Emissions trading schemes figure prominently among policy instruments used to tackle the problem of climate change, and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), begun in 2005, is the largest cap-and-trade market so far established. In the EU ETS, firms regulated by the scheme are provided with emissions allowances (each a one-time right to emit one ton of greenhouse gases) and can sell their unused allowances to firms that have higher rates of emissions. In this volume, leading economists offer empirical and theoretical perspectives on the early phases of the EU ETS implementation. The contributors discuss the features of the EU ETS market; and regulatory uncertainty stemming from rule changes; the political economy context of the trading scheme, including allowance allocation and the influence of lobbying on abatement decisions; the coexistence of such overlapping instruments for climate policy as pricing and taxation; the relationship between spot and futures markets for allowances, and firms' responses to various features of the EU ETS, including fluctuating allowance prices, free allocation, and links to the Kyoto process. They show that, although the basic theory behind emissions permit markets is straightforward, design features, market structure, and interactions with other policy instruments can influence the efficiency of the scheme.--

The 1997 Kyoto Conference introduced emissions trading as a policy instrument for climate protection. Bringing together scholars in the fields of economics, political science and law, this book, which was originally published in 2005, provides a description, analysis and evaluation of different aspects of emissions trading as an instrument to control greenhouse gases. The authors analyse theoretical aspects of regulatory instruments for climate policy, provide an overview of US experience with market-based instruments, draw lessons from trading schemes for the control of greenhouse gases, and discuss options for emissions trading in climate policy. They also highlight the background of climate policy and instrument choice in the US and Europe and the foundation of systems in Europe, particularly the EU's directive for a CO2 emissions trading system.

Emissions trading is becoming an increasingly popular policy instrument with growing diversity in design. This book examines emissions trading design, emissions trading implementation problems and how to address them. In an easily accessible way

Emissions trading challenges the management of companies in an entirely new manner: Not only does it, like other market-based environmental policy instruments, allow for a bigger flexibility in management decisions concerning emission issues. More importantly, it shifts the mode of governance of environmental policy from hierarchy to market. But how is this change reflected in management processes, decisions and organizational structures? The contributions in this book discuss the theoretical implications of different institutional designs of emissions trading schemes, review schemes that have been implemented in the US and Europe, and evaluate the range of investment decisions and corporate strategies which have resulted from the new policy framework.

Emissions trading challenges the management of companies in an entirely new manner. Most importantly it shifts the mode of governance of environmental policy from hierarchy to market. The contributions in this book discuss the theoretical implications of different institutional designs of emissions trading schemes. They review schemes implemented in the US and Europe, and evaluate the range of investment decisions and corporate strategies resulting from the new policy framework.

The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) has been characterized as one of the most far-reaching and radical environmental policies for many years. Given the EU's earlier resistance to this market-based and US-flavoured programme, the development and implementation of the EU ETS has been rapid. This novel approach to environmental regulation has the potential to affect not only greenhouse gas emissions in the EU, but also international strategies for climate change protection. This book investigates the origins, evolution and consequences of the EU ETS and offers significant contributions to the literatures on climate policy and EU policy making.

What role do evaluations for environmental policies have in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden? And could evaluations be better implemented in order to create and uphold effective and efficient environmental policies? These are the two questions this study aims at answering. The study focuses on three main areas in regard to ex-ante and ex-post evaluations for environmental policies: Organisation, guidelines and specific evaluations. As a result of the analysis, a number of lessons learnt for the three investigated areas are found and a set of recommendations on how to improve the evaluation of environmental policies in the Nordic countries in the future are provided.