Trade rules and climate change subsidies

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREW GREEN
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Environmental Taxes ◽  
Market Failures ◽  
Address Climate Change ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Potential Benefits

Countries can choose between a wide range of policy instruments to address climate change. While economists tend to argue for the efficiency of instruments such as environmental taxes, many countries are incorporating subsidies into their plans for limiting greenhouse gas emissions. However, these subsidies may conflict with World Trade Organization rules. This paper analyzes the potential benefits of using climate change subsidies in terms of addressing market failures as well as the risks of protectionism arising from such subsidies. It then examines World Trade Organization rules to determine whether they optimally differentiate between beneficial and harmful subsidy policies. It concludes that existing WTO rules do not provide adequate scope for legitimate subsidies and makes suggestions for reforming subsidies law.

scholarly journals How do We Manage a Just Transition? A Comparative Review of National and Regional Just Transitions Initiatives

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Antonia Krawchenko ◽  
Megan Gordon
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Scoping Study ◽  
Comparative Review ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Implementation Gaps ◽  
Economic Transitions

The concept of a ‘just transition’ encompasses political and policy imperatives to minimise the harmful impacts of industrial and economic transitions on workers, communities and society more generally, and to maximise their potential benefits. This imperative has gained heightened importance as governments commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A wide range of policies strategies and initiatives have been adopted by national and regional governments to facilitate and help manage a just transition. It is a concept that is increasingly being put into practice. This scoping study identifies and compares strategies, policies and practices that are presently being implemented in order to manage a just transition across 25 countries and 74 regions alongside European Union-level policies. This work develops a typology of policy instruments to manage just transitions and identifies implementation gaps and leading practices.

scholarly journals How Do We Manage a Just Transition? A Comparative Review of National and Regional Just Transition Initiatives

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6070
Author(s):  
Tamara Antonia Krawchenko ◽  
Megan Gordon
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Scoping Study ◽  
Comparative Review ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Implementation Gaps ◽  
Economic Transitions

The concept of a ‘just transition’ encompasses political and policy imperatives to minimize the harmful impacts of industrial and economic transitions on workers, communities, and society more generally, and to maximize their potential benefits. This imperative has gained heightened importance as governments commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A wide range of policies, strategies and initiatives have been adopted by national and regional governments to facilitate and help manage a just transition. It is a concept that is increasingly being put into practice. This scoping study identifies and compares strategies, policies, and practices that are presently being implemented in order to manage a just transition across 25 countries and 74 regions alongside European Union-level policies. This work develops a typology of policy instruments to manage just transitions and identifies implementation gaps and leading practices.

scholarly journals Changing International Law for a Changing Climate

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 279-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel C. Esty ◽  
Dena P. Adler
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
National Governments

After more than two decades of inadequate international efforts to address climate change resulting from rising greenhouse gas emissions, the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement shifted gears. That agreement advances a “bottom-up” model of global cooperation that requires action commitments from all national governments and acknowledges the important role that cities, states, provinces, and businesses must play in delivering deep decarbonization. Given the limited control that presidents and prime ministers have over many of the policies and choices that determine their countries’ carbon footprints, the Paris Agreement missed an opportunity to formally recognize the climate change action commitments of mayors, governors, and premiers. These subnational officials often have authorities complementary to national governments, particularly in federal systems (including the United States, China, Canada, and Australia). They therefore possess significant independent capacities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through their economic development strategies, building codes, zoning rules and practices, public transportation investments, and other policies. Likewise, the world community missed an opportunity to formally recognize the commitments of companies to successful implementation of the Paris Agreement and thereby to highlight the wide range of decisions that business leaders make that significantly affect greenhouse gas emissions.

'Green-gional' anesthesia: the non-polluting benefits of regional anesthesia to decrease greenhouse gases and attenuate climate change

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (9) ◽  
pp. 744-745
Author(s):  
Mausam Kuvadia ◽  
Cynthia Eden Cummis ◽  
Gregory Liguori ◽  
Christopher L Wu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Regional Anesthesia ◽  
Real Life ◽  
General Anesthetic ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
Inhalational Agent ◽  
Potential Benefits

Volatile halogenated gases and nitrous oxide used as part of a balanced general anesthetic may contribute to global warming. By avoiding volatile inhalational agent use, regional anesthesia may reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help prevent global warming. We present a theoretical calculation of the potential benefits and a real-life example of how much regional anesthesia may reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

scholarly journals WTO Provision and Higher Education in Nepal

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 139-142
Author(s):  
Amit Koirala
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Government Purchases ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The World ◽  
Trading Partners ◽  
Textiles And Clothing ◽  
Industrial Standards ◽  
Wto Agreements

The World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements cover a wide range of activities such as agriculture, textiles and clothing, banking, telecommunications, government purchases, industrial standards and product safety, food and sanitation regulations and intellectual property. Under the WTO agreements, countries cannot normally discriminate between their trading partners. Imported and locally produced goods should be treated equally. The same should apply to foreign and domestic services, and to trademarks, copyrights and patents. Education has been considered as one of the trades in the WTO. It has been argued that the accession of membership to WTO will be very helpful in the development of a country like Nepal so, this paper especially tries to find out the dilemmas and prospective on higher education in Nepal with respect to WTO provision. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijssm.v1i4.10965 Int. J. Soc. Sci. Manage. Vol-1, issue-4: 139-142  

scholarly journals Heterodox markets and ‘market distortions’ in the global trading system

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Lang
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Legal Basis ◽  
Institutional Diversity ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Trade Frictions ◽  
Market Distortion ◽  
Market Capitalism ◽  
Political Settlement

ABSTRACT An important context for contemporary trade frictions is the emergence, since the 1990s, of a wide range of new forms of market capitalism, of which China’s hybrid market economy is the most significant. Institutional diversity of this kind is a source of strength and dynamism for the global trading system, but it is also the cause of very serious friction. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organization system has dealt with this problem before, but the existing settlement regarding the legitimate boundaries of institutional diversity is under pressure and needs to be revisited. One concept that has been incorporated into World Trade Organization trade defence law (and elsewhere) to help draw these boundaries is the concept of the ‘market distortion’. The concept can be a useful one, but it has so far been interpreted and applied with an inadequate appreciation of its serious conceptual and practical difficulties. The potential result is a system of trade defences targeted in a discriminatory and even punitive manner against heterodox institutional forms, in ways that may excessively disincentivize institutional experimentation. In response, this paper argues for an approach to the interpretation and application of this concept, which proceeds from an understanding of the institutionally embedded character of markets. This does not take the form of a readily available ‘solution’, but rather a messy and evolving set of legal techniques that, in the best case, can form the legal basis of a practical and justifiable approach to the tensions caused by institutional diversity. A toolkit of legal techniques of this kind clearly cannot take the place of a more foundational political settlement of some sort, but it is a necessary accompaniment to it, if we are to preserve the aspiration towards a genuinely non-discriminatory and rules-based global economic order.

Big Visions and Big Hopes

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Minchin
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Organization ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Turning Points ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The World ◽  
Working People ◽  
Minority Workers

ThIs chapter examines the early Sweeney years, a remarkable time full of optimism for the AFL-CIO, and for many of America’s working people. Sweeney launched a wide range of reforms, putting an increased emphasis on organizing, political mobilization, and grassroots work, and forging new bonds with unions in other countries. He also introduced unprecedented diversity into the AFL-CIO, appointing more female staffers than ever before, and reaching out to female and minority workers. Sweeney’s efforts secured results; in 1998, for example, union membership increased by 101,000 over the previous year, a notable turnaround. The optimism was still evident at the end of 1999, when the AFL-CIO joined with environmentalists and engaged in mass demonstrations at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. Two events – the contested 2000 presidential election and 9/11 – acted as turning points, initiating a domestic climate that was much more hostile to the AFL-CIO.

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