Joint implementation and EU accession countries

The EU accession countries have a high potential for low cost greenhouse gas emission reduction. As they cannot join the "bubble" agreement for the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, project-based Joint Implementation (JI) could be a powerful strategy to integrate them into the EU climate policy strategy. An important question is whether the acquis communautaire will be used to define the baseline for the calculation of emission reductions from JI projects. A problem is that the grace periods for several environmental sectors differ considerably among countries. The EU should help accession countries to establish a predictable legal framework for JI preventing in this way the current legal uncertainty regarding JI procedures. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd.