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IEA
See International Energy Agency.
IGO
See Intergovernmental Organization.
Implementation
Implementation refers to the actions (legislation or regulations, judicial decrees,
or other actions) that governments take to translate international accords into
domestic law and policy. It includes those events and activities that occur
after the issuing of authoritative public policy directives, which include the
effort to administer and the substantive impacts on people and events. It is
important to distinguish between the legal implementation of international commitments
(in national law) and the effective implementation (measures that induce changes
in the behaviour of target groups). Compliance is a matter of whether
and to what extent countries do adhere to the provisions of the accord. Compliance
focuses not only on whether implementing measures are in effect, but also on
whether there is compliance with the implementing actions. Compliance measures
the degree to which the actors whose behaviour is targeted by the agreement,
whether they be local government units, corporations, organizations, or individuals,
conform to the implementing measures and obligations.
Implementation costs
Costs involved in the implementation of mitigation options. These
costs are associated with the necessary institutional changes, information requirements,
market size, opportunities for technology gain and
learning, and economic incentives needed (grants, subsidies, and taxes).
Income elasticity
The percentage change in the quantity of demand for a good or service, given
a 1% change in income.
Industrial ecology
The set of relationships of a particular industry with its environment; often
refers to the conscious planning of industrial processes so as to minimize their
negative interference with the surrounding environment (e.g., by heat and materials
cascading).
Industrialization
The conversion of a society from one based on manual labour to one based on
the application of mechanical devices.
Inertia
Property by which matter continues in its existing state of rest or uniform
motion in a straight line, unless that state is changed by external force. In
the context of climate change mitigation, it is associated with
different forms of capital (e.g., physical man-made capital, natural capital,
and social non-physical capital, including institutions, regulations, and norms).
Infrastructure
The basic installations and facilities upon which the operation and growth of
a community depend, such as roads, schools, electric, gas and water utilities,
transportation, and communications systems.
Integrated assessment
A method of analysis that combines results and models from the physical, biological,
economic, and social sciences, and the interactions between these components,
in a consistent framework to evaluate the status and the consequences of environmental
change and the policy responses to it.
Interaction effect
The result or consequence of the interaction of climate change
policy instruments with existing domestic tax systems, including both cost-increasing
tax interaction and cost-reducing revenue-recycling effect. The former reflects
the impact that greenhouse gas policies can have on the functioning
of labour and capital markets through their effects on real wages and the real
return to capital. By restricting the allowable greenhouse gas emissions,
permits, regulations, or a carbon tax raise the costs of production
and the prices of output, thus reducing the real return to labour and capital.
For policies that raise revenue for the government, carbon taxes and
auctioned permits, the revenues can be recycled to reduce existing distortionary
taxes. See also double dividend.
Intergovernmental Organization (IGO)
Organizations constituted of governments. Examples include the World Bank, the
Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International
Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC), and other UN and regional organizations. The Climate Convention
allows accreditation of these IGOs to attend the negotiating sessions.
International emissions/carbon/energy tax
See emissions tax.
International Energy Agency (IEA)
Paris-based energy forum established in 1974. It is linked with the Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to enable member countries
to take joint measures to meet oil supply emergencies, to share energy information,
to co-ordinate their energy policies, and to co-operate in the development of
rational energy programmes.
International product and/or technology standards
See Standards.
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