climate change
Further to yesterday’s class:
Here is a link to the Commission’s climate change web pages.
There is a voluntary market for emissions trading in Chicago, the Chicago Climate Exchange, which is planning to allow its members to use EU emissions trading allowances on its market.
CO2 emissions in the UK (but not other greenhouse gas emissions) are rising.
Russia, one of the largest producers of greenhouse gases in the world, stands to make significant profits under the Kyoto emissions trading scheme because it had much higher levels of emissions in 1990 and the Treaty scheme requires states to move back to 1990 levels.
The Pew Center on Global Climate Change published a Report in February 2006.
The World Wildlife Fund publsihes tips on what individuals can do to address climate change.
You are not responsible for any of the linked material for the purposes of the exam - I’m providing the links in case you are interested in these issues. However, the lecture yesterday does give another useful example of an EU policy area.
I also think that focusing on this material does illustrate another area where some EU policies conflict with others. Article 6 of the EC Treaty provides:
Environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the definition and implementation of the Community policies and activities referred to in Article 3, in particular with a view to promoting sustainable development.
However, increasing the amount of free trade in goods and increasing the movement of persons around the EU (workers and people travelling to benefit from tourism-related services) has implications for the environment. Could a Member State validly set up a policy of encouraging people to buy local produce and justify the policy on environmental grounds (cf. Buy Irish, Austrian Trucks case)?