Auctioning Greenhouse Gas Emissions Permits in Australia
Regina Betz, Peter Cramton, Stefan Seifert, and Suzi Kerr
,
2
(
54
)
Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics
219-238
April
2010
Abstract
The allocation of permits is an important design aspect of an emissions trading scheme. Traditionally, governments have favoured the free allocation of greenhouse gas permits based on individual historical emissions (‘grandfathering’) or industry benchmark data. Particularly in the European Union (EU), the free allocation of permits has proven complex and inefficient and the distributional implications are politically difficult to justify; auctioning emissions permits has therefore become more popular.