Companies across industries face increasing pressure to assess the costs of decarbonizing their operations. This paper develops a generic model for constructing abatement cost curves in connection with carbon dioxide emissions. The resulting abatement cost curves provide a planning tool for companies seeking to project their decarbonization pathways and to determine optimal abatement levels in response to environmental regulations such as carbon pricing. We calibrate our model in the context of European cement producers that are required to obtain emission permits under the European Emissions Trading System. We find that a price of €85 per ton of carbon dioxide, as observed on average in 2023, incentivizes firms to reduce their annual direct emissions by about one-third relative to the status quo. Yet, this incentive increases sharply when prices rise above the benchmark of €100 per ton of carbon dioxide. Data Availability: Data used in this study are referenced in the paper and the Appendix. Data underlying the plots are provided in a supplemental material file Constructing Abatement Cost Curves - Supplementary Data.xlsx. Additional information is available upon request to the first and third authors.

In response to growing economic and environmental concerns, companies in a range of industries seek to repurpose products (assets) that retain functional capacity beyond their initial first life. This paper examines a generic valuation model for used capacity assets that can either be recycled immediately or repurposed for a second life application. We apply our model framework to lithium-ion batteries retired from electric vehicles, as these assets typically retain substantial energy storage capacity at the end of their first life. Our analysis focuses on two battery chemistries: lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) and nickel-cobalt-X (NCX) based. We project their future fair market values in the United States and China. Our findings indicate that repurposing LFP batteries will be economically viable in both countries for the coming decade. In contrast, for most NCX batteries immediate recycling will soon be preferable due to their more valuable raw material content and shorter usable lives.