ABSTRACT

Permit trading is an environmental policy instrument that has received increasing levels of attention over recent years. Coming from the field of air quality management, with the European CO2 emissions trading system being the most prominent example, it enters new fields of application, such as land use policy and biodiversity protection, water quality and water quantity trading. This book gives an overview of these recent developments and discusses the possibilities and limits of permit trading in environmental policies.

The advantages of permit trading are not only seen with respect to economic efficiency, which leads to achieving the environmental target at minimum cost, but also with respect to the instrument’s environmental effectiveness. By setting a cap for the overall emissions, a given environmental target can be met. This makes permit trading an interesting case for many environmental fields where safeguarding the environmental target plays a dominant role. Against this background, permit trading is discussed in environmental policy fields, where it has not been considered before, for example, land use management, biodiversity protection and water trading.

Permit Trading in Different Applications analyses the properties of permit trading: its possibilities and limitations, its design options and its restrictions on a more general level. It demonstrates how lessons learnt in established policy fields like air quality management can be transferred to new and emerging fields of application. This collection will provide students and practitioners in environmental sciences and policy with valuable research into instrument choice and design with respect to permit trading.

chapter 1|11 pages

Introduction

Permit Trading: A Market-Based Instrument Enters New Fields of Application

part I|118 pages

Emerging Emissions Trading Schemes in Air Quality Management and Climate Policy

part II|72 pages

Permit Trading in Land Use Management and Biodiversity

chapter 7|24 pages

Transferable Permits in Spatial Planning

US Experiences and Lessons for Germany

chapter 8|17 pages

Applying Tradable Permits to Biodiversity Conservation

Design Issues, Modelling and Policies

chapter 9|20 pages

Possibilities to Reduce Tropical Deforestation by Carbon Funding

General Reflections and Examples from Bolivia

chapter 10|9 pages

The introduction of the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme

Permits in a public-sector environment

part III|76 pages

Water Trading and Water Quality Trading

chapter 11|21 pages

Tradable Permits – Instruments to Manage Water Scarcity?

Some Australian Experiences

chapter 12|17 pages

California's Water Market

Lessons From the Field

chapter 13|20 pages

Water Quality Trading

Theoretical and Practical Approaches

chapter 14|16 pages

Nutrient Trading in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Opportunities and Obstacles

part IV|48 pages

Overarching Design Options and Conclusions

chapter 16|20 pages

New Modes of Governance to Tackle Climate Change

The Case of the Clean Development Mechanism

chapter 17|17 pages

Permit Trading in Different Applications

Concluding Observations