Linking emissions trading schemes is the bottom-up approach to creating a global carbon market. It entails political compromise and a careful assessment of the trade-off between its advantages and disadvantage.
This article points out that the main benefits of linking are the reduction of the aggregate compliance and transactions costs, the reduction of the competitive distortions and the increase of market liquidity. On the other hand, the article identifies also drawbacks in this process: differences in certain design elements can challenge the environmental policy objectives through free-riding and emissions leakage. For all these reasons, a linking project requires solutions to harmonize those design elements which pose barriers to an effective linkage.
Given the broad (economic, social and environmental) objectives of a green economy, and the limitations associated with mainstream measures of economic performance (such as gross domestic product), an alternative or expanded set of indicators is required for measuring progress toward a green economy. This article develops a composite index for measuring green economic performance, based on 26 indicators across the economic, social and environmental dimensions. The index will enable comparison of a country's green economic performance both over time and relative to other countries. Furthermore, the index is constructed in such a way as to allow for disaggregation (i.e. for scores on individual components to be seen at a glance), such that areas of specific concern can be easily identified and addressed, and progress in each area monitored over time. The index was tested on data from 193 countries, and the resulting country rankings were assessed.
A key aspect of the United Nations’ sustainable development approach centres on creating markets for financialized ‘natural capital’ products, particularly in resource-rich, lower-income countries. The appeal of this comes from a set of policy promises termed the ‘triple-win’: achieving environmental sustainability, socially inclusive economic growth and poverty alleviation. Yet, these policies are controversial for many reasons, including their potential to foster inequitable property regimes, leading to increased potential for conflict. There is a need to understand the context and relationships among the green economy, resource financialization and emerging areas of conflict within the Southern African region. This will be pivotal in achieving sustainable policy reform and coordinated action.
The European Commission and European Investment Bank have launched the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) to help recover the European Union economy. EFSI aims to bridge the investment gap and drive private capitals towards key productive sectors, such as energy efficiency and renewables. These fields are supposed to benefit the most from the Fund, given their investment needs and capacity to spur sustainable economic growth. However, limited public contributions, reshuffled capitals, and scarce capacity to improve the policy and regulatory framework characterize EFSI structure. Therefore, experts have cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Fund and its impact on the clean energy sector.
On 30 June 2015, the Chinese government submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), detailing its commitment to climate change mitigation and adaptation for the post-2020 period. This article offers an analysis of China’s INDC in terms of its basic assumptions and considerations, the ambition and fairness of the intended contributions, and the obstacles and challenges facing China in achieving these goals.