Abstract:
Climate change threatens to have wide-ranging impacts on the sustainability of ecosystems and presents enormous challenges for conventional modes of socioeconomic governance. Against this backdrop, there have been a range of responses to put a price on carbon such as the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and New Zealand ETS, and the unsuccessful Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 in Australia. These ETS models do not clearly articulate the underlying asset, the carbon property right, upon which the price of commoditised carbon is secured. As a result of such initiatives, a clear understanding of what comprised a property right in carbon is emerging as a foundation component in the arsenal of mechanisms that are being brought together to mitigate and adapt to climate change at the international level.
