4,037 research outputs found

    Toward a framework for implementation of climate change treaty through self-enforcing mechanisms

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    Global warming caused by accumulation of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) is a public bad, addressing which requires collective action by all the countries of the world. Under the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), most countries have negotiated the Kyoto Protocol for GHG emissions control to stabilize climate change. Several issues about the Protocol remain unresolved -- first, most of the significant countries are required to take a decision on whether or not to sign such a protocol, which has large-scale implications for their energy and industrial sectors and economic well-being; second, climate change mitigation is a public good entailing that all the countries would stand to gain due to mitigation action taken by a sub-group of one or more countries; and third, there exists no supra-national authority to enforce such a protocol for the individual sovereign nations. Thus, commitment to cooperate on an international agreement on climate change control remains tenuous. Formally, such a cooperative model is likely to be unstable. The paper discusses the pros and cons of the already proposed international cooperative mechanisms toward climate change mitigation and highlights the problem of information revelation, particularly related to the abatement issues. In this context, it attempts to outline a structure of a self-enforcing burden sharing mechanism for climate change mitigation in an incomplete information framework. The mechanism is an adoption of the well-known Vickrey-Clarke-Groves mechanism, widely used in mechanism design theory.Climate change negotiations; cooperative games; stable coalitions; self-enforcing mechanism

    Core-stable Rings in Second Price Auctions with Common Values

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    In a common value auction in which the information partitions of the bidders are connected, all rings are core-stable. More precisely, the ex ante expected utilities of rings, at the (noncooperative) sophisticated equilibrium proposed by Einy, Haimanko, Orzach and Sela (Journal of Mathematical Economics, 2002), describe a cooperative game, in characteristic function form, in spite of the underlying strategic externalities. A ring is core-stable if the core of this characteristic function is not empty. Furthermore, every ring can implement its sophisticated equilibrium strategy by means of an incentive compatible mechanism.Auctions, Bayesian Game, Collusion, Core, Partition Form Game, Characteristic Function

    The World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund and China

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    As the first global carbon fund, the World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF) aims to catalyze the market for project-based greenhouse gas emission reductions while promoting sustainable development and offering a learning-by-doing opportunity to its stakeholders. Since the inception in 2000, the PCF has engaged in a dialogue with China to get it to sign up as a host country, because the World Bank and other international and bilateral donors expect great potential of the clean development mechanism (CDM) in China and feel the significant need for building CDM capacity in China to enable it to gain more insight into the CDM and increase its capacity to initiate and undertake CDM projects. This paper first discusses why China had hesitated to sign up as a host country of PCF projects until September 2003. Then the paper explains what has led China to endorse the PCF projects. The paper ends with discussions on the implications of the PCF’s offering prices for the emerging global carbon market.Carbon prices, Carbon market, China, Prototype Carbon Fund, The World Bank

    The Revelation of Foreign Carbon Emission Policies for Developing China Low-Carbon Economy

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    In present, developing the low-carbon economy is common recognized by the world. In order to achieve the aim of low-carbon economy, to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions is one of the most important measures. Nowadays, because of the large population, high energy intensity and the unreasonable energy structure based on fossil fuel, our country has faced an enormous pressure during the reducing carbon emissions process. Based on the current international applying carbon emission reduction proposals, we discussed the developed countries carbon emission reduction policies in detailed which includes the United States, Britain and Japan and etc. and in the meantime. Based on the above overseas developed countries experiences, the paper analyses  our country’s present situation of carbon emission reduction, finds the existing problems and put forward relevant recommendations. In brief, the research will provide some reference to build a low-carbon economy society of our country.Keywords:  low-carbon economy; CO2 emission; home and abroad carbon emission reduction policy; questions and measures RĂ©sumĂ©:  A l'heure actuelle, le dĂ©veloppement de l'Ă©conomie Ă  bas-carbone est gĂ©nĂ©ralement reconnu par le monde. Afin d'atteindre l'objectif de l'Ă©conomie Ă  bas-carbone, la rĂ©duction des Ă©missions de dioxyde de carbone est l'une des mesures les plus importantes. De nos jours, en raison d'une population nombreuse, d'une intensitĂ© Ă©nergĂ©tique Ă©levĂ©e et d'une structure Ă©nergĂ©tique dĂ©raisonnable basĂ©e sur les combustibles fossiles, notre pays a fait face Ă  une pression Ă©norme au cours du processus de rĂ©duction des Ă©missions de carbone. Sur la base des propositions internationales de la rĂ©duction de l'Ă©mission de carbone actuellement appliquĂ©es, nous avons Ă©tudiĂ© les politiques de rĂ©duction des Ă©missions de carboneles des pays dĂ©veloppĂ©s en dĂ©tail, qui comprend les États-Unis, la Grande-Bretagne, le Japon etc, et en mĂȘme temps,  basĂ© sur les expĂ©riences de ces pays dĂ©veloppĂ©s ci-dessus, le document analyse la situation actuelle de notre pays en matiĂšre de la rĂ©duction des Ă©missions de carbone, trouve des problĂšmes existants et propose des recommandations pertinentes. En bref, cette recherche fournira des rĂ©fĂ©rences Ă  la construction d'une sociĂ©tĂ© de l'Ă©conomie bas-carbone dans notre pays.Mots-ClĂ©s:  économie Ă  bas-carbone; Ă©missions de CO2; politiques de la rĂ©duction de l'Ă©mission de carbone domestiques et Ă©trangĂšres; problĂšmes et mesure

    Think Tank Review Issue 72 November 2019

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    Zero and low carbon buildings: A driver for change in working practices and the use of computer modelling and visualization

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    Buildings account for significant carbon dioxide emissions, both in construction and operation. Governments around the world are setting targets and legislating to reduce the carbon emissions related to the built environment. Challenges presented by increasingly rigorous standards for construction projects will mean a paradigm shift in how new buildings are designed and managed. This will lead to the need for computational modelling and visualization of buildings and their energy performance throughout the life-cycle of the building. This paper briefly outline how the UK government is planning to reduce carbon emissions for new buildings. It discusses the challenges faced by the architectural, construction and building management professions in adjusting to the proposed requirements for low or zero carbon buildings. It then outlines how software tools, including the use of visualization tools, could develop to support the designer, contractor and user

    Equilibrium in Scoring Auctions

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    This paper studies multi-attribute auctions in which a buyer seeks to procure a complex good and evaluate offers using a quasi-linear scoring rule. Suppliers have private information about their costs, which is summarized by a multi-dimensional type. The scoring rule reduces the multidimensional bids submitted by each supplier to a single dimension, the score, which is used for deciding on the allocation and the resulting contractual obligation. We exploit this idea and obtain two kinds of results. First, we characterize the set of equilibria in quasi-linear scoring auctions with multi-dimensional types. In particular, we show that there exists a mapping between the class of equilibria in these scoring auctions and those in standard single object IPV auctions. Second, we prove a new expected utility equivalence theorem for quasi-linear scoring auctions.Auctions, Procurement

    Joint Implementation in Climate Change Policy

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    The textbook economists' model of a tradable permit system cannot usually be applied perfectly at either the domestic or international scale because of the difficulty and/or expense of defining allocations to and monitoring emissions of some groups, as well as for political reasons. It may be impossible to bring these groups fully into a tradeable permit system but it is often possible to find compromise solutions to gain some benefits from trade. This paper explores this problem in the context of the Joint Implementation mechanism associated with the Kyoto Protocol. This paper starts by outlining the current international rules governing Joint Implementation. We provide a summary of key jargon for those who are unfamiliar with the complex Kyoto language. We then discuss two key international issues that are still unresolved: baseline development and monitoring. We then turn to domestic governance of Joint Implementation and how the private sector might engage in Joint Implementation. At this point we consider how Joint Implementation fits within the suite of Kyoto flexibility mechanisms, why sellers and buyers might choose to engage in each, and how the different mechanisms might interact in the market for tradeable units. We conclude with some thoughts about productive directions for future research.Climate, Joint Implementation, tradeable permits, emissions trading

    Emissions Trading Regimes and Incentives to Participate in International Climate Agreements

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    This paper analyses whether different emissions trading regimes provide different incentives to participate in a cooperative climate agreement. Different incentive structures are discussed for those countries, namely the US, Russia and China, that are most important in the climate negotiation process. Our analysis confirms the conjecture that, by appropriately designing the emission trading regime, it is possible to enhance the incentives to participate in a climate agreement. Therefore, participation and optimal policy should be jointly analysed. Moreover, our results show that the US, Russia and China have different most preferred climate coalitions and therefore adopt conflicting negotiation strategies.Agreements, Climate, Incentives, Negotiations, Policy

    Mechanism Choice

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    This chapter reviews the literature on the selection of regulatory policy instruments, from both normative and positive perspectives. It first reviews the mechanism design literature to identify normative objectives in selecting among the menu or toolbox of policy instruments. The chapter then discusses the public choice and positive political theory literatures and the variety of models developed to attempt to predict the actual selection of alternative policy instruments. It begins with simpler early models focusing on interest group politics and proceeds to more complicated models that incorporate both supply and demand for policy, the role of policy entrepreneurs, behavioral and cognitive choice, and public perceptions and mass politics. It compares these theories to empirical experience. The chapter examines literature in law, economics, political science, and related fields, and it draws examples from US, European, and international regulation. It concludes with suggestions for future research. Document is the author\u27s manuscrip
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