ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is on the years 1995 - 2007, the EU’s period of learning about climate policy instruments, in particular emissions trading. The strong and influential opposition of the European industry and of some Member States against energy and CO2 emissions taxing was the outstanding negative argument for the switch at the EC to end the stalemate and adopt the emissions trading systems (ETS) as an environmental policy instrument. Winning support for EU’s emissions trading proposals was frequently argued with reference to the success of the US SO2 Cap and Trade system. The differences between the US SO2 and the emerging EU CO2 emissions permit markets are expounded. Salient characteristics of the US acid rain programs are discussed in this chapter. Then, the EU ETS conditions and implementations on the six salient characteristics are described. Finally, the chapter provides concluding remarks.
