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

Written by leading scholars of EU climate law from the University of Groningen, chapters address the relevant directives and regulations, examining their implementation and impact on current policy and academic debate. The textbook introduces the main climate mitigation targets and instruments of the EU, analysing all available legal instruments to mitigate climate change, ranging from greenhouse gas emissions trading to the use of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency mechanisms. In addition, the book provides an analysis of some overarching issues, such as the impact of climate law on energy network regulation, multi-level governance and protection of human rights.

This open access book evaluates, from an economic perspective, various measures introduced in Japan to prevent climate change. Although various countries have implemented such policies in response to the pressing issue of climate change, the effectiveness of those programs has not been sufficiently compared. In particular, policy evaluations in the Asian region are far behind those in North America and Europe due to data limitations and political reasons. The first part of the book summarizes measures in different sectors in Japan to prevent climate change, such as emissions trading and carbon tax, and assesses their impact. The second part shows how those policies have changed the behavior of firms and households. In addition, it presents macro-economic simulations that consider the potential of renewable energy. Lastly, based on these comprehensive assessments, it compares the effectiveness of measures to prevent climate change in Japan and Western countries. Providing valuable insights, this book will appeal to both academic researchers and policymakers seeking cost-effective measures against climate change.

An authoritative overview of the requirements and costs of monitoring, reporting and verifying emissions from industry to regional and national levels.

This Climate Note discusses the rationale, design, and impacts of border carbon adjustments (BCAs), charges on embodied carbon in imports potentially matched by rebates for embodied carbon in exports. Large disparities in carbon pricing between countries is raising concerns about competitiveness and emissions leakage, and BCAs are a potentially effective instrument for addressing such concerns. Design details are critical, however. For example, limiting coverage of the BCA to energy-intensive, trade-exposed industries facilitates administration, and initially benchmarking BCAs on domestic emissions intensities would help ease the transition for emissions-intensive trading partners. It is also important to consider how to apply BCAs across countries with different approaches to emissions mitigation. BCAs are challenging because they pose legal risks and may be at odds with the differentiated responsibilities of developing countries. Furthermore, BCAs provide only modest incentives for other large emitting countries to scale carbon pricing—an international carbon price floor would be far more effective in this regard.

The Scheme is one of the Government's policy measures designed to help meet its commitments under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to secure significant reductions in UK greenhouse gas emissions, in order to address the causes of global warming. Under the Scheme, companies are issued with allowances equal to their target emissions for the year, and at the end of the year must hold enough allowances to cover its actual emissions. A company can choose to reduce its actual emissions below its target (enabling it to sell excess allowances to other companies, or to save them for use in future years), to meet its target, or to buy extra allowances to cover any emissions in excess of its target amount. Following on from a National Audit Office report on this topic (HCP 517, session 2003-04; ISBN 0102927804) published in April 2004, the Committee's report examines the risk management procedures associated with the Scheme, the way baselines for greenhouse emissions were set, the effectiveness of the auction and the market, and the wider benefits to the UK economy.

Addressing the poverty and distributional impacts of carbon pricing reforms is critical for the success of ambitious actions in the fight against climate change. This paper uses a simple framework to systematically review the channels through which carbon pricing can potentially affect poverty and inequality. It finds that the channels differ in important ways along several dimensions. The paper also identifies several key gaps in the current literature and discusses some considerations on how policy designs could take into account the attributes of the channels in mitigating the impacts of carbon pricing reforms on households.