactions between climate change policy instruments and pre-existing taxes: the case of Ireland’, Int. J. Global Environmental Issues, Vol. 10, Nos. 1/2, pp.46–62. Biographical notes: Wiepke Wissema is working as Researcher at the Environmental Economics and Natural Resources Group of Wageningen University, since obtaining her PhD in Economics from Trinity College Dublin in 2007. She holds a Master’s in Environmental Economics from Wageningen University and published her first paper in Ecological Economics. Rob Dellink is an Assistant Professor at Wageningen University (since 1998) and Senior Researcher Environmental Economics at the Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University Amsterdam (since 2007). He holds a