Flexibility mechanisms: which path to take after Kyoto?

Review of European Community and International Environmental Law

Volumn 7, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 128-139

  Missfeldt, Fanny ^a  

^a Royal Institute of International Affairs   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CLIMATE CHANGE; EMISSIONS CONTROL; ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY; KYOTO PROTOCOL; UNFCCC;

EID: 0031767495     PISSN: 09628797     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1467-9388.00139     Document Type: Article

References (7)

1. As with the Convention, the Protocol does not include emissions from bunker fuels, which to date account for about 5% of global emissions. As a result, Parties as yet are not compelled to mitigate emissions from these source categories, such as by increasing landing charges for aeroplanes.
2. There are many other critical issues related to implementation, which are outside the scope of this article. It should be noted however that commitments in Article 3 include emissions and removals from the land use change and forestry sector. The language used is ambiguous in places; different interpretations result in significant variations in numerical emissions targets.
3. The inclusion of text stipulating that ERUs can be created in a way other than through JI under Article 6 would have dispelled any ambiguity. The issue of how an ERU is created is central to the operation of a tradable permits system, and it is therefore not surprising that negotiators chose to leave this detail to be elaborated through further negotiation.
4. Z. X. Zhang and A. Nentjes, 'International tradable carbon permits as strong form of joint implementation', in J. Skea (ed.), Pollution as property: tradable permits, tradeable quotas and joint implementation (E. Elgar Publishing Ltd, Cheltenham, England) (forthcoming).
5. M. Grubb and C. Vrolijk, 'Defining and trading emission commitments in the Kyoto Agreement', paper presented at the Royal Institute of International Affairs workshop, 2-3 September 1997.
6. The data used in this section are data officially reported by countries to the UNFCCC and the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP), as of February 1998. Data for Russia personally communicated by Dr. A. Kokorin, Interagency Commission of the Russian Federation on Climate Change, Moscow. The data used for Lithuania are taken from their National Implementation Strategy (1996), a study prepared under the supervision of the Lithuanian National Committee for UNFCCC implementation. No projections are available for Latvia. The calculations in this section do not consider the EU bubble arrangement.
7. In Kyoto the inclusion of 'superheated air' had also been subject to debate, but was rejected in the end. 'Superheated air' referred to the possibility that economies in transition could use their emission reductions achieved before emissions budgets begin in 2008 in order to meet Article 3 commitments.