IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/erp/euirsc/p0204.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The EU's Emissions Trading Scheme: A Proto-Type Global System?

Author

Listed:
  • Denny Ellerman

Abstract

The European Union's Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is the world's first multinational cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases. As an agreement between sovereign nations with diverse historical, institutional, and economic circumstances, it can be seen as a prototype for an eventual global climate regime. Interestingly, the problems that are often seen as dooming a global trading system - international financial flows and institutional readiness - haven't appeared in the EU ETS, at least not yet. The more serious problems that emerge from the brief experience of the EU ETS are those of (1) developing a central coordinating organization, (2) devising side benefits to encourage participation, and (3) dealing with the interrelated issues of harmonization, differentiation, and stringency. The pre-existing organizational structure and membership benefits of the European Union provided convenient and almost accidental solutions to the need for a central institution and side benefits, but these solutions will not work on a global scale and there are no obvious substitutes. Furthermore, the EU ETS is only beginning to test the practicality of harmonizing allocations within the trading system, differentiating responsibilities among participants, and increasing the stringency of emissions caps. The trial period of the EU ETS punted on these problems, as was appropriate for a trial period, but they are now being addressed seriously. From a global perspective, the answers that are being worked out in Europe will say a great deal about what will be feasible on a broader, global scale.

Suggested Citation

  • Denny Ellerman, 2009. "The EU's Emissions Trading Scheme: A Proto-Type Global System?," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 2, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    • Handle: RePEc:erp:euirsc:p0204
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1814/10619
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1814/10619
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ellerman,A. Denny & Buchner,Barbara K. & Carraro,Carlo (ed.), 2007. "Allocation in the European Emissions Trading Scheme," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521875684, September.
    2. Kruger, Joseph & Oates, Wallace E. & Pizer, William A., 2007. "Decentralization in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and Lessons for Global Policy," RFF Working Paper Series dp-07-02, Resources for the Future.
    3. El-Agraa,Ali (ed.), 2007. "The European Union," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521874434.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2010. "An overview of current research on EU ETS: Evidence from its operating mechanism and economic effect," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(6), pages 1804-1814, June.
    2. Inglesi-Lotz, Roula & Blignaut, James N., 2014. "Improving the electricity efficiency in South Africa through a benchmark-and-trade system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 833-840.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abadie, Luis M. & Chamorro, José M., 2008. "European CO2 prices and carbon capture investments," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 2992-3015, November.
    2. Claudia Kettner & Daniela Kletzan-Slamanig & Angela Köppl, 2012. "The EU Emission Trading Scheme. National Allocation Patterns and Trading Flows," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 44139.
    3. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4521 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Stephen Lecourt & Clément Pallière & Oliver J. Sartor, 2013. "The impact of emissions-performance benchmarking on free allocations in EU ETS Phase 3," Working Papers hal-00809096, HAL.
    5. Li, Y.P. & Huang, G.H. & Li, M.W., 2014. "An integrated optimization modeling approach for planning emission trading and clean-energy development under uncertainty," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 31-46.
    6. Alex Dickson & Ian A. MacKenzie, 2022. "Permit Markets with Political and Market Distortions," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 82(1), pages 227-255, May.
    7. Richard Schmalensee & Robert N. Stavins, 2017. "Lessons Learned from Three Decades of Experience with Cap and Trade," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 11(1), pages 59-79.
    8. Anderson, Barry & Leib, Jörg & Martin, Ralf & McGuigan, Marty & Muuls, Mirabelle & Wagner, Ulrich J. & de Preux, Laure B., 2011. "Climate change policy and business in Europe: evidence from interviewing managers," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 47493, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Woodward, Richard T., 2011. "Double-dipping in environmental markets," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 153-169, March.
    10. Shihong Zeng & Jiuying Chen, 2016. "Forecasting the Allocation Ratio of Carbon Emission Allowance Currency for 2020 and 2030 in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-28, July.
    11. Neal, Larry & Garcia-Iglesias, Concepcion, 2012. "The economy of Spain in the eurozone before and after the crisis of 2008," MPRA Paper 37008, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Hanley Nick & MacKenzie Ian A, 2010. "The Effects of Rent Seeking over Tradable Pollution Permits," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-26, July.
    13. Gregor Schwerhoff, 2013. "Leadership and International Climate Cooperation," Working Papers 2013.97, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    14. Harvey E. Lapan & Shiva Sikdar, 2019. "Is Trade in Permits Good for the Environment?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 72(2), pages 501-510, February.
    15. Ying Fan & Xu Wang, 2014. "Which Sectors Should Be Included in the Ets in the Context of a Unified Carbon Market in China?," Energy & Environment, , vol. 25(3-4), pages 613-634, April.
    16. Ioan Popescu, 2011. "The Expansion Of European Bureaucracy," CES Working Papers, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 3(3), pages 415-428, September.
    17. Matthew Ranson & Robert N. Stavins, 2012. "Post-Durban Climate Policy Architecture Based on Linkage of Cap-and-Trade Systems," NBER Working Papers 18140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Gregor Schwerhoff, 2016. "The economics of leadership in climate change mitigation," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 196-214, March.
    19. European Commission, 2013. "Taxation trends in the European Union: 2013 edition," Taxation trends 2013, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    20. Jessika Richter & Luis Mundaca, 2015. "Achieving and maintaining institutional feasibility in emissions trading: the case of New Zealand," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 20(8), pages 1487-1509, December.
    21. Jurate Jaraite-Ka~ukauske and Corrado Di Maria, 2016. "Did the EU ETS Make a Difference? An Empirical Assessment Using Lithuanian Firm-Level Data," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    energy policy; environmental policy;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:erp:euirsc:p0204. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Valerio PAPPALARDO (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rsiueit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.