ABSTRACT

Tackling climate change has provided a key focus for the creation of what the editors of this special issue have termed ‘environmental intangibles.’ This paper focuses on the European Union Emissions Trading System (EUETS), a climate policy that revolves around the issuance and trading of environmental intangibles called emissions allowances. Set up in the mid-2000s, the cap and trade system has experienced many complications. We propose here to explore a particularly contentious issue: the allocation of free allowances. We will see that deciding on allocation rules leads to vivid debates about whether energy-intensive industries in Europe, such as the manufacturing of cement, can remain competitive in the global economy if climate policy is unilaterally enforced. These debates are focused on a phenomenon referred to as the risk of carbon leakage due to loss of competitiveness. Drawing on an empirical enquiry into the workings of policy-making, the paper examines the ways, in which this risk is framed and questioned through lobbying and evidential work. We suggest that the threat to competitiveness posed by the EUETS can neither be established, nor dismissed; a form of under-determination is maintained and carbon leakage as a never-quite-tangible possibility becomes a battleground for protecting European industry over the environment.

摘要

应对气候变化是本期特刊编辑所称的“环境无形资产”的创造重点。本文重点介绍欧盟排放交易体系 (EUETS)，这是一项气候政策，围绕着称为排放配额的环境无形资产的发行和交易展开。2000 年代中期建立的上限和交易系统经历了许多复杂情况。我们在这里提议探讨一个特别有争议的问题：免费配额的分配。我们将看到，决定分配规则会引发激烈的争论，即如果气候政策得到单方面执行，欧洲的能源密集型产业（如水泥制造）能否在全球经济中保持竞争力。这些争论的焦点是一种被称为竞争力丧失导致的碳泄漏风险的现象。通过对政策制定工作的实证调查，本文考察了通过游说和证据工作来构建和质疑这种风险的方式。我们认为 EUETS 对竞争力构成的威胁既不能成立，也不能排除；一种不确定的形式被保留下来，碳泄漏作为一种从未完全有形的可能性成为保护欧洲工业对环境的战场。我们认为 EUETS 对竞争力构成的威胁既不能成立，也不能排除；一种不确定的形式被保留下来，碳泄漏作为一种从未完全有形的可能性成为保护欧洲工业对环境的战场。我们认为 EUETS 对竞争力构成的威胁既不能成立，也不能排除；一种不确定的形式被保留下来，碳泄漏作为一种从未完全有形的可能性成为保护欧洲工业对环境的战场。