The first detailed description and analysis of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme.

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.

This special issue of the Climate Policy journal outlines the fundamentals of the new European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), assesses the strategies for and impact of implementation and highlights the scheme's potential, including positive aspects and remaining hurdles. The EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is the first international trading scheme for CO2 in the world. Its aim is to reduce the cost of compliance to existing targets under the Kyoto Protocol. From 1st January 2005, companies in high-energy sectors covered by the scheme must limit their CO2 emissions to allocated levels, arranged in two periods: from 2005-2007 and 2008-2012 (to match the first Kyoto commitment period). In practice, the scheme is likely to cover over 12,000 installations across the European Union, corresponding to approximately 46% of the total EU CO2 emissions. The EU ETS represents a significant development in working at an international level to combat dangerous climate change. The EU Emissions Trading Scheme presents a comprehensive and insightful analysis of the EU ETS, written by international experts in the field. The publication includes the latest research on emissions credits, the interaction of the trading scheme with national energy policies and the debate on future expansion.

When the European Union decided to launch a comprehensive emissions trading scheme in 2005, observers commonly described it as a "grand policy experiment". Three years later, we can look back on the first trading period (2005-2007) and safely affirm that this emissions trading scheme is far from being a mere experiment: instead, it has become an economic and political reality, as is evidenced by the multi-billion dollar carbon market it helped conceive. But how will this trading scheme evolve as we move into an uncertain future for the climate regime, and what lessons can we draw from its first phase of implementation? These are the questions that participants addressed during the 3rd international Summer Academy "Energy and the Environment", and their conclusions are summarised in this timely volume. Authored by government officials, academics, legal advisers and policy analysts, this volume provides unique insights into the past, present and future of the European emissions trading scheme.

Given the rapid spread of ETSs in an increasing number of countries and the important role that they are likely to play for the success or failure of the environmental policy in the years to come, this book provides an interdisciplinary analysis of the EU ETS from both the legal and economic perspectives comparing it with the other main ETSs existing worldwide, in order to assess whether the EU ETS has truly represented a prototype for the other ETSs established around the world and to investigate the current perspectives for linking them in the future.Through the years, the EU ETS has progressively gained a paramount position within the EU environmental policy and climate change legislation and currently represents the most striking flagship in this sector, with more than 11.000 installations covered by the scheme. In parallel, the EU ETS has paved the way for the establishment of many other ETSs in several other jurisdictions. Such schemes are now recognized worldwide as the “cornerstones” of the climate change policy.