AICGS: FACET : FACET

FACET - Forum for Atlantic Climate and Energy Talks has just launched four brand new papers which we hope will be matched by great interest in the community:

Representative Edward J. Markey (D-Massachusetts), the Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, describes the rationale behind the Investing in Climate Action and Protection Act which he introduced earlier this month. The "iCAP" Act would establish a cap, auction, and trade program for reducing U.S. emissions by 85 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. Sensing "an unprecedented opportunity to change the course of the planet," Mr. Markey's bill intends to provide legislation that seizes the enormous prospects presented by the necessary transition to a low-carbon economy.
Congressman Edward J. Markey, It's Time for the United States to "Cap-and-Invest."
FACET Commentary #11, June 2008.

In another commentary, Heleen de Coninck, group manager in international energy and climate issues at the Dutch institute ECN Policy Studies, and an editor for the IPCC Special Report on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), asks who has been, and who will become, the technological and political leader in this important field. She looks at the development stages of different CCS technologies and calls for international cooperation on large-scale projects.
Heleen de Coninck, The International Race for CO2 Capture and Storage: And the Winner Is...? FACET Commentary #12, June 2008.

Disappointed by Warner-Lieberman's collapse in the U.S. Senate and limited by realistic expectations for a new White House, Dale Medearis, the senior environmental planner for the Northern Virginia Regional Commission, points to the high potential of local cooperation across the Atlantic. He demands a more focused approach in order to assist local and regional authorities in learning from each other and bridging differences in the transatlantic climate relationship.
Dale Medearis, Local Authorities as Leaders in the Transatlantic Climate and Energy Dialogue. FACET Commentary #13, June 2008.

This launch also contains the premier of a new FACET format: FACET Analysis. While FACET Commentaries are rather short opinion pieces dealing with all aspects of climate and energy policy, economics, and technology, a FACET Analysis paper is a research paper originally produced (i.e. written, redesigned, or translated) for FACET, and up to thirty pages in length. We encourage our authors to be clear and straight to the point (and political and provocative, if they wish) in this format as well, but this line is more academic in nature. FACET Analyses give the authors the option of using footnotes and including references to the works of others.

The first FACET Analysis is contributed by Stormy Mildner and Katrin Jordan-Korte, two researchers at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). Current proposals for a U.S. emission trading system combine national mandatory limits for GHG emissions with import restrictions for certain products, so-called border tax adjustments (BTAs). While the authors agree that such measures increase the political feasibility of national climate legislation, they worry that BTAs pose a serious threat to the international trading system and potentially violate international trade law under the WTO. At the same time, they see the linkage of national climate legislation and competitiveness concerns in the current discussion as a way to build momentum for breakthroughs in international climate change talks.
Katrin Jordan-Korte & Stormy Mildner, Climate Protection and Border Tax Adjustment: Economic Rationale and Political Pitfalls of Current U.S. Cap-and-Trade Proposals.
FACET Analysis #1, June 2008.

We hope that you will enjoy the new editions to the forum. If you would like to contribute to FACET, please let me know.

Sincerely,
Alexander Ochs
Founding Editor, FACET - Forum for Atlantic Climate and Energy Talks