The goal of the research project was to develop a ready-to-run SO2 certicificate model with respect to the implementation of the Oslo objectives in the EU-15. The power supply industry in the EU-15 was chosen as the subject group of the certificate policy as they sign for rougly one half of overall emisssions in these countries. A first, fundamental unit of study meant the critical assessment of the theoretical underpinnings of the cerificate strategy, thereby comprising environmental, economic and legal perspectives. Due to the specific environemtal charactersitics of the SO2 pollutant, one focus was vested in the analysis of spatially discriminating certificate models as well as their fitness regardnig the European implementatiojn framework. Another, second unit of study concerned an appraisal of the United States´ certificate based anti-pollution strategies (being planned or already having been implemented at that time, such as the ARP and RECLAIM program). The third unit explicitly concerned the actual framework conditions to be taken into account on the European as well as the respective national levels.Moreover, an overview was included with respect to the technological potentials of reducing SO2 emissions ammong the power supply industry. Thus, the conceptional stage based on the preceding analyses was able to comprehensively address the central elements of the envisioned certificate policy, including the design of the certificates, the procedural choice regarding their primary allocation, the implementation of the respective markets for bilateral trade, and measures against hot spot formation. The empirical assessment of the macroeconomic and sectoral effects of the according SO2 certificate policy was derived from this conceptual foundation for the EU member states. In particular, the effects of an EU-wide as well as national certificate system on volumes and prices was were simulated and compared using a general equilibrium model developed by the ZEW in co-operation with other European research institutes. A published report is available in German from Physica, Heidelberg as part of the ZEW Series on Environmental and Resource Economics, Resource Management.