International Emissions Trading Scheme and European Emissions Trading Scheme : what linkages ?

Overview & Synopsis

Simultaneity between commitment periods (2008-2012) of both International and European Emissions Trading schemes may generate distortions in terms of burden distribution among sectors. There will be two levels of trading (a country and an entity level), which both need to be consistent with one another, despite of their different designs. To reach international targets, European governments will adopt an additional policy. It consists in implementing a tax on emissions of non-covered sectors. The tax rates depend on the effort realized within the European market. We propose a modeling of this two-level environmental policy, focusing on the levels of tax rates in each case of linkage. We obtain empirical estimations of the efforts that could be demanded to non-covered sectors and of the price(s) of carbon.