The Feasibility of Joint Implementation


Book Description

CATRINUS J. JEPMA This volume contains the various contributions that were made during the International Conference on Joint Implementation, held near Groningen, The Netherlands, 1-3 June 1994. The conference was initiated by The Netherlands' Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment -along with the Ministries of Foreign (Development Cooper ation) and Economic Affairs -and carried out under the responsibility of Foundation IDE (Groningen, The Netherlands). Its underlying idea was to bring together an international group of specialists on Joint Implementation (11) - from governments, NGOs, business and science -to discuss its feasibility of 11. The conference was timed between the 9th and 10th session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) for a Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) - which was by then considered as the most crucial phase preparing for the first Conference of Parties (CoP I; Berlin, 28 March - 7 April 1995) - in order to provide additional information or results that might serve as an input in the international negotiating process. The main purpose of the conference was, however, to sit back and have a reflection about what has now become known as 11, and evaluate from the perspective of academics, and practitioners, jointly with officials what promise the option really holds, and to evaluate under what socio-economic and political circumstances and conditions one could successfully proceed in setting out the framework for its further testing and l application.




Lowering the Cost of Emission Reduction: Joint Implementation in the Framework Convention on Climate Change


Book Description

Lowering the Cost of Emission Reduction by Dr Michael Ridley investigates a novel way to reduce the cost of carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide emission reduction. This book asks whether allowing countries to substitute emission reduction undertaken abroad in lieu of emission reduction at home will reduce the cost of emission reduction and allow more rapid and acute falls in pollution. Analysing US Department of Energy data on US emission reduction projects undertaken in Eastern Europe and Central America, this book explains differences in the cost of emission reduction by method and by country. The book sets out the conditions that would allow a joint implementation system to evolve into a full-blown tradable permits system. Political and practical objections to joint implementation are aired and addressed. This book is targeted at the environmental policy community, government officials, academics, the NGO community, economists and financiers, members of large corporations and museum educators everywhere.










Joint Implementation to Curb Climate Change


Book Description

This book is about joint implementation. It addresses legal, economic and institutional questions which should be taken into account in setting up joint implementation projects and in developing criteria for joint implementation under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC). First, however, before going into any detail, we shall briefly sketch the background, quoting Daniel Bodansky: 'Each year, mankind injects approximately six billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, as well as a substantial (although still uncertain) amount from deforestation. Since the advent of the industrial revolution, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have risen by more than twenty five percent, from 280 to more than 350 parts per million. Scientists estimate that if current patterns of emissions continue unchecked, the increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide, together with parallel increases in other trace gases such as methane and nitrous oxide, will cause an average global warming in the range of 0. 2 to 0. 5 °C per decade, or 2 to 5 oc by the end of the next century. Such a temperature rise, more rapid than at any time in human history, could have severe effects on coastal areas, agriculture, forests 1 and human health. ' In recent years there has been growing awareness of the extent of the damage done to the world's environment through unsustainable patterns of development.







The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change Activities Implemented Jointly (AIJ) Pilot: Experiences and Lessons Learned


Book Description

Jose Maria Figueres Olsen Former President Republic of Costa Rica The heated debate about global climate change continues. Some say it is the gravest calamity our species has ever encountered. Others deny its existence altogether. As with most caseS of human decision making, the truth is most likely somewhere in the middle. The challenge of this particular set of decisions is the overwhelming sense of uncertainty. Science cannot fully attribute the climatic catastrophes occurring before our eyes to increasing levels of greenhouse gas concentrations. Neither can Science prove that extreme events and warming trends are unrelated to human behavior. Economic models, sophisticated as they are, cannot agree on the costs of reducing carbon dioxide (C~) emissions in industrialized countries. International negotiations are thus mired in the morass of scientific and economic uncertainty. The are only two elements of certainty in the whole debate. The frrst is the need for precaution. The potential impacts are such, that the risk of inaction is unaffordable to the human race. Under the current state of knowledge, mankind must take cautious but unequivocal steps to reverse current patterns.




Environmental Markets


Book Description

Markets are increasingly central to the resolution of environmental problems. They played a critical role in implementing the 1990 Clean Air Act of the United States, which has been instrumental in reducing acid rain in a cost-effective manner. They are also central to the global strategy adopted for limiting the emissions of greenhouse gases under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and are being used for resolving conflicts over the use of other environmental resources, particularly water. Environmental Markets: Equity and Efficiency represents the first systematic and in-depth study of the economic issues raised by this growing use of environmental markets. Focusing on the relationship between equity and efficiency—which is central to many of the debates between industrial and developing countries—the book explores the underlying economics and the possibilities for win-win solutions that benefit all parties to the problems. Graciela Chichilnisky and Geoffrey Heal have been instrumental in developing the economic understanding required for the operation of environmental markets and for promoting their use among policy makers leading to the Kyoto Protocol. Contributors to this volume include established experts from international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and academia, including Raúl Estrada-Oyuela, who chaired the negotiating committee of the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 1997 Kyoto meetings.







The International Yearbook of Environmental and Resource Economics 2004/2005


Book Description

The 2004 5 edition of this annual publication provides again a first-rate compilation of various major topics in environmental and resource economics written by the leading specialists in the field. . . The contributions are an exciting and inspiring resource for the development of further research, and this book should be recommended to students and researchers in environmental and resource economics as well as social science. Katrin Daedlow, Environmental Politics As every year, Tom Tietenberg and Henk Folmer have edited The International Yearbook of Environmental and Resource Economics. . . This book, and indeed the whole collection, are tremendously useful as basic tools for professionals in research, teaching and policy making. Michel Griffon, Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture This major annual publication provides a state-of-the-art survey of contemporary research on environmental and resource economics by some of the leading experts in the field. The critical issues addressed in this year s volume include: contingent valuation environmental policy, technological change and economic growth land use decisions and policy sustainability indicators value transfer and environmental policy joint implementation in climate change policy environmentally harmful subsidies.