Designing a high-performance international regime for embedded emissions accounting

Summary 

The international regime of Embedded Emissions Accounting and Verification Frameworks (EEFs) unpins a range of domestic and trade-related climate policies, including carbon border adjustments, eco-certification, and Green Industrial Policy targetting. As such a high-performance (efficient and effective) regime is essential to support a range of economic and climate objectives. Yet the emerging regime is at risk of poor performance due to rapid and uncoordinated proliferation, and potential capture by vested interests. The current paper is designed to support academic and practical efforts to steer the evolution of a high-performance regime. To do this, it develops and applies a structured approach to understand and align key design elements in EEFs.