Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In the U.S., individual State Action Plans are being implemented to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that lead to global warming. This paper uses Linear Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions to determine the contributing factors of state emissions, using data from 1990-2000 in all fifty states. The results show that over 90 percent of state emissions factors are attributable to fossil fuel consumption variables (coal, natural gas, and petroleum). However, when regressions are run in the absence of the consumption variables, the results show that transportation, population, income and state policies play a role in affecting state emissions levels. Overall, the findings indicate that decision-makers need to adopt policies to control consumption of fossil fuels and implement mass public transit to account for growing commute times that increase greenhouse gas levels.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) became reality on 1 January 2005 with around USD 50 billion worth of carbon allowances allocated annually across the 25 EU member countries covering some 13,000 installations and up to 4,000 companies. The EU ETS was designed to help the EU meet its Kyoto Protocol target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 8% below its 1990 level until 2012. This article aims to answer whether the EU ETS would be a model for a global emissions trading scheme in the fight against climate change. By offereing a detailed SWOTT analysis, this article first delves into strengths and weaknesses of the EU ETS and later offers an evaluation of to what extent it provides a road map for a global emissions trading system that would be a major part of a truly global cooperation in combating this global problem.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The paper will compare emissions trading as an economic instrument of climate protection with emissions reduction as a conduct-related instrument of preventing acid rain. Taking the EU as a case I will a) describe the multilevel regimes backing the two instruments (“Kyoto” and “Helsinki”), b) clarify in what respect they can be compared, c) analyse their different logics of establishing target quota and directing their instruments, d) demonstrate their relative success in reaching their targets, e) explain why “Helsinki” has proven to be more successful than “Kyoto”,and e) propose improvements of the Kyoto mechanisms based on lessons learned from “Helsinki”. My thesis is this: “Helsinki” operates with a double safety net: Targets are set according to critical loads, and the instrument aims at best available technology. Contrastingly, “Kyoto” has no safety net at all: Targets are set according to political bargaining, and the instrument does not induce additional emission reductions. “Kyoto” could be improved if BAT requirements were built into the allocation, trading and generation of emission rights.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: China joined the Asia Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate (APP4CDC) when it was established in July 2005. The pact of six nations aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through technology and voluntary partnerships. The countries will cooperate on the development, transfer and sale of clean technologies, to promote the efficient use of fuels.The paper discusses China?s motives for participating in the APP4CDC an suggests China has joined the APP4CDC to obtain technology to solve energy related pollution problems and thereby reduce emissions. This would be preferable to taking on commitments that would most likely influence the country?s economic development. Moreover, technolgy transfer through the Kyoto Protocol has been too slow. At the same time, China does not wish to withdraw fro the Kyoto Protocol, as it sees this as an arena to push development countries needs. Moreover, China is trying to establish itself as a diplomatic as well as an economic player on the world stage. A tentative conclusion based on the discussion in the paper is that while China views the APP4CDC as an arena for co-operation on energy technology, it views the UN (i.e. the Kyoto Protocol) as an arena to express its opinions on development issues and exert its new role as a world leader in politics and economy.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In order to mitigate the hazards of anthropogenic climate change, a global climate regime must allocate emissions shares in such a way that aggregate human-produced greenhouse gases are significantly reduced from current levels. How, though, can emissions shares be allocated in a fair manner? Several criteria of fairness are proposed in the Framework Convention on Climate Change (including equity, responsibility, and capabilities-based approaches), but all rely upon a fundamental assumption about what constitutes a basic share to which all must be entitled. Thus, presupposed within the emissions shares debate is an account of environmental rights, where all persons are held to be entitled to some amount of survival emissions, while the climate regime allocates the remaining luxury emissions. Construing the problem of how best to respond to climate change as involving universal human rights (or subsistence rights) suggests several questions that require further exploration. Do all persons have a right to a share of the atmosphere’s absorptive capacity? On what basis might such a share be justified, and how might its level (or levels, if shares are unequal) be determined? How are such rights related to the other criteria used to allocate emissions shares, such as equity, responsibility, and capabilities? In this paper, I examine the role of environmental rights within the design of a global climate regime in light of these and other normative questions.