Emissions Trading in Practice : A Handbook on Design and Implementation

As the world moves on from the climate agreement negotiated in Paris, attention is turning from the identification of emissions reduction trajectories—in the form of Nationally Determined Contributions — to crucial questions about how these emissions reductions are to be delivered and reported within the future international accounting framework. 

The experience to date shows that, if well designed, emissions trading systems (ETS) can be an effective, credible, and transparent tool for helping to achieve low-cost emissions reductions in ways that mobilize private sector actors, attract investment, and encourage international cooperation. However, to maximize effectiveness, any ETS needs to be designed in a way that is appropriate to its context. 

Time Travelling on the NZ ETS

by Catherine Leining, Policy Fellow, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Trust

Both the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) in operation today and the world in which it is operating are markedly different from those anticipated by policy makers when designing the system back in 2007-2008. As the New Zealand government reviews the NZ ETS, history can be a powerful teacher. What might we learn by looking back in time at how and why we arrived at today’s NZ ETS?

Motu Economic and Public Policy Research has compiled an interactive timeline for the development and implementation of the NZ ETS from 2005 to 2015. It is intended as an information resource for:

• policy makers, 
• NZ ETS participants, 
• researchers, and 
• ETS practitioners from other countries who wish to learn from New Zealand’s experience. 

The Paris Climate Change Agreement: text and contexts

by Adrian Macey, New Zealand’s former Climate Change Ambassador and a Senior Associate of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies.

When French foreign minister Laurent Fabius brought down the gavel on the Paris Agreement on 12 December 2015, the international community reached a goal that had eluded it for six years: an updated and universal climate change agreement. It owed much to France’s diplomacy over the preceding 12 months, together with efficient, firm and innovative handling of the conference itself.

Fundamental to the success of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) was the commitment at all levels from President Hollande down to engage with the broadest range of parties and non-state actors. The fruits of France’s engagement were nowhere more apparent than in the small island states’ comment in the final plenary that this was the first time they felt they had been listened to at a COP.