Linkage of cap-and-trade systems is typically advocated by economists on a general analogy with the beneficial linking … of free-trade areas and on the specific grounds that linkage will ensure cost effectiveness among the linked …

objections to financial transfers. To avoid those problems, many have shifted their focus on bottom-up "linkage" of regional …, national, and sub-national cap-and-trade systems. Decentralized architecture has its appeals, but we argue that linkage among … carbon markets ultimately faces the same obstacles that are at the heart of global climate negotiations. Linkage can …