Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fem/femwpa/2014.07.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Linkage of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Systems: Learning from Experience

Author

Listed:
  • Matthew Ranson

    (Abt Associates Inc.)

  • Robert N. Stavins

    (Harvard Kennedy School)

Abstract
The last ten years have seen the growth of linkages between many of the world’s cap-and-trade systems for greenhouse gases (GHGs), both directly between systems, and indirectly via connections to credit systems such as the Clean Development Mechanism. If nations have tried to act in their own self-interest, this proliferation of linkages implies that for many nations, the expected benefits of linkage outweighed expected costs. In this paper, we draw on the past decade of experience with carbon markets to test a series of hypotheses about why systems have demonstrated this revealed preference for linking. Linkage is a multi-faceted policy decision that can be used by political jurisdictions to achieve a variety of objectives, and we find evidence that many economic, political, and strategic factors — ranging from geographic proximity to integrity of emissions reductions — influence the decision to link. We also identify some potentially important effects of linkage, such as loss of control over domestic carbon policies, which do not appear to have deterred real-world decisions to link. These findings have implications for the future role that decentralized linkages may play in international climate policy architecture. The Kyoto Protocol has entered what is probably its final commitment period, covering only a small fraction of global GHG emissions. Under the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, negotiators may now gravitate toward a hybrid system, combining top-down elements for establishing targets with bottom-up elements of pledge-and-review tied to national policies and actions. The incentives for linking these national policies are likely to continue to produce direct connections among regional, national, and sub-national cap-and-trade systems. The growing network of decentralized, direct linkages among these systems may turn out to be a key part of a future hybrid climate policy architecture.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew Ranson & Robert N. Stavins, 2014. "Linkage of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Systems: Learning from Experience," Working Papers 2014.07, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    • Handle: RePEc:fem:femwpa:2014.07
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://feem-media.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/NDL2014-007.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matthew Ranson & Robert N. Stavins, 2012. "Post-Durban Climate Policy Architecture Based on Linkage of Cap-and-Trade Systems," NBER Working Papers 18140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Raphael Trotignon, 2011. "Combining cap-and-trade with offsets: Lessons from CER use in the EU ETS in 2008 and 2009," Working Papers 1103, Chaire Economie du climat.
    3. Robert W. Hahn & Robert Stavins, 1999. "What Has the Kyoto Protocol Wrought? The Real Architecture of Tradable Permit Markets," Books, American Enterprise Institute, number 52837, September.
    4. Richard G. Newell & William A. Pizer & Daniel Raimi, 2013. "Carbon Markets 15 Years after Kyoto: Lessons Learned, New Challenges," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(1), pages 123-146, Winter.
    5. Stavins, Robert & Hahn, Robert, 1999. "What Has Kyoto Wrought? The Real Architecture of International Tradable Permit Markets," RFF Working Paper Series dp-99-30, Resources for the Future.
    6. Gilbert E. Metcalf & David Weisbach, 2012. "Linking Policies When Tastes Differ: Global Climate Policy in a Heterogeneous World," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 6(1), pages 110-129.
    7. Carbone, Jared C. & Helm, Carsten & Rutherford, Thomas F., 2009. "The case for international emission trade in the absence of cooperative climate policy," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 266-280, November.
    8. Pizer, William A. & Yates, Andrew J., 2015. "Terminating links between emission trading programs," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 142-159.
    9. Michael Mehling & Erik Haites, 2009. "Mechanisms for linking emissions trading schemes," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2), pages 169-184, January.
    10. Raphael Calel & Antoine Dechezleprêtre, 2016. "Environmental Policy and Directed Technological Change: Evidence from the European Carbon Market," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 98(1), pages 173-191, March.
    11. Igor Shishlov & Valentin Bellassen, 2012. "10 lessons from 10 years of the CDM," Working Papers hal-01151437, HAL.
    12. Burtraw, Dallas & Palmer, Karen & Munnings, Clayton & Weber, Paige & Woerman, Matt, 2013. "Linking by Degrees: Incremental Alignment of Cap-and-Trade Markets," RFF Working Paper Series dp-13-04, Resources for the Future.
    13. Heitzig, Jobst, 2013. "Bottom-Up Strategic Linking of Carbon Markets: Which Climate Coalitions Would Farsighted Players Form?," Climate Change and Sustainable Development 151376, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    14. Jobst Heitzig, 2013. "Bottom-Up Strategic Linking of Carbon Markets: Which Climate Coalitions Would Farsighted Players Form?," Working Papers 2013.48, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    15. Christian Flachsland & Robert Marschinski & Ottmar Edenhofer, 2009. "To link or not to link: benefits and disadvantages of linking cap-and-trade systems," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(4), pages 358-372, July.
    16. Alexandre Kossoy & Klaus Oppermann & Rama Chandra Reddy & Martina Bosi & Sandrine Boukerche & Niklas Höhne & Noémie Klein & Alyssa Gilbert & Martina Jung & Bram Borkent & Long Lam & Frauke Röser & Nad, "undated". "Mapping Carbon Pricing Initiatives : Developments and Prospects 2013," World Bank Publications - Reports 15771, The World Bank Group.
    17. Michael Wara, 2007. "Is the global carbon market working?," Nature, Nature, vol. 445(7128), pages 595-596, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bodansky, Daniel M. & Hoedl, Seth A. & Metcalf, Gilbert E. & Stavins, Robert N., "undated". "Facilitating Linkage of Heterogeneous Regional, National, and Sub-National Climate Policies Through a Future International Agreement," Climate Change and Sustainable Development 202114, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    2. Mehling, Michael A. & Metcalf, Gilbert E. & Stavins, Robert N., 2017. "Linking Heterogeneous Climate Policies (Consistent with the Paris Agreement)," MITP: Mitigation, Innovation and Transformation Pathways 266282, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    3. Simon Quemin & Christian Perthuis, 2019. "Transitional Restricted Linkage Between Emissions Trading Schemes," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 74(1), pages 1-32, September.
    4. Baran Doda & Simon Quemin & Luca Taschini, 2017. "A Theory of Gains from Trade in Multilaterally Linked ETSs," Working Papers 1706, Chaire Economie du climat.
    5. Woerman, Matt, 2023. "Linking carbon markets with different initial conditions," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    6. Holtsmark, Katinka & Midttømme, Kristoffer, 2021. "The dynamics of linking permit markets," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    7. Doda, Baran & Quemin, Simon & Taschini, Luca, 2019. "Linking permit markets multilaterally," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    8. Peter Zaman & Adam Hedley, 2016. "Networked Carbon Markets," World Bank Publications - Reports 26430, The World Bank Group.
    9. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2017_020 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Stavins, Robert N., 2019. "The Future of U.S. Carbon-Pricing Policy: Normative Assessment and Positive Prognosis," Working Paper Series rwp19-017, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    11. Baran Doda & Luca Taschini, 2017. "Carbon Dating: When Is It Beneficial to Link ETSs?," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(3), pages 701-730.
    12. Lambert Schneider & Michael Lazarus & Carrie Lee & Harro van Asselt, 2017. "Restricted linking of emissions trading systems: options, benefits, and challenges," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(6), pages 883-898, December.
    13. Edenhofer, Ottmar & Flachsland, Christian & Kalkuhl, Matthias & Knopf, Brigitte & Pahle, Michael, 2019. "Optionen für eine CO2-Preisreform," Working Papers 04/2019, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung.
    14. Robert N. Stavins, 2020. "The Future of US Carbon-Pricing Policy," Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 8-64.
    15. Itkonen, Juha, 2017. "Efficiency and dependency in a network of linked permit markets," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 20/2017, Bank of Finland.
    16. Itkonen, Juha, 2017. "Efficiency and dependency in a network of linked permit markets," Research Discussion Papers 20/2017, Bank of Finland.
    17. Gilbert E. Metcalf & David Weisbach, 2012. "Linking Policies When Tastes Differ: Global Climate Policy in a Heterogeneous World," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 6(1), pages 110-129.
    18. Richard Schmalensee & Robert N. Stavins, 2017. "Lessons Learned from Three Decades of Experience with Cap and Trade," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 11(1), pages 59-79.
    19. Burtraw, Dallas & Palmer, Karen & Munnings, Clayton & Weber, Paige & Woerman, Matt, 2013. "Linking by Degrees: Incremental Alignment of Cap-and-Trade Markets," RFF Working Paper Series dp-13-04, Resources for the Future.
    20. Bernard Caillaud & Gabrielle Demange, 2017. "Joint Design of Emission Tax and Trading Systems," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 127, pages 163-201.
    21. Matthew Ranson & Robert N. Stavins, 2012. "Post-Durban Climate Policy Architecture Based on Linkage of Cap-and-Trade Systems," NBER Working Papers 18140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Trading Systems;

    JEL classification:

    • Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fem:femwpa:2014.07. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Alberto Prina Cerai (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feemmit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.