The Kyoto Protocol and Developing Countries: Strategy and Equity Issues

One of the responses to the threat of global warming is the Kyoto Protocol and the associated Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to reduce greenhouse gases. South Africa is an ideal country for the implementation of industrial CDM projects, yet lags behind many other countries. This qualitative research determines the factors that cause South Africa to lag other developing countries in the implementation of industrial CDM projects and the interventions that will have the most impact on accelerating implementation. The research involved interviews with 30 experts involved in the South African CDM process. The results identify the factors perceived to be facilitating and inhibiting the use of CDM opportunities and a framework for CDM practitioners to develop an implementation strategy within South African industry is established.

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The role of EU-ETS Mechanism as Environmental Investment Promoter in Europe and Developing Countries

Revista Latinoamericana de Desarrollo Económico ◽

10.35319/lajed.20142282 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 85-134

Author(s):

Carlos Díaz Valdivia

Keyword(s):

Developing Countries ◽

Phase I ◽

Interest Rates ◽

Kyoto Protocol ◽

Energy Prices ◽

Eu Ets ◽

Environmental Investment ◽

The Impact ◽

The Eu

This research attempts to provide a better understanding about the role of the European Union Emission Trading System (EU-ETS) as private environmental investment promoter. It explores the macroeconomic behavior of private environmental investments before and after the implementation of EU-ETS in 2005 until the end of Phase I of the mechanism. Also, private environmental investments are contrasted with variables like: economic growth, interest rates, and energy prices (gas and electricity) in order to quantify the impact of these on private environmental decisions and evaluate the level of impact (slow, moderate and strong) of all these variables together with the EU-ETS implementation on private environmentalinvestment decisions. For this purpose it is used a statistical approach through multiple linear regressions for the cases of Germany, Spain, France and The Netherlands and a single panel estimation with data information of all the countries mentioned. The results show that the signature of Kyoto Protocol in year 1997 -as a preamble of EU-ETS- provided a perverse incentive on private environmental investments until 2004. During Phase I (2005–2007) of the EU-ETS mechanism, private environmental investments showed an important positive recovery that was not enough to reach pre Kyoto Protocol levels. Finally, it is analyzed the investment in developing countries through CDM projects.

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