IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/tcpoxx/v4y2004i4p427-442.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

California RECLAIM's market failure: lessons for the Kyoto Protocol

Author

Listed:
  • Anne Egelston
  • Maurie J. Cohen

Abstract

The failure of Los Angeles' RECLAIM emission trading market in the summer of 2000 uncovers important issues that have direct relevance for the various systems now emerging for exchanging greenhouse gas credits. Two primary causes for the breakdown of RECLAIM are apparent. On the one hand, RECLAIM did not succeed because of a series of unpredictable events that included manipulation of the market by brokers and the California energy shortage. On the other hand, several potentially foreseeable program design flaws contributed to the failure. This study examines the structure of RECLAIM and concludes that there was sufficient resilience to endure the two unexpected crises. However, the problematic program design features created a market that was fatally flawed and, regardless of impinging circumstances, was ultimately bound to collapse. We also investigate the status of the rapidly developing international greenhouse gas market and identify several lessons from the RECLAIM experience: the need for a holistic approach to market design that includes the role of a bank, the interface with project-based credits, the similarities of the industries enrolled in the program, and need to carefully consider how to handle the problems caused by the end of the trading period.

Suggested Citation

  • Anne Egelston & Maurie J. Cohen, 2004. "California RECLAIM's market failure: lessons for the Kyoto Protocol," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(4), pages 427-442, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:tcpoxx:v:4:y:2004:i:4:p:427-442
    DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2004.9685535
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14693062.2004.9685535
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/14693062.2004.9685535?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Della Maggiora, Carla, 2002. "Climate Change in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Review of the Bonn and Marrakech Decisions and Their Effect on the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 2970, Inter-American Development Bank.
    2. Carla Della Maggiora, 2002. "Climate Change in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Review of the Bonn and Marrakech Decisions and Their Effect on the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 25178, Inter-American Development Bank.
    3. Steve Sorrell & Jim Skea (ed.), 1999. "Pollution for Sale," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1696.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stavins, Robert, 2004. "Environmental Economics," RFF Working Paper Series dp-04-54, Resources for the Future.
    2. Richard Schmalensee & Robert N. Stavins, 2017. "Lessons Learned from Three Decades of Experience with Cap and Trade," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 11(1), pages 59-79.
    3. Juan-Pablo Montero, 2002. "Trading Quasi-emission Permits.Vers. 6/2003," Documentos de Trabajo 201, Instituto de Economia. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile..
    4. Martin Larsson, 2017. "EU Emissions Trading: Policy-Induced Innovation, or Business as Usual? Findings from Company Case Studies in the Republic of Croatia," Working Papers 1705, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb.
    5. Suzi Kerr & Catherine Leining, 2003. "Joint Implementation in Climate Change Policy," Working Papers 03_04, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    6. Edwin Woerdman, 2000. "Competitive Distortions In An International Emissions Trading Market," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 337-360, December.
    7. Yu-Bong Lai, 2007. "The Optimal Distribution of Pollution Rights in the Presence of Political Distortions," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 36(3), pages 367-388, March.
    8. Christoph Böhringer & Andreas Löschel, 2008. "Climate Policy‐induced Investments in Developing Countries: The Implications of Investment Risks," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 367-392, March.
    9. Stavins, Robert, 2003. "Market-Based Environmental Policies: What Can We Learn from U.S. Experience and Related Research?," Working Paper Series rwp03-031, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    10. Gagelmann, Frank, 2003. "E.T. and innovation - science fiction or reality? An assessment of the impact of emissions trading on innovation," UFZ Discussion Papers 13/2003, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    11. Stefano Carattini & Eli P. Fenichel & Alexander Gordan & Patrick Gourley, 2020. "For want of a chair: Teaching price formation using a cap and trade game," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(1), pages 52-66, January.
    12. Juan-Pablo Montero, 2004. "Tradable permits with incomplete monitoring - Evidence from Santiago's particulate permits program," Working Papers 0415, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research.
    13. Woerdman, Edwin, 2000. "Implementing the Kyoto protocol: why JI and CDM show more promise than international emissions trading," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 29-38, January.
    14. Richard Schmalensee & Robert N. Stavins, 2013. "The SO 2 Allowance Trading System: The Ironic History of a Grand Policy Experiment," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(1), pages 103-122, Winter.
    15. Carlsson, Fredrik & Hammar, Henrik, 2002. "Incentive-based regulation of CO2 emissions from international aviation," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 8(6), pages 365-372.
    16. Revesz, Richard & Stavins, Robert, 2004. "Environmental Law and Policy," Working Paper Series rwp04-023, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    17. Daigneault, Adam & Greenhalgh, Suzie & Samarasinghe, Oshadhi, 2017. "Equitably slicing the pie: Water policy and allocation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 449-459.
    18. Juan-Pablo Montero, 2005. "Pollution Markets with Imperfectly Observed Emissions," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(3), pages 645-660, Autumn.
    19. Robert N. Stavins, 2020. "The Future of US Carbon-Pricing Policy," Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 8-64.
    20. Stavins, Robert N., 2003. "Experience with market-based environmental policy instruments," Handbook of Environmental Economics, in: K. G. Mäler & J. R. Vincent (ed.), Handbook of Environmental Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 9, pages 355-435, Elsevier.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:tcpoxx:v:4:y:2004:i:4:p:427-442. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/tcpo20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.