In a wonderfully cynical move, U.S. carriers worked particularly diligently to ensure that the I.C.A.O. would never issue emissions limits, then turned around and challenged the E.U.'s rules on the grounds that only the I.C.A.O.
But rather than issue emissions standards in line with federal law, in 2005, top agency officials instituted a controversial cap-and-trade program for mercury, despite a warning from agency lawyers that the move would throw the issue back into the courts and almost certainly be reversed.
Under the treaty's Clean Development Mechanism, which issues emissions-reduction certificates to projects in the poor world that can be bought by firms in rich countries seeking carbon credits, several billion dollars have flowed to China.
The conventional solutions to global warming posed by the "politics of limits" — taxing carbon emissions, or issuing tradeable emissions to carbon-producing firms — conveniently raises revenue that could be used to pay for the very projects the authors wish to see.
Last year it issued new emissions standards for cars, and set out a timetable for rules on large stationary sources such as cement plants and refineries.
Once registered, projects are then issued Certified Emissions Reductions (CER), with each CER unit equal to a reduction of one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Some middle-income countries, such as Brazil and Mexico, have announced targets for cutting emissions; China has announced one for cutting the carbon-intensity of its economy.What it's all aboutThe arguments at Copenhagen will focus on two issues: emissions cuts and money.
This paper serves as an introduction to the special issue "Emissions trading in China" and draws on insights from the papers in the special issue.
Did the EPA not factor in costs -- nearly $10 billion annually -- when it issued new emission standards?
The Bush administration, determined not to regulate greenhouse emissions, issued a rule exempting those emissions from important provisions of the law, so that large polluters couldn't be compelled to reduce their emissions to protect the polar bear.
