Economists praise ETS
Several leading academic economists, writing in the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy Journal, have praised the European Emissions Trading Scheme, according to the FT.
“The economists, including Denny Ellerman of MIT, Barbara Buchner of the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, Frank Convery, Joseph Kruger and William Pizer, said the European Union scheme should form the basis of a “global framework for managing climate policy”.
They say the key advantages of the scheme are its scale – it is the biggest mandatory emissions trading scheme in the world – and the number of countries and companies participating. The EU accounts for about 20 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and the scheme covers about half of the EU’s emissions.
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But the economists said the persistently high price of carbon in the first year of the scheme was evidence that emissions were being reduced by companies. They estimated that companies had cut their emissions by about 7 per cent as a result.”