Pricing Carbon Emissions

Pricing Carbon Emissions provides an economic critique on the utopian idea of a uniform carbon price for addressing rising carbon emissions, exposing the flaws in the economic propositions with a key focus on the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS).

1 Introduction1.1 The Scene of Climate and Energy Policy, Carbon Pricing and Emissions Trading1.2 EU-ETS History in a nutshell1.3 Some Economic Concepts behind Carbon Pricing1.4 Equal impact of emitted CO2-eq. molecules is no argument for uniform pricing1.5 Recommendation2 Diversity disqualifies global uniform carbon pricing for effective climate policy2.1 Introduction2.2 The concept of diversity and its implications for policy2.3 Amalgamation versus specificity2.4 Global uniform carbon pricing: discourse and performance2.5 In conclusion3 Anatomy of Emissions Trading Systems: What is the EU ETS?3.1 Introduction3.2 Goals of EU policy (component [i])3.3 Allocation of tradable emissions permits (component [iv])3.4 Carbon emissions prices (component [iii])3.5 Costs of abatement (component [ii])3.6 Linking the four components of ETS3.7 Wrap-up4 What could the EU ETS founders learn from US SO2 emissions permit trade?4.1 Introduction4.2 Differences between US SO2 and EU CO2 emissions permit markets4.3 Salient characteristics of the US acid rain programs4.4 Choices made by the architects of the EU ETS4.5 Concluding reflections5 Early European experience with Tradable Green Certificates neglected by EU ETS architects5.1 Introduction5.2 Directive 2001/77/EC on the promotion of electricity produced from RE sources5.3 Flanders market construct for Tradable Green Certificates5.4 Flanders TGC experiment holds important lessons5.5 The EC's formal evaluation of RE support instruments (EC 2005)5.6 Conclusions6 Critique on Price Induced Technological Innovation and on Fringe Pricing6.1 Introduction6.2 Corporate strategy maximizes financial returns6.3 Pricing carbon emissions and industrial firm's likely reactions6.4 The gap between 'marginal cost pricing' and 'fringe pricing'6.5 The impact of higher EU ETS permit prices6.6 Concluding considerations7 A political economy of the EU ETS7.1 Introduction7.2 Climate Policy in the 3rd Millennium7.3 Actors on the EU ETS scene7.4 The EU ETS Policy Arena7.5 Permits trading in artificial markets7.6 Economics critique on the EU ETS7.7 Bewildering EU ETS discourse8 From evaluation to a well thought-out 'Act Now'8.1 Issues on Carbon Pricing (CP)8.2 Climate Policy and 'Act Now' transformations