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"A Decade of Emissions Trading in the USA: Experiences and Observations for the EU" [2006] ELECD 434; in Peeters, Marjan; Deketelaere, Kurt (eds), "EU Climate Change Policy" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: EU Climate Change Policy

Editor(s): Peeters, Marjan; Deketelaere, Kurt

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845426057

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: A Decade of Emissions Trading in the USA: Experiences and Observations for the EU

Number of pages: 17

Extract:

10. a decade of emissions trading in the
Usa: Experiences and observations
for the EU
George (Rock) Pring1

1. iNtroDUCtioN
asking someone from the United states of america ­ the land of George w.
Bush, oil imports, Enron, sUvs, and climate-change denial ­ to contribute to a
discussion on climate change may seem like `inviting the Devil to church'. But,
as another old saying goes, `give the Devil his due' ­ the Usa still has positive
contributions to make to climate change and international environmental law.2
Contemplate these ironies:

l the Usa was the first industrialized nation to ratify the 1992 Climate
Change Convention (even if it may be the last to ratify its Kyoto
Protocol).3
l the Usa was the chief advocate for liberal emissions trading (Et) of
greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the Kyoto negotiations of 1997 (then con-
servatively opposed by no less than the European Union (EU)).4
l it pioneered the leading successful Et program in the 1990s (for sulfur
dioxide (so2)).
l the Usa today is a surprising `experimental laboratory' of Et programs
for GHGs ­ below the national government level ­ in states, local govern-
ments, and the private sector.5

the Usa's constructive efforts on Et, as well as on climate change, deserve
more recognition than they generally receive, clouded as they are by the present
national administration's negative environmental image. this chapter focuses
on the leading experience the Usa has to share ­ the federal government's so2
Et program ­ and the contribution ...