Dear All,

I am delighted to announce the publication by MIT Press of 
Carbon Coalitions: Business, Climate Politics, and the Rise of Emissions 
Trading. 

The book 

- offers a comprehensive study on the rise of carbon trading at the 
international level, in the EU and the US, 

- examines the role business played in making this policy instrument a central 
pillar of global climate governance, and

- conceptualizes the role and influence of transnational coalitions in global 
environmental politics.

Apologies for cross-listings.

Best wishes,
Jonas

_______________

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. Business Coalitions in Global Environmental Politics 3. The 
Political Economy of Carbon Trading 4. The Kyoto Protocol: Internationalizing a 
US Regulatory Approach 5. The European Union: From Foe to Friend of Carbon 
Trading 6. The United States: Reimporting Carbon Trading 7. Business and the 
Rise of Market-Based Climate Governance

Abstract
Over the past decade, carbon trading has emerged as the industrialized world's 
primary policy response to global climate change despite considerable 
controversy. With carbon markets worth $142 billion in 2010, carbon trading 
represents the largest manifestation of the trend toward market-based 
environmental governance. In Carbon Coalitions, Jonas Meckling presents the 
first comprehensive study on the rise of carbon trading and the role business 
played in making this policy instrument a central pillar of global climate 
governance.

Meckling explains how a transnational coalition of firms and a few 
market-oriented environmental groups actively promoted international emissions 
trading as a compromise policy solution in a situation of political stalemate. 
The coalition sidelined not only environmental groups that favored taxation and 
command-and-control regulation but also business interests that rejected any 
emissions controls. Considering the sources of business influence, Meckling 
emphasizes the importance of political opportunities (policy crises and norms), 
coalition resources (funding and legitimacy,) and political strategy 
(mobilizing state allies and multilevel advocacy).

Meckling presents three case studies that represent milestones in the rise of 
carbon trading: the internationalization of emissions trading in the Kyoto 
Protocol (1989–2000); the creation of the EU Emissions Trading System 
(1998–2008); and the reemergence of emissions trading on the U.S. policy agenda 
(2001–2009). These cases and the theoretical framework that Meckling develops 
for understanding the influence of transnational business coalitions offer 
critical insights into the role of business in the emergence of market-based 
global environmental governance.

Additional information on the book is available at 
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12743.

________________________________
Jonas Meckling | Postdoctoral Fellow
Belfer Center | Harvard Kennedy School
79 JFK St., Box 134, Cambridge, MA 02138
phone +1-617-496-0041 | fax +1-617-496-0606
http://www.jonasmeckling.com


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