To achieve the commitments to both carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, China should focus on those policies of significant impact on emissions reduction at the lowest cost. Launching the national carbon market with the power generation sector is a good start point in this direction. Since its...

To point out the direction and focus of future international climate negotiations, this paper discusses how far developing country commitments can go in an immediate post-2012 climate regime. The paper argues that developing country commitments are most unlikely to go beyond the defined polices...

Asia has truly experienced spectacular economic growth over the past 15 years. However, this economic progress has come at a high cost. It has led to unprecedented environmental consequences. Ecological footprint shows that, despite the fact that one-fifth of the population in Asia still lives...

This article examines whether a greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme has the potential to bring parties into conflict with the WTO provisions in dealing with the initial allocation of permits, non-compliance with emissions targets, emissions trading system enlargement, and trade measures...

There have been a variety of studies investigating the relative importance of structural change and real intensity change to the change in China's energy consumption in the 1980s. However, no detailed analysis to date has been done to examine whether or not the increased energy efficiency trend...

As the world's second largest carbon emitter, China has long been criticized as a "free-rider" benefiting from other countries' efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but not taking responsibility for its own emissions. China has been singled out as one of the major targets at the subsequent...

Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol authorises emissions trading, but the rules governing emissions trading have been deferred to subsequent conferences. In designing and implementing an international greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trading scheme, assigning liability rules has been considered to be...

This paper provides a review of the literature on competitiveness and leakage concerns associated with differentiated climate abatement commitments among countries. The literature reviewed is not exhausted, but it is sufficient to provide a balanced view of both academics and policy circles....

China's President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao have recognized the seriousness of environmental degradation in China, and accordingly insist that the conventional Chinese path of encouraging economic growth at the expense of the environment has to be changed. As a first but most...

The East-West Center convened the international conference on climate policy in Honolulu, Hawaii, on September 4-6, 2003. Sponsored by the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, Industrial Technology Research Institute (Taiwan),...