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The purpose of this paper is to determine whether greenhouse gas (GHG) tradeable instruments will be classified as financial products within the scope of the World Trade Organization (WTO) law and to explore the implications of this finding.

This purpose is achieved through examination of the units of the Australian carbon pricing mechanism (the CPM), namely eligible emissions units. These units are analysed through the lens of the definition of financial products provided in the General Agreement for Trade in Services (the GATS).

This paper finds that eligible emissions units will be classified as financial instruments, and therefore the provisions that govern their trade will be regulated by the GATS. Considering this, this paper explores the limitations that are introduced by the Australian legislation on the trade of eligible emissions units.

This paper is limited in its analysis to the Australian CPM. In order to draw conclusions on the issues raised by this analysis, it is necessary to consider the WTO requirements against an operating emissions trading scheme. The Australian CPM presents a contemporary model of an appropriate scheme.

The findings in this paper are crucial in a GHG-constrained society. This is because emissions trading schemes (ETSs) are becoming popular measures for pricing GHG emissions, and for this reason the units that are traded and surrendered for emissions liabilities must be classified appropriately on a global scale. Failing to do this could result in differential treatment that may be contrary to the intentions of important global agreements, such as the WTO-covered agreements.

This paper aims to carry out a critical analysis of the proposed Australian emissions trading scheme (ETS) as a complex market solution to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs). Specifically it seeks to examine the financial regulatory infrastructure that will more than likely oversee the Australian ETS, the same regulatory infrastructure which failed to prevent the global financial crisis.

A critical examination of the financialisation of the atmosphere that follows the growth of the financialisation of capitalism when economic activity shifted from production and service sectors to finance. Financialisation of capitalism is supported by capitalist regulation influenced by neo‐liberal doctrines of free markets and small government.

Trillions of dollars of taxpayer funds bailed out large financial institutions that nearly collapsed after unregulated trading in complex financial products that were supposed to hedge future risk. Corporate emissions trading will involve similar financial products. The measurement and reporting of actual emissions to support the Australian ETS also creates challenges for the accountancy profession to provide a workable conceptual framework.

If the currently flawed financial infrastructure required for the GHG emissions trading scheme, no amount of taxpayer funded bailouts will reverse the extreme climate change associated with an environmental catastrophe.

The application of financialisation of monopoly capitalism and capitalist regulation theories to the critical analysis of commoditised GHGs traded as financial products in the proposed Australian ETS.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how emission constraints imposed by the emission trading scheme (ETS) in the European Union, as well as transmissions capacity, can affect the outcome of the generation scheduling. The aim is to demonstrate the application of the generation scheduling tool which includes both the ETS and transmission constraints, and helps evaluate their effect on emission reduction, costs, and generators' behavior and availability. It can also be used to help generators make strategic decisions regarding utilization and purchases of carbon allowances.

The paper extends the generation scheduling formulation to allow for additional constraints modeling. The formulation is based on the mixed integer programming approach with linearization of generation cost and emission functions, and the possibility to split the system into zones in order to investigate transmission congestion.

The paper presents six case studies that include unconstrained and constrained operation, both from the emission and transmission points of view. It also illustrates the effect of free allocations versus auctioning. The case studies look into the system with wind generation that can be constrained due to transmission limits, and their impact on emission reductions. This is often the case in systems where most of the wind generation is located in the area which does not have sufficiently strong links to the rest of the system where the majority of loads are.

The extension of the work will be inclusion of stochastic nature of emission prices and wind availability. It will also be used for further studies on systems with high wind penetration and insufficient transmission capacity.

The generation scheduling tool and the results from the paper could be useful for generators when making decisions on how to use or purchase their emission allocations, as well as for evaluation of the adverse affect of transmission congestion on carbon emission reductions.

This paper aims to investigate how unique features of built facilities would affect the application of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trading, and to explore what adaptive measures may be taken for emissions trading to be applied to the built environment. Emissions trading is a financial tool to encourage GHG emissions reduction in various industries. As the building sector is responsible for a large amount of GHG emissions, it is valuable to explore the application of emissions trading in built facilities.

The analysis is based on a comparative study reviewing the current emissions trading schemes (ETSs) in Australia, Japan and the UK covering the building industry, and to evaluate the approaches adopted by the schemes to tackle the problems related to buildings and facilities management.

The research findings reveal that the small energy savings of individual building units, the large variety of energy-saving technologies and the split incentives and diverse interests of building owners and tenants would be the barriers hindering the development of emissions trading. To overcome these barriers, an ETS should allow its participants to group individual energy savings, lower the complexity of monitoring and reporting approaches and allow owners and tenants to benefit from emissions trading.

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the current emissions trading practices in the built environment. Besides, it raises the attention and consciousness of policymakers to the need that building characteristics and facilities management should be taken into consideration when designing an ETS for the building sector.

Taking departure in the premise that donor and recipient priorities differ with regard to the marginal costs and benefits associated with attacking global environmental externalities, and hence the relative importance attached to the global environment, this paper seeks to scrutinize specific global environmental transfer mechanisms in the light of proposed definitions of global environmental assistance and global environmental compensation. It is argued that most global environmental transfer mechanisms possess distinct compensatory elements, and that additionality of these transfers is essential in order to ensure that existing development assistance is not crowded out. Specifically, this should be achieved either directly through separation of funds for global environmental and local developmental purposes or indirectly through increased considerations for local development objectives directly in global environmental transfer design.

Current literature presents limited measurement methods of quantifying manufacturers' performance with environmental concerns. The purpose of this paper is to construct a company performance index for benchmarking motor vehicle manufacturers (MVMs) with environmental concerns.

Methods of constructing the index include regression analysis, a modified linear method for normalizing variables and a geometric mean for aggregating variables into a single index I_MVM (index for MVMs). A case study is conducted in 12 MVMs from 2008 to 2017. A sensitivity analysis with the simple additive weighting method is performed to analyze how different aggregation methods affect the final value. The index I_MVM is assessed through a benchmark with three existing indices.

Three realistic considerations are identified from MVMs, based on which proper and transparent methods are chosen to construct the I_MVM. The construction of the index I_MVM has been assessed through a benchmark against the methodologies of three other indices. The results indicate that the new measurement is feasible and effective for MVMs to measure their company performance from an environmental perspective.

The construction of the index I_MVM can support policymakers with accurate statistics for decision-making. As a response to current imperative climate policies, this paper raises awareness of CO₂ emissions in vehicles' production. For statistical organizations and stakeholders in the investment world, this paper provides available and reliable statistics for trend analysis of different MVMs.

A new method is designed for constructing a company performance index for MVMs. Three environmental variables are identified based on literature, their environmental impact as well as their data availability from public documents. A ranking by manufacturer with environmental concerns is generated. This index can contribute with available statistics and useful insights toward decision-making.

This paper focuses on the terms of reference of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was drafted to support environmental sustainability through the mitigation of global warming. The paper provides information on the main features of the protocol, especially the commercial incentives for companies in industrialised countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Particular attention is paid to the role of the operations manager and strategist in the selection of processes, plant and equipment to meet these commercial incentives, and the location of industrial facilities under conditions of political and economic uncertainty. The paper demonstrates the importance of the political and economic factors influencing environmental investment decisions, particularly those factors which often lie outside the usual terms of reference of operations managers.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the continued viability of the European Union emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) as a tool for climate control in the face of continued criticisms.

This evaluative study makes use of connected existing studies and other secondary data from economics, management, politics and law.

The study found that though there were various flaws in the scheme in its initial launching phase, the insights gained are being applied in the second and subsequent phase of the EU ETS. It is also ascertained that despite initial doubts, a market for carbon finance is successfully established in the EU albeit with various limitations. The scheme is also poised to link with other regional schemes to address climate control.

Though the study relied primarily on secondary data, the findings were sufficiently triangulated with perspectives from economics, politics, management and law. The findings would also provide useful and relevant information to those engage in the theory and practice of carbon finance.

This paper updates on the legal and economic significance of the EU ETS as a market mechanism to address climate change.

The purpose of this study is to better understand the nexus between environmental taxes and other environmental management systems (EMSs) and to propose an alternative framework for implementing environmental protection tax (EPT) in China.

The study uses a multimethod approach encompassing document analysis and comparative analysis. The archival data covers laws, reports, regulations, guidelines and standards related to the EPT and EMS sub-systems in China.

The study identifies several institutional features of environmental taxes that have not been fully explored in past tax research. In addition, the study reveals that information-sharing mechanisms are key to addressing the risks and uncertainties associated with the implementation of an environmental tax and that the mechanisms are grounded in the nexus among EPT and two EMS sub-systems.

The findings of this study have implications for the understanding of China’s environmental tax system, the Environmental Impact Assessment system and the pollutants discharge permit (PDP) system. The construction of an alternative framework provides insights for approaches to environmental taxation. A limitation of this study is that the application of the framework might be undermined by the inaccurate manual sampling, as some pollutants may be non-replicable.

The findings of this study are relevant to policymakers who are designing, improving or abandoning environmental taxes for alternate solutions to environmental issues.

The insights gained from this study may be of assistance to lower the risks and uncertainties associated with the implementation of an environmental tax.

The study contributes to approaches to environmental taxes by constructing an alternative framework that connects an environmental tax system with two EMSs. The framework lays the groundwork for some promising research opportunities. Additionally, the study extends the tax accounting literature (Hanlon and Heitzman, 2010) by connecting accounting and environmental knowledge and developing a transdisciplinary approach. The study also contributes to the emerging body of literature that addresses the challenges in implementing environmental taxes in China.

This research informs the intersection of climate and heritage policy development by examining the history of US energy policy as it relates to historic buildings, emerging policy tools to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the implications of a changing legislative landscape on historic buildings through the case of New York City.

This study employs a multi-method approach, including a review of US energy codes; discourse analysis of government records, energy studies, and reports related to historic buildings and energy; select research into energy-related heritage policy at the municipal level; and geospatial and statistical methods to analyze policy implications in the case study of New York City.

Historic buildings have long been afforded exemptions from energy code compliance in the US, and these waivers are widespread. Contemporary operating energy and greenhouse gas data, as well as energy justice findings about whom these waivers privilege, challenge these exemptions and signal a need for significant policy reform in light of climate change.

This study questions longstanding rhetoric about historic buildings being inherently green and supports the need for more evidence-based research to undergird heritage policy reform that is equitable and climate-responsive.