Regulatory races: emission rules spread.

• Author: Bailey, Ronald
• Position: Citings - Brief article

THE CONVENTIONAL wisdom when it comes to environmental standards is that globalization will produce a race to the bottom as countries stint on regulations to undercut their competitors. A new study suggests there has in fact been a race to the top, at least when it comes to automobile emissions.

Emory University environmental sciences professor Eri Saikawa notes in the January 2013 issue of the journal Worm Politics, the United States in 1970 was the first country to adopt automobile emission standards to reduce carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbons. Soon thereafter Japan and European Union countries adopted similar regulations. Saikawa reports that "65 countries...