Instruments for climate policy. Limited versus unlimited flexibility

Book abstract:

This book concentrates on the economic and political problems facing climate policy since the Kyoto Protocol, as well as on the crucial debate on flexibility. Its early chapters incorporate research into both EU and US perspectives on the instruments, policies and strategies being developed in order to confront these problems.

Contributors deal with numerous issues. Chapter three, for example, examines the efficiency, in economic terms, of cross-sectoral emissions trading in CO2 in the EU. Chapter four provides a theoretical and empirical analysis of why the EU proposed limits on emissions trading, and chapter seven investigates the idea of joint implementation as a flexible instrument, by comparing two different countries: one developing, one industrialised. Chapter eight explores 'The Australian Greenhouse Challenge', the lessons learned from this and its prospects for the future, while chapter nine probes the effectiveness of the 'clean development mechanism'.

The studies suggest that climate policy is not simply a question of limited versus unlimited flexibility; it is one of limited versus unlimited complexity.

The book is aimed at academics, researchers, policymakers and NGOs, as well as journalists and political scientists specialising in environmental economics.