The report analyzes, by looking back at existing compliance systems in the EU, Alberta, Australia, Colombia and Japan, the conditions under which offsets can add value to the compliance system without undermining its environmental integrity. The compliance system’s climate ambition as well as...

Is carbon trading a just policy response to climate change? To answer this question, I begin by proposing necessary conditions for a just emissions trading scheme. It should lower emissions, and distribute burdens fairly. The Australian carbon trading scheme did not meet these conditions. The...

When dealing with multiple greenhouse gases, we need some way to establish equivalence among gases. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has suggested the use of global warming potentials (GWPs) for making such trade-offs. We begin by examining the implications of such an...

We offer a framework to assign quantitative allocations of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), across countries, one budget period at a time. Under the two-part plan: (i) China, India, and other developing countries accept targets at Business as Usual (BAU) in the coming budget period, the...

We investigate how the U.S. withdrawal and the amendments of the Bonn climate policy conference in 2001 will change the economic and environmental impacts of the Kyoto Protocol in its original form. Based on simulations with a large-scale computable general equilibrium model, we find that U.S....