Carbon Markets and the Future of International Climate Policy

Even as hopes for a binding international agreement to substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions have faded in recent years, a bottom-up international climate policy regime is emerging. Seven countries and the European Union now have regional, national, or sub-national emissions trading schemes, and similar policies are under consideration in at least five other countries. Oct. 17, during a Regulatory Policy Program Seminar at Harvard Kennedy School, Billy Pizer of Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions responded to the excitement about expanding carbon markets by addressing one of the risks associated with linking programs: the prospect of delinking linked systems.