This paper focuses on the diversified climate action the international community is currently witnessing. Besides examining possible reasons for the failure of the top-down approach to effectively halt rising emission levels; the development of bottom-up initiatives is discussed. In addition; this paper evaluates the European Union’s emissions trading system (EU ETS) according to two criteria of justice; with a special focus on two characteristics of the EU ETS: grandfathering and offsetting. The final section of this paper addresses the rise of emissions trading systems and considers the claims made by prominent commentators who believe emissions trading to be inherently unethical. The paper concludes; first; that whether emissions trading is morally reprehensible depends on its design and; second; that the EU ETS fails to respect justice-based criteria and points to the unwillingness of EU leaders to mend a flawed climate policy tool.
Climate governance; top-down failure; bottom-up emergence; emissions trading ethics; EU ETS; grandfathering and offsetting
Agarwal; A. “A southern perspective on curbing global climate change.” Climate change policy: A survey;edited by S. Schneider; A. Rosencranz and J. O. Niles. Washington; DC: Island Press; 2002; pp. 373-391.
Anderson; B. and Di Maria; C. “Abatement and allocation in the pilot phase of the EU ETS.” Environmental and Resource Economics 48 (2011); pp. 83-103.
Andonova; L.; Betsill; M.; and Bulkeley; H. “Transnational climate governance.” Global Environmental Politics 9:2 (2009); pp. 52-73.
Arnell; N.W.; Lowe; J.A.; Brown; S.; Gosling; S.N.; Gottschalk; P.; Hinkel; J.; Lloyd-Hughes; B.; Nicholls; R.J.; Osborn; T.J.; Osborne; T.M.; Rose; G.A.; Smith;
.; Warren; R.F. “A global assessment of the effects of climate policy on the impacts of climate change.” Nature Climate Change 3(2013); pp. 512-519.
Betts; R.; Collins; M.; Hemming; D.; Jones; C.; Lowe; J.; Sanderson; M. “When could global warming reach 4°C?” Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 369 (2011); pp. 67-84.
Biermann; F. “Planetary boundaries and earth system governance - Exploring the links.” Ecological Economics 81 (2012); pp. 4-9.
Bulkeley; H. and Newell; P. Governing climate change. London: Routledge; 2010.
Bührs; T. “Sharing the atmosphere – A proposal for an equitable and sustainable global trading scheme for greenhouse gas emissions” Working Paper No. 264.
arwick: Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation; University of Warwick; 2010; online at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/csgr/research/workingpapers/2010/26410.pdf (accessed 2013-08-01).
Caney; S. “Justice and the distribution of greenhouse gas emission.” Journal of Global Ethics 2 (2009); pp. 125-146.
Caney; S. “Markets; morality and climate change: What; if anything; is wrong with emissions trading?”New Political Economy 15:2 (2010a); pp. 197–224.
Caney; S. “Climate change; human rights; and moral thresholds” Climate ethics; essential readings; edited by S. M. Gardiner; S. Caney; D. Jamieson and H. Shue. New York: Oxford University Press; 2010b; pp. 163-177.
Caney; S.; and Hepburn; C. “Carbon trading: unethical; unjust and ineffective?” Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 69 (2011); pp. 201-234.
CoM. Covenant of Mayors. (Brussels 2008); online at http://www.covenantofmayors.eu/IMG/pdf/covenantofmayors_text_en.pdf (accessed 2013-08-01).
Costello; A.; Abbas; M.; Allen; A.; Ball; S. Bell; S.; Bellamy; R.; Friel; S.; Groce; N.; Johnson; A.; Kett; M.; Lee; M.; Levy; C.; Maslin; M.; McCoy; D.; McGuire; B.; Montgomery; H.; Napier; D.; Pagel; C.; Patel; J.; Puppim de Oliveira; J.A.; Redclift; N.; Rees; H.; Rogger; D.; Scott; J.; Stephenson; J.; Twigg; J.; Wolff; J. and Patterson; C. “Managing the health effects of climate change” The Lancet 373 (2009); pp. 1693-1733.
Crowe; T.L. “The potential of the CDM to deliver pro-poor benefits.” Climate Policy 13:1 (2013); pp. 58-79.
C40. Climate action in Major Cities: C40 cities baseline and opportunities. (2011); online at http://www.c40cities.org/media/case_studies/climate-action-in-major-cities-c40-cities-baseline-and-opportunities (accessed 2012-12-02)
den Elzen; M.G.J.; Mendoza-Beltran; A.; Hof; A.F.; van Ruijven; B.; van Vliet; J. “Reduction targets and abatement costs of developing countries resulting from global and developed countries’ reduction targets in 2050.” Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 18:4 (2013); pp. 291-512.
Diringer; E. “Letting go of Kyoto.” Nature 479 (2011); pp. 291-292.
EDF. “Emissions Trading System Comparison Table.” Environmental Defense Fund; 2013; online at http://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/EDF_Chart_Emissions_Trading_Programs.pdf (accessed 2013-08-20).
European Commission; 2013 “Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard welcomes the European Parliament’s positive vote on the carbon market “backloading” proposal” Press Release (Brussels 2013-07-13); online at http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-653_en.htm (accessed 2013-07-23).
European Commission; 2012a “The State of the carbon Market in 2012.” Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council (Brussels 2012); online at http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/ets/reform/docs/com_2012_652_en.pdf (accessed 2013-07-23).
European Commission; 2012b “Analysis of options beyond 20% GHG emission reductions: Member State results”Commission Staff Working Paper (Brussels 2012); online at http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/package/docs/swd_2012_5_en.pdf (accessed 2013-08-20).
European Commission; 2009 “EU action against climate change. The EU Emissions Trading Scheme.” (Brussels 2009); online at
http://ec.europa.eu/clima/publications/docs/ets_en.pdf (accessed 2013-12-02).
European Commission; 2007 “Combating climate change: The EU leads the way.” (Brussels 2007); online at
http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/infopoint/publications/communication/10g_en.htm (accessed 2013-09-20).
European Parliament and the Council of the EU. “Directive 2009/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 amending Directive 2003/87/EC so as to improve and extend the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading scheme of the Community.” Official Journal of the European Union L140 (2009); pp. 63-87.
European Parliament and the Council of the EU. “Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 2003 establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community and amending Council Directive 96/61/EC.” Official Journal of the European Union L275 (2003); pp. 32-46.
Frey; B.S. Inspiring Economics. United Kingdom: Edward Elgar; 2001.
Goodin; R. “Selling Environmental Indulgences” Climate ethics; essential readings; edited by S. M. Gardiner; S. Caney; D. Jamieson and H. Shue. New York: Oxford University Press; 2010; pp. 232-246.
Grubb; M. “Doha’s Dawn?” Climate Policy 13:3 (2013); pp. 281-284.
Gupta; S.; Tirpak; D. A.; Burger; N.; Gupta; J.; Höhne; N.; Boncheva; A. I.; Kanoan; G. M.; Kolstad; C.; Kruger; J. A.; Michaelowa; A.; Murase; S.; Pershing; J.; Saijo; T.; Sari; A. “Policies; Instruments and Co-operative Arrangements” Climate Change 2007: Mitigation of Climate Change; Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; edited by B. Metz; O. Davidson; P. Bosch; R. Dave and A. Meyer. United Kingdom and United States: Cambridge University Press; 2007; pp. 746-807; online at www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg3/ar4-wg3-chapter13.pdf (accessed 2013-08-20).
Hansen; J. The Storms of My Grandchildren; The Truth about the coming climate catastrophe and our last chance to save humanity. London: Bloomsbury Publishing; 2009.
Haya; B. “Measuring emissions against an alternative future: Fundamental flaws in the structure of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism” Working Paper No. 09-001. Berkeley; CA: Energy and Resources Group; University of California; 2009; online at http://erg.berkeley.edu/working_paper/2009/ERG09-001.pdf (accessed 2013-06-01).
Helm; D. “The Kyoto approach has failed” Nature 491 (2012); pp. 663-665.
Jamieson; D. “Ethics; public policy; and global warming.” Climate ethics; essential readings; edited by S.M. Gardiner; S. Caney; D. Jamieson and H. Shue. New York: Oxford University Press; 2010; pp. 77-86.
King; E. “UN climate change deal ‘may not be feasible’ by 2015.” Responding to Climate Change (2013-08-14); online at http://www.rtcc.org/2013/07/23/un-climate-change-deal-may-not-be-feasible-by-2015/ (accessed 2013-08-14).
Lazarus; M.; and Chandler; C. “Coal power in the CDM: Issues and options; Executive Summary.” Working Paper No. 2011–02. Seattle; WA: Stockholm Environmental Institute; 2011; online at http://cdm.unfccc.int/stakeholder/submissions/2011/1104_cdmwatch_req3.pdf (accessed 2013-05-23).
Le Quéré; C.; Raupach; M.; Canadell; J.; Marland; G. “Trends in the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide” Nature Geoscience 2 (2009); pp. 831-836.
Lewis; B. and Chestney; N. “Parliament hesitates in drafting law for CO2 fix.” Reuters EU (2013-02-19); online at http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/19/us-eu-ets-idUSBRE91I0H320130219 (accessed 2013-07-23).
Liu; Z.; Guan; D.; Crawford-Brown; D.; Zhang; Q.; He; K.; Liu; J. “A low-carbon road map for China.” Nature 500 (2013); pp. 143-145.
MacKenzie; D. “Making things the same: Gases; emission rights and the politics of carbon markets.” Accounting; Organizations and Society 34 (2009); pp. 440-455.
McAllister; L. “The overallocation problem in cap-and-trade: moving toward stringency.” Columbia Journal of Environmental Law 39:2 (2009); pp. 395-445; online at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1276405 (accessed 2013-07-23).
Morris; D. “Drifting Towards Disaster? The ETS adrift in Europe’s climate efforts.” The 2013 Environmental Outlook; 2013; online at
http://www.sandbag.org.uk/site_media/pdfs/reports/Drifting_Towards_Disaster.pdf (accessed 2013-07-23).
O’Neill; J. Markets; Deliberation and Environment. London: Routledge; 2007.
Olsen; K.H. “The clean development mechanism’s contribution to sustainable development: a review of the literature.” Climatic Change 84 (2007); pp. 59-73.
Ott; H.E. and Sachs; W. “Ethical Aspects of Emissions Trading.” Wuppertal Papers Nr. 110. Saskatoon; Canada: Contribution to the World Council of Churches Consultation on ‘Equity and Emission Trading – Ethical and Theological Dimensions’ (2000-05-9 – 2000-05-14); online at
http://www.studver.unimaas.nl/critics/literature/WP110%20ET%20ethics.pdf (accessed 2013-07-23).
Page; E. “Cosmopolitanism; climate change; and greenhouse emissions trading.” International Theory 3:1 (2011); pp. 37-69.
Peters; G.P.; Andrew; R.M.; Boden; T.; Canadell; J.G.; Ciais; P.; Le Quéré; C.; Marland; G.; Raupach; M.R.; Wilson; C. “The challenge to keep global warming below 2°C.” Nature Climate Change 3 (2013); pp. 4-6.
Peters; G.; Minx; J.; Weber; C.; Edenhofer; O. “Growth in emissions transfers via international trade from 1990 to 2008.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 108:21 (2009); pp. 8903-8908.
Prins; G.; and Rayner; S. “Time to ditch Kyoto.” Nature 449 (2007); pp. 973-975.
Rockström; J.; Steffen; W.; Noone; K.; Persson; Å; Chapin; F.S. III; Lambin; E.F.; Lenton; T.M.; Scheffer; M.; Folke; C.; Schellnhuber; H.J.; Nykvist; B.; de Wit; C.A.; Hughes; T.; van der Leeuw; S.; Rodhe; H.; Sörlin; S.; Snyder; P.K.; Costanza; R. Svedin; U.; Falkenmark;M.; Karlberg; L.; Corell; R.W.; Fabry; V.J.; Hansen; J.; Walker; B.; Liverman; D.; Richardson; K.; Crutzen; P.; Foley; J.A. “A safe operating space for humanity.” Nature 461 (2009); pp. 472-475.
Rogelj; J.; McCollum; D.; Reisinger; A.; Meinshausen; M.; Riahi; K. “Probabilistic cost estimates for climate change mitigation.” Nature 493 (2013); pp. 79-83.
Rogelj; J.; McCollum; D.L.; O’Neill; B.C.; Riahi; K. “2020 emissions levels required to limit warming to below 2°C.” Nature Climate Change 3 (2012); pp. 405-412.
Sandel; M. What Money Can’t Buy; the Moral Limits of Markets. United Kingdom: Allen Lane; 2012.
Sandel; M. “It’s Immoral to Buy the Right to Pollute.” New York Times (1997-12-17) online at http://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/15/opinion/it-s-immoral-to-buy-the-right-to-pollute.html (accessed 2013-07-23).
Schneider; L. “Is the CDM fulfilling its environmental and sustainable development objectives? An evaluation of the CDM and options for improvement.” Berlin: Öko-Institute; 2007; online at http://www.oeko.de/files/forschungsergebnisse/application/octet-stream/download.php?id=622 (accessed 2013-07-23).
Scrap the EU ETS; 2013a “It is time the EU scraps its carbon Emissions Trading System.” Press Release (Brussels 2013-02-18); online at http://scrap-the-euets.makenoise.org/press-release-18feb2013/ (accessed 2013-04-11).
Scrap the EU ETS; 2013b “Time to scrap the EU ETS-Declaration. Civil society organisations demand that the EU scrap its emissions trading scheme.” online at http://scrap-the-euets.makenoise.org/english/ (accessed 2013-04-11).
Tans; P.; Keeling; R. “Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide: daily mean concentration of carbon dioxide for Mauna Loa; Hawaii.” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Earth System Research Laboratory (NOAA/ESRL); 2013; online at www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends (accessed 2013-08-20).
Tickell; O. Kyoto2: How to manage the global greenhouse. London: Zed Books; 2008.
UN. “Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations framework convention on climate change.” United Nations; 1998; online at http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.pdf (accessed 2012-11-4).
UNEP. “The Emissions Gap Report 2012.” United Nations Environmental Programme; 2012; online at www.unep.org/publications/ebooks/emissionsgap2012/ (accessed 2013-06-17).
UNFCCC. “Report of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol on its seventh session; held in Durban from 28 November to 11 December 2011; Addendum; Part Two: Action taken by the Conference of Parties at its seventeenth session” (FCCC/CP/2011/9/Add.1). Bonn: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat; 2011; online at http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2011/cop17/eng/09a01.pdf#page=2 (accessed 2013-10-1).
UNFCCC. “Report of the Conference of the Parties on its fifteenth session; held in Copenhagen from 7 to 19 December 2009. Addendum. Part Two: Action taken by the Conference of the Parties at its fifteenth session” (FCCC/CP/2009/11/ Add.1). Bonn: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat; 2009; online at http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2009/cop15/eng/11a01.pdf (accessed 2013-08-20).
van Vuuren; D.; den Elzen; M.; van Vliet; J.; Kram; T.; Lucas; P.; and Isaac; M. “Comparison of different climate regimes: The impact of broadening participation.” Energy Policy 37(2009); pp. 5351-5362.
Vanderheiden; S. Atmospheric Justice. New York: Oxford University Press; 2008.
Victor; D. “Plan B for Copenhagen.” Nature 461 (2009); pp. 342-344.
Walsh; A. “Are market norms and intrinsic valuation mutually exclusive.” Australian Journal of Philosophy 79:4 (2001); pp. 525-543.
