International climate policy

Key policy initiatives

• European Aviation Directive

  The European law is a good first step, setting an enforceable limit on carbon pollution from aviation.

• Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+)

  Our pioneering work on REDD+ shows how economic incentives to keep trees alive can help tropical nations protect forest and the climate.

• U.N. climate talks

  Our international climate team has engaged in U.N. climate talks since the 1992 Rio summit, providing path-breaking economic and legal analysis.

Reports and fact sheets

EDF has partnerships and people in powerhouse nations like China, India, Brazil and Russia as well as smaller nations like Ghana and VietNam. These proposals were developed to help all nations put an end to global warming.

• Turn Toward Safety [PDF]

  The key to avoiding the most catastrophic consequences of climate change lies in beginning to put global emissions on a downward, rather than an upward, track as soon as possible. Our approach would reward early actions by emerging economies to limit carbon.

• Docking Stations [PDF]

  Rich, poor, industrial, rural…it's not easy for the world's nations to agree on tough policies – and it's even harder for them to convince constituents at home that a global deal to cap emissions is a good idea. Our docking stations proposal gives nations a way to start participating in a global agreement right away – even while they work towards ratification at home. Also see our academic paper, Docking into a global carbon market [PDF].

• Reforming the Clean Development Mechanism

  The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was crucial to the Kyoto Protocol climate agreement, but it didn't do enough to help developing nations prepare to start lowering total emissions. There are many proposals for CDM reform – EDF lays out some basic criteria for a reformed CDM.

• Clearing the air on EU's carbon market [PDF]

  How the EU ETS works, what it has accomplished and what lessons the United States should draw from the EU’s experience. Also see our report, Harvesting the low-carbon cornucopia: How the European Union Emissions Trading System is spurring innovation and scoring results (2007) [PDF].