In the July 1996 issue of News and Analysis, Richard Blaustein discussed the concept of joint implementation, a potentially important provision of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC).¹ In his Dialogue, the author summarized the history of joint implementation, the current debate over its future role as a mechanism for international climate-change mitigation, and some of its potential implications for private-sector companies here in the United States.

Joint implementation is one element of an increasingly complex framework that can legitimately be characterized as a nascent regulatory regime aimed at mitigating the threat of climate change.² As the scientific basis for more decisive policy action continues to firm, voluntary policy measures that are already in place in many countries may soon be supplemented by a legally binding international emissions-reduction protocol intended to "prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system."³ That evolution toward this new regime has been by no means steady and even should be no surprise, given the technical characteristics of climate change as a public policy issue.