Essay 3 — Navarro, Alyssa Riantha R.

— ECOINTL V25

CONTEXTUAL GUIDE

The study written by Michael Hübler entitled, Can Carbon Based Import Tariffs Effectively Reduce
Carbon Emissions?, focuses on the discussion of the implications if such tariffs were imposed to regulate the
trading of emissions among different countries and regions. With this, emission trading is known to be an
established global environmental policy whose aim is to limit and manage climate change caused by air
pollution through administering permits on the measurable use of the emission of greenhouse gasses that can
be bought and sold by various countries to one another (Britannica, 2019). The founding of the emission
trading scheme began at the 1990 amendment of the U.S. Clean Air Act of 1970 by distributing emission permits
to power plants for the use of sulfur dioxide (SO2) as part of the country’s Acid Rain Program (Schmalensee &
Stavins, 2015). Following this, the effort for emission trading had expanded globally with the inauguration of the
Kyoto Protocol by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1997, which is
composed of a collection of 37 industrialized countries that are committed to reducing their contribution of
greenhouse gas emissions to the environment (Feldon, 2007). In line with this, as what has been discussed in
the study of Hübler (2009), there are deliberations on the inclusion of China in the Kyoto Protocol as the country
is one of the biggest contributors of emission due to the vast operations of their production. According to
Maréchal (2018), one of the main reasons in which China had not decided to participate in the climate regime
is due to the longstanding conflict between the United States of America and China, as the Western country
withdrew its ratification of the protocol in the year 2001 under the administration of President George W. Bush
given the lack of involvement of the Asian country. The efforts of the Kyoto Protocol extends to the feud of the
two aforementioned nations as the association of one country and the lack of the other in the climate regime
will put one into a disadvantage due to the implemented emission limits (Maréchal, 2018).

On the other hand, the article entitled Economics of Export Taxation in a Context of Food Crisis by
Antonie Bouët and David Laborde Debucquet tackles the utilization of export taxes in the 2006 to 2008 Food
Crisis. Moreover, based on the analysis of International Food Policy Research Institute as cited by Reuters (2011),
one of the major contributors to the occurrence of the said crisis and the sudden surge of food prices were due
to exogenous factors that had directly affected the food commodities—the increased demand and price for
biofuels that had caused increases in the cost of the energy intensive production of agricultural products, the
decline in the value of the U.S. dollars, export bans for wheat products that results to the volatility of
international prices, and the experienced climate change that brings damage to agricultural lands. Apart from
this, it was also determined that the food crisis transpired given the heightened demand and change in the
consumption preferences of the developing countries during the period that were directed towards the high
consumption of protein-based meals, as well as the experienced poor harvest in wheat products paired with
the increase in the cost of transportation, oil, and fertilizers that were also significant factors to the cause of the
crisis (Le Valleé, 2011). Furthermore, in relation to the aforementioned contribution of wheat products to the
elusive state of international prices, it was regarded by Bouët & Debucquet (2010) that the said commodity is
one of those which is highly volatile to the shocks in the world price. The purpose of the sensitivity of the wheat
product is due to the fact that it is a critical food commodity that is greatly depended upon by the majority of
the world’s population and is preeminent in trade as countries seek to supply each of their domestic demand
of the good. With this the major exports of the good are known to be Russia, Canada, and the United States
while Indonesia, Turkey, Italy, and the Philippines being its major importers. Moreover, apart from the 2006 to
2008 Food Crisis, prices of wheat have peaked and constantly responded to the world market ever since the
year 1991 and have extended until the year 2011, which had evoked great public attention and constant
monitoring (Adjemian & Janzen, 2014).
 References

Adjemian, M.K. & Janzen, J.P. (2014). Wheat prices driven by supply and demand, not speculators. U.S.

Department of Agriculture. https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2014/june/wheat-prices-driven-

by-supply-and-demand-not-speculators/

Bouët, A. & Debucquet, D.L. (2010). Economics of export taxation in a context of food crisis. International Food

Policy Research Institute.

Britannica. (2019). Emission trading. Encyclopedia Britannica.

https://www.britannica.com/technology/emissions-trading

Feldon, J. (2007). The big black hole in the Kyoto Protocol: Was the exclusion of black carbon regulation a “fatal

law?”. Sustainable Development Law & Policy, 7(2).

Hübler, M. (2009). Can carbon based import tariffs effectively reduce carbon emissions?. Kiel Institute for the

World Economy.

Le Valleé, J.C. (2011). Food price crisis 2007-2008: Lessons for the Commonwealth Carribean and Haiti. United

Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Full_Report_2057.pdf

Maréchal, J.P. (2018). What role for China in the international climate regime?. Institut de Relations

Internationales et Stratégiques.

https://www.iris-france.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Asia-focus-59.pdf

Reuters. (2011). Factbox: 2008 food price crisis – What caused it?.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-crops-price-factbox-idUSTRE7590IJ20110610

Schmalensee, R. & Stavins, R.N. (2015). Lessons learned from the three decades of experience with

cap-and-trade. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy.

https://media.rff.org/archive/files/document/file/RFF-DP-15-51.pdf