追溯与寻明:国际法视角下的碳排放权单位研究

自以《京都议定书》为基础的市场化机制建立以来,经过近20年的发展,全球碳金融市场呈现蓬勃发展的态势,交易量大幅提升,成交金额不断攀升,市场化机制在夯实中不断完善和发展。同时,争端与纠纷日益增加,国际多边环境公约调整下的碳排放权机制部分地在WTO体制下进行规制,成为众多学者的憧憬。碳排放权单位体现的既不是GATT框架下的"产品",也不是GATS框架下的"服务",而是在经济上反映出特殊的金融衍生产品的属性。然而,碳排放权单位交易商提供服务的行为契合GATS金融服务要求,因此交易商可依据GATS享受跨国服务领域中的最惠国待遇,并可将与WTO规则相关的争端诉诸WTO争端解决机制,实现环境争端解决的规范化、法制化。     

Modeling the macroeconomic determinants of environmental degradation in E-7 countries: The role of technological innovation and institutional quality

Environmental degradation poses a severe threat to life on earth. Similarly to other countries, emerging seven (E-7) countries have been struggling to decrease their dependence on non-renewable energy sources by adopting environment friendly technologies for reducing environmental deterioration and to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. In present study, we reassessed the technological policies of E-7 countries, and addressed the issues of affordable and clean energy, institutional quality (IQU), and sustained economic growth (EGR) to address the problem of environmental deterioration. For this purpose, we have investigated the role of renewable energy consumption (REC), technological innovations (TINs), IQU, and EGR on CO₂ emissions (CE) by using the panel quantile regression (PQR) for the period from 1996 to 2020. The empirical outcomes of FGLS reveal that a 1% increase in REC, TIN, and IQU reduces the CE by 0.145%, 0.233%, and 0.249%, while a 1% rise in EGR and population (POPU) raises the CE by 0.993% and 1.546% respectively. Similarly, the results of PQR demonstrate that REC, TIN, and IQU reduce CE, whereas EGR and POPU increase environmental degradation. The impact of TIN on CE is high at lower quantiles and low at higher quantiles. The impact of IQU on CE is low at lower quantiles and high at higher quantiles Based on these findings, we have recommended a comprehensive SDG-oriented policy framework, so that E-7 countries can make progress towards achieving the objectives of SDG 16, SDG 13, SDG 7, SDG 8, and SDG 9.     

Compliance costs,regulation, and environmental performance: Controlling truck emissions in the US

When explaining regulatory policymaking and the behavior of regulated business firms, scholars have supplemented economic models by emphasizing the role of public‐regarding entrepreneurial politics and of normative pressures on firms. This article explores the limits of such entrepreneurial politics and “social license” pressures by examining regulation of emissions from diesel powered trucks in the US. We find that the economic cost of obtaining the best available control technology – new model lower emissions engines – has: (i) limited the stringency and coerciveness of direct regulation of vehicle owners and operators; (ii) dwarfed the reach and effectiveness of the governmental programs that subsidize the purchase of new less polluting vehicles; and (iii) elevated the importance of each company’s “economic license”– as opposed to its “social license”– in shaping its environmental performance. The prominence of this “regulatory compliance cost” variable in shaping both regulation and firm behavior, we conclude, is likely to recur in highly competitive markets, like trucking, that include many small firms that cannot readily either afford or pass on the cost of best available compliance technologies.     

Regulation lite: The rise of emissions trading

Emissions trading is the governmentally promoted hope for a sustainable world. In different contexts, trading regimes display varying potential – both in absolute terms and in comparison with other regulatory instruments. Emissions trading, however, is a device that raises urgent issues regarding its objectives, cost‐effectiveness, fairness, transparency, and legitimacy. Its use places emphasis on its “acceptability” and the virtues of regulation that is “lite” because it is non‐threatening to the most powerful interests. Emissions trading is resonant with assumptions that are highly contentious – notably that it is acceptable because it involves no losers, or because, in desperate global circumstances, we have no choice but to use it. There is a need to confront the difficult issues presented by emissions trading and to face the challenges of combining “market” and “democratic” systems of legitimization. It is also necessary to avoid taking refuge in all too comfortable beliefs in cumulative checks and balances.     

Social,environmental and economic sustainability of Kazakhstan: a long-term perspective

This paper explores the evolution of Kazakhstan's development through an analysis of population trends, infant mortality, air emissions, water management, oil production, income, cost of living and average salary. The longitudinal data analysis demonstrates that the development of Kazakhstan during the Soviet period was far from sustainable in terms of uncontrolled environmental pollution. Time-series analysis illustrates that the 1990s transition to the market economy temporarily eased environmental degradation but also brought about initial socio-economic disarray and decline in living standards. Further support for rural areas and economic diversification is needed to move away from Kazakhstan's heavy reliance on mineral resource extraction to a more sustainable path of development.     

低碳生态城市视阈下的环境保护问责制构建

伴随着全球碳排放量的迅速上升,低碳生态城市建设模式势在必行。分析低碳生态城市的基本内涵及建设低碳生态城市的可能性和必然性,为政府在城市管理方面提供了新的思路。要通过制度创新,完善责任监督体系,加强考核和建立惩奖机制,以善治理念为指导来建立和完善我国的环境保护问责制,营造绿色、高效、和谐、健康、可持续发展的城市。     

Market Darwinism vs. Market Creationism: Adaptability and Fairness in the Design of Greenhouse Gas Trading Mechanisms

International rule-making and compliance routines with respect to the Kyoto Protocol are evolving rapidly. This paper examines potential designs of emissions-trading programs by comparing the emissions credit trading (ECT) and cap-and-trade models for achieving cost-effective reductions in atmospheric greenhouse-gas (GHG) loading in terms of their adaptability and fairness. Adaptability is a valuable attribute when markets and their governing institutions are evolving rapidly or when regulated entities do not yet have well-established and predictable compliance routines. Fairness in both procedures and outcomes is central to efforts to establish and maintain institutions of international governance. The key difference concerns the awarding of tradable emission rights, which occurs at the launch of a cap-and-trade program but following when firms reduce emissions below baselines in an ECT scheme. Implications of this difference are explored in terms of institutional adaptability and fairness during program-design stages. By not locking in emission rights at the outset, and by being amenable to incremental roll-out, ECT appears to have superior adaptive and fairness qualities during periods of rapid institutional evolution.     

Assessing the role of regulatory quality,favouritism, administrative requirement and licencing restriction in curtailing carbon emissions

The urgent need to achieve the Paris Agreement has compelled countries to set mitigation targets to curtail carbon emissions. Notwithstanding, stakeholders' effort to implement emission-reduction policies is often constrained by institutional challenges. This study provides new evidence about the dynamic relationship between institutional quality and carbon emissions in 63 industrialised economies. Using a reduced-form energy emission model and the system GMM technique, we exploit four institutional quality measures—favouritism, administrative requirement, licencing restriction and regulatory quality—and analyse their impact on carbon emissions. The results show that institutions play a fundamental role in mitigating carbon emissions. However, the abatement effect depends on the regulatory quality, the extent of favouritism, licencing restrictions and administrative requirements. Our findings reveal that stringent regulations such as licencing restrictions reduce carbon emissions in the short and long run. Administrative requirement such as emission reporting inhibits carbon emission in the short and long run, whereas favouritism worsens it. The results are robust to alternative model specifications. The findings from this study highlight the need for policymakers to pay close attention to favouritism, as it tends to reduce the effectiveness of emission policy regulations. Additionally, we argue for the need for stringent administrative requirements given its critical role in internalising carbon emission intensity in industrialised economies.     

Toxic Omissions

正The New York Times published five reports in July and August detailing China’s environmental pollution issues,including carbon dioxide emissions and"toxic haze."Given that Beijing will continue to suffer under heavy smog if change is not effected,we should     

Change： Development Opportunities amid Crisis

正AFTER marathon negotiations in the final 48 hours,the 12-day Warsaw Climate Change Conference decided on the evening of November 23,2013,to push forward the Durban Platform and institute the International Mechanism for Loss and Damage to compensate developing countries for greenhouse gases that the industrialization of developed nations has caused.Developed countries such as Japan and