President Obama has warned against any provision in the climate bill that imposes trade restrictions or penalities on countries that do not accept limits on global warming pollution. He commented that while the global economy was in recession that "we have to be very careful about sending any protectionist signals out there."
The question of penalities or tarriffs is linked with the debate about the costs of emissions reduction schemes in the economy, job losses and the ntion of carbon leakage. Opponents of emssions reduction schemes argue that the costs will be too high and will result in jobs being lost to the developing world where environmental regulation is weak and emissions reduction schemes may not even exist.
