The UK Emissions Trading Scheme: Paying the Polluter - A Policy Experiment

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 Protocol commitment, in order to gain experience in emissions trading and verification and to influence the development of European Union policy and policy instruments. Included in this paper is a discussion of the background and aims of the UKETS, a review of its early performance, and an examination of the working of the scheme and the relationship between the UKETS and the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EUETS), due to start in January 2005, drawing on the 2004 review of the UKETS carried out by the UK’s National Audit Office

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http://pub.iges.or.jp/modules/envirolib/view.php?docid=433
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