Source: HARALD WINKLER*, ANDREW MARQUARD for Climate Policy, Volume 10, Number 5, 2010 , pp. 489-493(5)

Excerpt from the Editorial of Climate Policy

The Introduction has a very good example focusing on South Africa case. "Some developing countries are considering the option of using economic instruments as part of a broader policy of climate change mitigation. In South Africa, a carbon tax has been a very effective instrument for inducing relative emission reductions in the long-term mitigation scenarios (LTMS) (SBT, 2007), and its National Treasury is due to release a discussion document, including a carbon tax, in June 2010. India’s national action plan on climate change does not have emissions trading as one of its eight missions (India, 2008), but tradable certificates might help achieve its energy efficiency goals."

"Extensive debate exists among researchers in developed countries on whether an emissions trading scheme or carbon tax is the best means to ‘put a price on carbon’. This Special Issue contributes to the debate by considering how such instruments might apply in South Africa and other developing countries. Six articles (by Brick and Visser; Cloete and Robb; Goldblatt; Tyler; Upadhyaya; Winkler, Jooste and Marquard) place carbon pricing in the context of broader policy on climate and development. The intent is to deepen an emerging debate on how to put a price on carbon in developing countries and provide useful analysis for policy-makers."

Conclusions: "South Africa represents an interesting case study of a relatively emissions-intensive developing economy with a sizeable industrial base, and an inherited set of development policies which have been central in establishing a high-emissions development path. Setting a carbon price in the South African economy could play a valuable role in changing this development path, subject to a number of challenges and constraints. The country is in the middle of a climate policy process, which is expected to conclude in December 2010.

The Special Issue (of the Climate Policy Journal) has multiple articles that identify key issues related to the cap &trade process. "Setting a carbon price of any kind would require a significant amount of cross-sectoral policy coordination in order to effectively integrate climate policy concerns with sustainable development policy concerns, and would need to address industrial and trade policy issues. A different set of challenges, with many common elements, also faces India, with a much larger and more diverse economy."

Link to Climate Policy Journal and the complete publication:
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/earthscan/cpol/2010/00000010/00000005