Avoiding Carbon Leakage and Competitive Distortions: ETS Design and the Influence of Politics

The International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) successfully convened another ICAP training course on Emissions Trading for Emerging Economies and Developing Countries to build capacity in emissions trading systems (ETS). The ICAP Training Course 2012 took place in Alajuela (Costa Rica) from 19 to 28 March 2012. Benjamin Görlach and Michael Mehling of Ecologic Institute led the course and spoke about ways to avoid carbon leakage and competitive distortions as well as the impact of policies on the design of ETS.

The Training Course was the fifth of its kind and continues the tradition of the ICAP Summer Schools in Berlin (2009), The Hague (2010), Madrid (2011) and Bejing (2011). ICAP – the International Carbon Action Partnership – is a forum of 29 national and regional governments and jurisdictions, including several EU Member States, the EU Commission, as well as a number of US states and Canadian provinces, Australia, New Zealand, and Tokyo Metropolitan Government, aiming to advance international cooperation on carbon markets.

The course introduced the 27 highly qualified policy-makers as well as stakeholders and promising young professionals from the non-governmental, academic and private sectors to carbon trading systems as a tool to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Within the course program, special emphasis was given to providing know-how of good practice during all stages of the design, implementation, and administration of national and regional emission trading systems.

Training Course participants came from nine different countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru.