Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI): Spearheaded the formation of the successful RGGI cap - and - trade program among northeast and mid-Atlantic states, led effort to reduce RGGI's
carbon emission cap by 45 percent in 2014, and recently called for an additional cap reduction of at least 30 percent between 2020 and 2030.
Not exact matches
One recommendation
by the alliance takes aim at Ontario government energy policy that could also double as climate policy, as the province has curtailed greenhouse gas
emissions coming from the electricity sector
by closing coal - fired power plants, invested in costly solar and wind energy projects, and instituted a
cap - and - trade system that requires businesses to buy permits to cover their
carbon emissions.
Under the Alberta
carbon emissions cap, oil sands production will be allowed to grow
by 53 per cent above 2014 levels.
Nine Mid-Atlantic and New England states have agreed to cut power plant greenhouse gas
emissions across the region
by 65 percent
by 2030 through the nation's first
cap - and - trade program to reduce
carbon contributing to global climate change.
It had a near - miss for
capping carbon emissions after the House passed the «American Clean Energy and Security Act»
by a narrow vote of 219 - 212 in June 2009, only to see it dissolve in the Senate controlled
by Democrats a year later.
So companies in the developed world have an annual limit on the level of greenhouse gas
emissions they can produce, and if they exceed their
cap, they can purchase credits generated
by the
emission reduction projects or low -
carbon technologies in developing countries.
Why trading trumps
carbon taxes
Cap and trade entered China's political agenda in 2009, when the government here promised a 40 to 45 percent cut in its
emissions per unit of economic output
by 2020 against 2005 levels.
Energy Both John McCain and Barack Obama have called for a
cap - and - trade system to cut
carbon emissions, although Obama's proposed reduction (80 percent from 1990 levels
by 2050) is larger than McCain's (65 percent).
«It'd be about four times larger in terms of the amount of CO2
emissions from the facilities that are [currently] covered, and it'd be
by far the largest
cap - and - trade system in the world,» said Larry Goulder, an economist at Stanford University who has organized meetings of
carbon market architects in both China and California.
Some economists believe a simple tax on greenhouse gas
emissions makes more sense than the elaborate
cap - and - trade regime for
carbon dioxide envisioned
by Evolution and other players in the nascent market.
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a mandatory
cap - and - trade
carbon market encompassing 10 Northeast and mid-Atlantic states, requires electricity producers to reduce
carbon dioxide
emissions by 10 percent
by 2018.
Instead of regulating
carbon at the many smokestacks where
emissions occur, the group recommends regulating
by cap - and - trade permits directed «upstream» at the wellheads, mine mouths, and import points where oil, coal, and natural gas enter the economy.
CERs are the most heavily traded
carbon offset credit in the world, used mostly
by European companies to keep their greenhouse gas
emissions levels beneath a government - mandated
cap.
The
cap - and - trade program has been selling
carbon allowances since 2012 under California's economywide ceiling on 1990
emissions levels
by 2020.
Also, the Clean Power Plan, proposed
by the EPA in June 2014, seeks to
cap carbon dioxide
emissions from power plants and drive investment in renewable energy.
Moreover, to level the playing field and allow all new innovations to compete, you should support a
cap on CO2
emissions to limit global warming or accomplish the same
by placing a tax on
carbon emissions.
Price
carbon emissions through
cap - and - trade legislation or
by imposing a
carbon tax?
From Barack Obama's website: Obama supports implementation of a market - based
cap - and - trade system to reduce
carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary: 80 percent below 1990 levels
by 2050.
Harvard's Rob Stavins has criticized the Post-Partisan Power proposal co-authored
by Brookings, A.E.I., and Breakthrough scholars claiming we are proposing a technology - only approach, that pricing
carbon is the only way to reduce
emissions, and that
cap and trade is still politically viable.
We will
cap emissions according to specific goals, measuring progress
by reference to past
carbon emissions.
Specifically, I will implement a market - based
cap - and - trade system to reduce
carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary: 80 percent below 1990 levels
by 2050.
In his book, Lomborg proposes that a modest
carbon tax could pay for all of this work at a fraction the cost of a
cap on
emissions of greenhouse gases, the approach pursued
by Europe under the Kyoto Protocol (and rejected in the United States).
Anti-regulatory blogs and commentators and the McCain - Palin campaign made a push to publicize a 10 - month - old comment
by Senator Barack Obama about the high cost of coal burning if and when a hard
cap is set for
carbon dioxide
emissions.
That's the optimistic opinion put forth
by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi — she issued that statement as Congress set about the «mother of all climate weeks» to debate revolutionary climate and energy legislation that could potentially land the US a
cap and trade system to cut nationwide
carbon emissions.
In other words, the
cap and trade has been responsible for Europe reducing its
carbon emissions by 2.5 - 5 % annually.
More importantly, the Climate Security Act of 2007 (Lieberman / Warner bill) is currently in mark - up and exempts co-ops from the
cap - and - trade decreasing
carbon allocations
by setting their
emissions at 2006 levels until 2035 and then allowing them to sell or trade their
emission credits.
The China News Service, a state - run news agency, also reported on the comments made
by Professor He at the Tsinghua - Harvard forum but made no mention of proposals for a quantitative
cap on
carbon dioxide
emissions.
On the policy side, Mr. Gore remains in the all - of - the - above camp, seeking both a tax on
carbon dioxide
emissions and endorsing, somewhat guardedly, the «
cap and trade» architecture favored
by congressional Democrats and many large environmental groups.
Price
carbon emissions through
cap - and - trade legislation or
by imposing a
carbon tax?
Separate
caps on
carbon emissions by the electric utilities and manufacturing sectors, which would have to buy permits to pollute from the federal government.
An economy - wide
cap on
carbon emissions that would begin in 2012, with a target of reducing
carbon pollution 17 percent
by 2020 and 80 percent
by 2050.
The Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois called for a mandatory national
cap on
carbon emissions, as well as an investment of $ 150 billion over 10 years to develop new energy resources, in order to reduce the country's appetite for foreign oil
by 35 percent
by 2030.
Last year, the nine states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)
cap - and - trade program for
carbon dioxide (CO2) decided to lower the program's
emissions cap by 45 % starting in 2014.
A core aim of the group was to encourage Australian political leaders to consider
carbon trading where industry pollution is
capped and there are financial incentives to reduce
emissions and other measures including a target to reduce greenhouse gases
by 60 per cent
by 2050.
For example, nine states in the Northeast, as part of a regional
cap - and - trade program that sets overall limits on
carbon and then allows states to trade permits to pollute, have committed to cut
emissions by 45 percent during the next year and
by another 2.5 percent a year after that until 2020.
Luntz insists that Americans would support a
cap on
carbon emissions — 80 percent of Dems, but also 43 percent of Republicans he surveyed are either definitely or pretty sure climate change is a problem that's caused in part
by humans.
Probably the biggest grievance environmental justice advocates had with AB 398, according to Bill Magavern, policy director of the Coalition for Clean Air, is a specific provision that prohibits California's Air Resources Board and local air districts from directly regulating
carbon emissions by sources that are also subject to the state's
cap - and - trade program.
Yet RGGI hasn't induced a robust enough
carbon price to drive down
emissions, primarily because the initial
emissions «
cap» was set 45 % higher than actual
emissions by the covered power plants and wasn't tightened enough to actually «bind» until four years later.
Those who believe they can profit from
carbon credits because polluters with
emission caps will pay for them point to the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism, which allows parties to meet their
emission reduction obligations
by paying developing countries to grow forests onto land cleared long ago.
And for China, where EDF has been working for 20 years, it means,
by 2020,
capping half of the nation's
carbon emissions, improving energy efficiency
by 25 percent and shifting the country's energy mix to one - third renewable energy, natural gas and nuclear — up from 15 percent in 2013.
The Independent Online reports that an unprecedented coalition of blue - chip US companies and environmental lobby groups will urge President Bush next week to get serious about global warming, calling for
caps on
carbon dioxide
emissions that would cut greenhouse gases
by 10 - 30 per cent over 15 years.
Roughly two - thirds of covered
emissions are covered
by a
cap - and - trade program, about one - third are covered
by a
carbon tax, and about one - quarter of the jurisdictions use both.
Legislation to
cap carbon emissions, though supported
by the administration, is struggling to get through Congress.
This trend was reinforced
by the reciprocal climate deal that China struck with the Obama administration in November, under which China agreed to peak its
carbon dioxide
emissions by 2030 and put a
cap on coal burning
by 2020.
For instance, a government decree that all new vehicles meet a certain efficiency standard can not be circumvented
by cutting
emissions somewhere else;
by contrast, both
carbon taxes and
cap - and - trade schemes leave it up to firms and individuals to choose where to cut
emissions.
The study at issue is a 2011 report in which Nisbet analyzed claims
by some environmentalists that they lost the political battle over creating a federal
cap - and - trade tax on
carbon dioxide
emissions because environmentalists were outgunned; that is, because industry associations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce marshalled resources far beyond those of
cap - and - trade's supporters.
The numbers suggest it may be more difficult for China to
cap its
carbon emissions by 2030, as pledged
by President Xi Jingping, generating much optimism last year.
Indeed, today we are not even considering an actual U.S.
carbon tax, which is preferred
by almost all academic economists for this purpose, but instead a
cap - and - trade system (i.e.,
emissions rationing) because it is more politically palatable to hide the costs to consumers this way.
The resistance
by Lincoln and her Senate colleagues undercuts President Barack Obama's effort to win passage of legislation that would
cap carbon dioxide
emissions and establish a market for trading pollution allowances, said Peter Molinaro, the head of government affairs for Midland, Michigan - based Dow Chemical Co., which supports the measure.
Instead, they demanded an unworkable framework of legally binding international
emissions targets, influenced and supported
by climate hawks who demanded a laser focus on increasing renewable deployment and energy efficiency, mainly through market mechanisms such as
cap - and - trade and
carbon taxes.