Legality of Measures Addressing Carbon Leakage
October 2009 to June 2010
Differences in national climate protection policies can lead – at least in principle – to "carbon leakage", i.e. the relocation of industries to countries with less stringent climate change legislation and a subsequent increase in greenhouse gas emissions in those countries. In a legal study for the German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), the Ecologic Institute and WTI Advisors analyse whether measures to address carbon-leakage are compatible with EU and WTO law. The study is available for download.
This project highlights case studies of best practices in car and bike sharing programs in the US and the EU. It assesses the challenges and promises of these programs. Max Grünig and Dominic Marcellino, the authors of the report, conclude that well-designed car and bike sharing programs should be integrated with public transportation to move toward sustainable transportation systems.
In late 2008, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown commissioned his Special Representative on Carbon Trading, Mark Lazarowicz MP, to draft a report identifying the current role of emissions trading systems and possible challenges going forward. Michael Mehling of the Ecologic Institute in Washington DC was asked to prepare one of four background papers for the main report. His study, entitled “Global Carbon Market Institutions: An Assessment of Governance Challenges and Functions in the Carbon Market”, stresses the institutional needs for linking carbon markets across nations and ensuring market efficiency. He also matches governance challenges with possible institutional solutions. The full report (“Global Carbon Trading: A Framework for Reducing Emissions”) was launched in London on 20 July 2009 by Mark Lazarowicz.
In his 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama declared the need for "serious investments in clean energy" because "the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy". He urged Congress to pass legislation that promotes innovation and generates jobs as Americans rebuild infrastructures and manufacture the products of tomorrow. In a new paper funded by the German Marshall Fund of the United States under the Transatlantic Climate Bridge initiative, authors from the Ecologic Institute in Washington DC and Berlin identify investment needs and policy incentives required to achieve this transition to a clean energy economy.