The Kyoto Protocol is the first international environmental agreement that sets legally binding greenhouse gas emissions targets and timetables for Annex I countries. It incorporates emissions trading, joint implementation and the clean development mechanism. Because each of the Articles...

China is the world's second largest CO2 emitter behind the U.S. To what extent China gets involved in combating global climate change is extremely important both for lowering compliance costs of climate mitigation and adaptation and for moving international climate negotiations forward. This...

As the world’s second largest carbon emitter, China has long been criticised as a “free-rider” enjoying benefits from other countries’ efforts to abate greenhouse gas emissions but not taking due responsibilities of its own. China has been singled out as one of the major targets at the...

This article examines whether a greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme has the potential to bring parties into conflict with the WTO provisions in dealing with the initial allocation of permits, non-compliance with emissions targets, emissions trading system enlargement, and trade measures...

As the first global carbon fund, the World Bank's Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF) aims to catalyze the market for project-based greenhouse gas emission reductions while promoting sustainable development and offering a learning-by-doing opportunity to its stakeholders. Since the inception in 1999,...

China has been the world’s second largest carbon emitter for years. Recent studies show that China had overtaken the U.S. as the world’s largest emitter in 2007. This has put China on the spotlight, just at a time when the world community starts negotiating a post-Kyoto climate regime under...

The Kyoto Protocol sets reduction targets to greenhouse gas emission levels in developed countries, including OECD and East European countries (the so-called Annex 1 Parties to the Climate Change Convention). The Kyoto Protocol gives Annex 1 countries considerable flexibility in the choice of...

This paper provides a review of the literature on competitiveness and leakage concerns associated with differentiated climate abatement commitments among countries. The literature reviewed is not exhausted, but it is sufficient to provide a balanced view of both academics and policy circles....

International diffusion of advanced environment and energy-related technologies has received much attention in recent environmental economics studies. As a much needed complement to the “black box” complex numerical modelling, this paper contributes to developing a simple, intuitive...

With large shares in global trade and carbon emissions, China's international trade is supposed to be significantly affected by the proposed carbon-based border tax adjustments (BTAs). This paper examines the impacts of BTAs imposed by USA and EU on China's international trade, based on a...