Search

After seven years since the Kyoto meeting, this special issue of IRES surveys the various effects of the Kyoto Protocol at the national, regional and global levels to ascertain the effectiveness of the Kyoto Protocol as well as its major issues and barriers and to offer alternative options for future frameworks. EDITORS NOTE http://enviroscope.iges...

According to an estimation by the United Nations, 15 cities in the Asia Pacific region will become megacities with a total population exceeding 10 million by 2015, and 60 percent of the total population in the region will live in urban areas by 2030 (APFED 2005). Urban environment management in Asia is now one of the most critical subjects. Being...

According to Japan’s official Climate Change Policy Programme, the government aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent compared with its 1990 base year emissions, mainly through domestic actions, and then address a projected 1.6 percent shortfall of emission reductions by utilizing the Kyoto Mechanisms. It is pointed out, however...

The strengths and weaknesses of the Kyoto Protocol must be carefully assessed in designing future agreements to tackle climate change. The Kyoto Protocol’s main strength may lay in its emissions trading feature?a key for cost-effectiveness, environmental effectiveness, and equity. Its main weakness may lay in the incapacity of Kyoto-type targets to...

Industrialized countries have been astonishingly slow in providing incentives for their private sectors to invest in Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects or to buy certified emission reductions (CERs). On the other hand, capacity-building initiatives have been promoted extensively and have used almost 10 percent of the total funds invested in...

It is widely agreed that the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a useful international instrument that encourages and reinforces the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), and also that it should be further promoted as a way to fill the gap in energy and GHG efficiency between industrialized and developing countries. A number of...

This paper examines the existing voluntary UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UKETS), which represents effectively a rather unusual “policy experiment”?the establishment of a voluntary greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme (with a significant subsidy element that effectively pays the polluter) designed to secure emissions reductions in line with Kyoto...

This paper provides an assessment of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) from a developing country’s perspective with specific reference to activities in India. The CDM has elicited considerable interest from various Indian industries. We analyze here the nature of initial CDM projects in India, sector preferences, scales, and possible...

This paper analyzes the role of some key technological options (i.e., fuel-switching and renewable energy technologies) available under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the power sector of three Asian countries?Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. A long-term electricity planning model is used with...

Continued economic growth in China, which is spurring on demand for and consumption of large amounts of energy, poses a significant challenge to implementing a sustainable development strategy in this country. Whereas the climate change issue may not be given a high priority on the nation’s political agenda, greenhouse gas emission reduction...