배출권거래제도 － 형평성을 중심으로 －

Emission Trading Scheme(ETS) is policy tools designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions where this can be done in the most cost effective way. Existing and Proposed schemes generally take the form of cap-and-trade systems, meaning that there is a political commitment to limit overall emissions by putting in place a cap, and that the emission allowances are distributed as permits between covered entities in the scheme, permits that can be traded freely. And it has become common practice to allocate the majority or all of the emission allowances to firms free of charge. Effectiveness and Fairness are distinguishable aspects of policy evaluation. Although overall program effectiveness is an important issue, this article focuses on the fairness issues. I will discuss several aspects of distributional fairness related to ETS. It consists of fairness in the distribution of emissions allowances to businesses, fairness in the distribution of greenhouse gas and other co-pollutant emissions among different segments of society, and fairness in the relative financial impact on low-income consumers. The unfair effects of ETS are usually resulted from the free allocation of emission allowances. So, the main alternative to free allocation is auctioning. First, it would reduce the distributional distortions and accompanying windfall profits that free allocation can create. Second, it creates a level playing field for existing and new covered entities. Lastly, a disproportionate impact on low-income consumers can be greatly ameliorated through adroit use of revenue from emissions allowance auctions to offset the additional burden on low-income consumers from increased energy costs due to free allocation.