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Jurisdictions adopt climate policies that vary in terms of both ambition and policy approach, with some pricing carbon and others subsidizing clean production. We distinguish two types of policy spillovers from these diverse approaches. First, when countries have different levels of climate ambition, free-riders benefit at the expense of more committed countries. Second, when countries pursue different approaches, carbon-intensive producers within cost-imposing jurisdictions are at a relative competitive disadvantage compared with producers in subsidizing jurisdictions. Carbon border adjustments and climate clubs respond to these spillovers, but when countries have divergent approaches, one policy alone cannot address both spillovers. We also consider the policy dynamics arising from carbon border adjustments and climate clubs; both have the potential to encourage upward harmonization of climate policy, but come with risks. Further, the pressures of international competition may result in subsidy races, with attendant risks and benefits.

In this article, we track a relatively new term in global environmental governance: \"blue economy.\" Analyzing preparatory documentation and data collected at the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (i.e., Rio + 20), we show how the term entered into use and how it was articulated within four competing discourses regarding human–ocean relations: (a) oceans as natural capital, (b) oceans as good business, (c) oceans as integral to Pacific Small Island Developing States, and (d) oceans as small-scale fisheries livelihoods. Blue economy was consistently invoked to connect oceans with Rio + 20's \"green economy\" theme; however, different actors worked to further define the term in ways that prioritized particular oceans problems, solutions, and participants. It is not clear whether blue economy will eventually be understood singularly or as the domain of a particular actor or discourse. We explore possibilities as well as discuss discourse in global environmental governance as powerful and precarious.

Even as the evidence of global warming mounts, the international response to this serious threat is coming unraveled. The United States has formally withdrawn from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol; other key nations are facing difficulty in meeting their Kyoto commitments; and developing countries face no limit on their emissions of the gases that cause global warming. In this clear and cogent book-reissued in paperback with an afterword that comments on recent events--David Victor explains why the Kyoto Protocol was never likely to become an effective legal instrument. He explores how its collapse offers opportunities to establish a more realistic alternative. Global warming continues to dominate environmental news as legislatures worldwide grapple with the process of ratification of the December 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The collapse of the November 2000 conference at the Hague showed clearly how difficult it will be to bring the Kyoto treaty into force. Yet most politicians, policymakers, and analysts hailed it as a vital first step in slowing greenhouse warming. David Victor was not among them. Kyoto's fatal flaw, Victor argues, is that it can work only if emissions trading works. The Protocol requires industrialized nations to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases to specific targets. Crucially, the Protocol also provides for so-called \"emissions trading,\" whereby nations could offset the need for rapid cuts in their own emissions by buying emissions credits from other countries. But starting this trading system would require creating emission permits worth two trillion dollars--the largest single invention of assets by voluntary international treaty in world history. Even if it were politically possible to distribute such astronomical sums, the Protocol does not provide for adequate monitoring and enforcement of these new property rights. Nor does it offer an achievable plan for allocating new permits, which would be essential if the system were expanded to include developing countries. The collapse of the Kyoto Protocol--which Victor views as inevitable--will provide the political space to rethink strategy. Better alternatives would focus on policies that control emissions, such as emission taxes. Though economically sensible, however, a pure tax approach is impossible to monitor in practice. Thus, the author proposes a hybrid in which governments set targets for both emission quantities and tax levels. This offers the important advantages of both emission trading and taxes without the debilitating drawbacks of each. Individuals at all levels of environmental science, economics, public policy, and politics-from students to professionals--and anyone else hoping to participate in the debate over how to slow global warming will want to read this book.

We construct a two-country trade model where emissions are an input in production and generate cross-border pollution. We examine the strategic incentives of an active regulator who sets a binding level of emissions in production. We show that, in the presence of terms of trade and emission leakage strategic motives, tighter regulation can mitigate emission leakage, reduce global pollution, and improve a country’s welfare. This result and the corresponding policy implications depend on the relative magnitude of emissions intensities of goods between sectors and on their relationship in production and consumption.

The public choice literature has long considered the political economy of environmental regulation and has examined a variety of national and subnational governments’ environmental policies aimed at adaption to climate change. However, there has been little attention paid to the determinants of environmental adaptive actions taken by indigenous governments. Given many indigenous peoples’ heightened vulnerability to issues caused by climate change, it is important to understand when and why they take action to adapt to climate change and what obstacles may stand in the way. I argue that natural resource abundance, informational resource access, population vulnerability, and reliance on natural resources will impact whether indigenous governments enact policies to respond to climate change. Using an original dataset of tribal actions addressing climate change for 574 federally recognized tribal governments, I find that the amount of land, educational attainment, broadband access, and proportion of tribal members working in the natural resource industries are positively associated with the tribal government’s responses to climate change.

Abstract We analyse the international dimension of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) over the past two decades and in the foreseeable future by reviewing facts and economic theory. The facts mainly concern the international climate change regime and the EU’s relevant experience in international cooperation. Club theory shows how incentives can be created for cooperation on climate mitigation. The linkage of the EU ETS to the Kyoto flexible mechanisms had mixed results: it promoted emissions trading abroad, but the inflow of credits into the EU ETS added to a large market surplus and the environmental integrity of certain credits was problematic. Looking ahead, the ability of the EU ETS to reduce foreign emissions may grow. Key will be whether competitiveness and distributional effects are successfully addressed. The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism might help the EU reduce the risk of carbon leakage while incentivising emission reductions in countries exporting to the EU. The EU’s focus on reducing domestic emissions only, suggests we will probably not see new international linkages this decade. However, it cannot be excluded that the EU will revisit its decision and relax the domestic constraint.

This study explores the impact of environmental policies on trade and innovation, utilizing an expanded dataset sourced from the WTO Environmental Database (EDB). It makes two contributions to the literature: First, employing advanced text analysis algorithms, we extracted valuable information from the EDB, enhancing its usefulness for future research and policy analysis. Second, we leverage this augmented dataset to evaluate the impact of environmental measures on trade and green innovation. Our empirical findings suggest that environmental policies not only elevate demand for environmental goods and stimulate imports but also bolster competitiveness and amplify exports of environmental goods. Additionally, these policies appear to stimulate green innovation.

In absence of joint global climate action, several jurisdictions unilaterally restrict their domestic demand for fossil fuels. Another policy option for fossil fuel producing countries, not much analysed, is to reduce own supply of fossil fuels. We explore analytically and numerically how domestic demand and supply side policies affect global emissions, contingent on market behaviour. Next, in the case of Norway, we find the cost-effective combination of the two types of policies. Our numerical results indicate that given a care for global emissions, and a desire for domestic action, about 2/3 of the emission reductions should come through supply side measures.

Using granular data from the OECD from 2010 to 2018 that differentiate between adaptation and mitigation measures to address climate change, we employed a double-hurdle model to examine whether countries’ Paris Agreement commitments and governance capacity help attract international climate-change-related financial aid. We found that (1) countries received a short-term aid boost in the year when they submitted the nationally determined contribution, and countries that committed only to action targets rather than emission goals were more likely to receive funds; (2) both the quality of the budget and financial management and the quality of public administration significantly enhanced the likelihood of receiving aid, but only the quality of public administration contributed to attracting funding for adaptations; and (3) multilateral institutions played catalytic roles in fostering bilateral international climate-change aid, particularly by increasing the likelihood of funding.

No two nations have exchanged natural resources, produced transborder environmental agreements, or cooperatively altered ecosystems on the same scale as Canada and the United States. Environmental and energy diplomacy have profoundly shaped both countries' economies, politics, and landscapes for over 150 years. Natural Allies looks at the history of US-Canada relations through an environmental lens. From fisheries in the late nineteenth century to oil pipelines in the twenty-first century, Daniel Macfarlane recounts the scores of transborder environmental and energy arrangements made between the two nations. Many became global precedents that influenced international environmental law, governance, and politics, including the Boundary Waters Treaty, the Trail Smelter case, hydroelectric megaprojects, and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreements. In addition to water, fish, wood, minerals, and myriad other resources, Natural Allies details the history of the continental energy relationship - from electricity to uranium to fossil fuels -showing how Canada became vital to American strategic interests and, along with the United States, a major international energy power and petro-state. Environmental and energy relations facilitated the integration and prosperity of Canada and the United States but also made these countries responsible for the current climate crisis and other unsustainable forms of ecological degradation. Looking to the future, Natural Allies argues that the concept of national security must be widened to include natural security - a commitment to public, national, and international safety from environmental harms, especially those caused by human actions.