Joint Implementation (JI) is a potentially powerful instrument of climate policy that could lead to a high amount of additional financial flows to developing countries. Nevertheless, many NGOs and developing country representatives are very skeptical about JI and fear that it would not take into...

The implementation of activities aimed to mitigate global greenhouse gas emissions is more cost-efficient in developing countries than in most of the industrialized world. Thus it has been a major, but contentious topic in the climate negotiations to allow crediting of emissions reduction in...

The details on rules and modalities for the inclusion of forestry projects in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) are one of the last non resolved implementation issues of the Kyoto Protocol. We examine in detail the implications of different policy decisions concerning the inclusion of CDM...

Prior to CoP 10, our discussion paper "On the Integration of Carbon Capture and Storage into the International Climate Regime" argued that carbon capture and storage (CCS) was similar to carbon sequestration in the area of Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF). This was criticized by...

The issue of terrestrial carbon sinks, officially labelled as Land use, Land-use change and Forestry (LULUCF) has been one of the most contentious and difficult issues in the international climate change negotiations. This study analyses the negotiation process on sinks from the third Conference...

A whole bundle of so-called "flexible mechanisms" has been foreseen by the Kyoto Protocol in order to help industrial countries to fulfill their agreed reduction targets in the most cost-effective way. Emission permits will act as the backbone of all market-orientated mechanisms. Therefore,...

As GHG emissions did not decline as anticipated early of the 1990ties Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) recently gained more and more attention as a climate change mitigation option. However, CO2 suppressed in geological reservoirs is likely to lead to future releases of the CO2 stored. This...

After four years of intense negotiations that tethered on the brink of failure, the design of the international climate policy regime that is formed by the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and the Marrakesh Accords is now sufficiently clear to be implemented. Apart...