The European Union introduced a proposal in October 2001 to implement a new instrument intended to facilitate the Kyoto Protocol. The proposal called for a legally binding emissions trading system applied to selected installations at the start of 2005. This analysis shows that the EU proposal is conceptually weak, uncoordinated with the Kyoto protocol, and has negative economic as well as ecologic effects.
Wolfgang Strbele is professor of economics at the University of Mnster, Germany. Bernhard Hillebrand, Alexander Smajgl, Jean-Marc Behringer, Bernd Heins, and Eric Christian Meyer are teachers in the department of economics at the University of Mnster, Germany.