Weishaar, Stefan E. --- "Introduction" [2016] ELECD 1489; in Weishaar, E. Stefan (ed), "Research Handbook on Emissions Trading" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 1

Book Title: Research Handbook on Emissions Trading

Editor(s): Weishaar, E. Stefan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781784710613

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Introduction

Author(s): Weishaar, Stefan E.

Number of pages: 6

Abstract/Description:

Emissions trading systems (ETS) have grown into a respected tool within the environmental policy arsenal and have proliferated around the globe. They are often employed to fight global warming and were referred to at the international climate conference in Paris in December 2015 where political leaders agreed to hold the global average temperature increase well below 2°C and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C. Emissions trading is usually traced back in the resource economics literature to Crocker (1966) and Dales (1968). Montgomery (1972) is credited as being the first to provide formal proof of its cost efficiency, and Tietenberg (1985) has established it on the economic research agenda. The law and economics literature by contrast tends to trace emissions trading back to Demsetz (1967), who argues that externalities should be internalized by allocating property rights.