The EU has been a leader in international climate policy. However, due to activities of interest groups, domestic action, an area which the EU has strongly defended, is proving difficult to carry out, particularly for cohesion member states. Although their behaviour resembles free-riding, at...

The countries wishing to join the EU have a high potential for low cost greenhouse gas emission reduction. As they cannot join the ?bubble? agreement for the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, project-based Joint Implementation (JI) could be a powerful strategy to integrate accession...

The authors suggest a multi-layered system of three convergence criteria – similar to those used in the run-up to the European monetary union – that define the notion of ?demonstrable progress? towards reaching the emission commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. These are the existence of an...

Frankreich befand sich lange Zeit in einem klimapolitischen ?Teufelskreis, in dem sich mangelnde Information und mangelndes Interesse gegenseitig verschärften? (Brodhag 1997). Dazu trug die enge Verquickung zwischen Bürokratie und wirtschaftlichen Interessengruppen sowie die zentralistische...

So far, the dominant paradigm in international climate policy has been mitigation while adaptation has been a low-key issue. However, with LDCs starting to push for adaptation side payments it has recently gained importance. The allocation of funds and the definition of adaptation activities are...

China has had an enormous growth of energy and electricity consumption during the last decades. This has been fuelled primarily by using domestic coal resources. Until 1997, annual construction of power stations averaged around 15 GW which was not sufficient to alleviate the demand surplus....

This study evaluates the CDM potential in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam by focusing not only on the absolute GHG abatement value of these countries. Rather, the potential of CDM inflows into the three countries will be identified through assessing the comparative CDM endowment on the basis of an...

Currently, international climate negotiations concentrate on design issues for the flexible instruments outlined in the Kyoto Protocol. As the 6th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in late 2000 or early 2001 has to take decisions on these matters, it is...