Comparative analysis of the existing and proposed ETS

Emissions trading schemes (ETS) have been operational to control greenhouse gas emissions in European Union since 2005. Under the EU ETS, the governments of the Member States agree on national emission caps, allocate allowances to industrial operators, track and validate the actual emissions and retire allowances at the end of each year. ETS have been proposed to be introduced in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, US, Canada, Korea, India and two Chinese provinces in the near future. The main idea of the ETS is to create the market for pollution which will provide economic agents with incentives to reduce their emissions ( Stavins, et al., 2003). The design of ETS plays an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting environmental and economic sustainability. There are several designs of ETS including cap-and-trade, baseline-and-credit and hybrid, however, cap-and-trade scheme is the most popular among the proposed ETS. The purpose of this paper is to perform a comprehensive review of the existing and the proposed ETS focusing on design issues. Findings of this research will be useful for countries with existing and proposed ETS and for countries intending to adopt ETS in the future.