The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) enables industrialized countries to meet a part of their emission reduction requirements through purchase of emission reduction credits from projects in developing countries....

The countries wishing to join the EU have a high potential for low cost greenhouse gas emission reduction. As they cannot join the ?bubble? agreement for the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, project-based Joint Implementation (JI) could be a powerful strategy to integrate accession...

Currently, the EU-15 forms the only bubble under the Kyoto Protocol and has negotiated an internal burden sharing. A strategic EU climate policy should include accession countries. Thus, even in the case of early ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by 2002, it would be sensible to form a bubble...

The EU has been a leader in international climate policy. However, due to activities of interest groups, domestic action, an area which the EU has strongly defended, is proving difficult to carry out, particularly for cohesion member states. Although their behaviour resembles free-riding, at...