China’s capital-intensive, export-oriented, spectacular economic growth since launching its open-door policy and economic reforms in late 1978 not only has created jobs and has lifted millions of the Chinese people out of poverty, but also has given rise to unprecedented environmental...

This paper computes national carbon mitigation costs using two simple principles: (1) Incremental costs for low-carbon energy investments are calculated using the cost of coal-fired power as the benchmark. (2) All low-carbon energy sources are counted, because reducing carbon emissions cannot be...

China, from its own perspective cannot afford to, and from an international perspective, is not allowed to continue on the conventional path of encouraging economic growth at the expense of the environment. The country needs to transform its economy to effectively address concern about a range...

As an important step towards building a “harmonious society” through “scientific development”, China has incorporated for the first time in its five-year economic plan an energy input indicator as a constraint. While it achieved a quadrupling of its GDP while cutting its energy intensity...

This chapter describes some of the major regional GHG cap-and-trade initiatives in the United States, defines the problem of emissions leakage in the context of regional GHG regulation, identifies the various approaches employed by the regional GHG cap-and-trade regimes in the United States to...

China, from its own perspective can not afford to, and from an international perspective, is not allowed to continue on the conventional path of encouraging economic growth at the expense of the environment. The country needs to transform its economy to effectively address concern about a range...

Performance-based low carbon fuel standards (LCFS) of the type implemented in California and being adopted in the European Union, are a promising policy approach for decarbonizing transport fuels and reducing fossil fuel use. This paper examines the efficacy of LCFS policies, along with four...

This article argues that state and regional initiatives have unique benefits and drawbacks that should be recognized and embraced when states attempt to develop greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction policies. Before setting policies designed to reduce GHG emissions, lawmakers and government...

Energy and climate policies are usually seen as measures to internalize externalities. However, as a side effect, these policies redistribute wealth between consumers and producers, and within these groups. While redistribution is seldom the focus of the academic literature in energy economics,...

Since the onset of the COVID-19, the seriousness of the climate problem has attracted more attention, and international cooperation to prevent climate change and climate disaster is continuing. More than 100 countries, including the EU, China, and Japan, have declared or are pursuing carbon...