Page 532 - Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

1 Government establishes cap on emissions from all plants 3 Plant B fails to cut emissions
2 Plant A succeeds
in cutting emissions

Allowances

$$$$$

4 Plant A profits from selling allowances to Plant B

Figure 18.31 A cap-and-trade emissions trading system harnesses the power of market capital-

ism to achieve the goal of reducing emissions. In such a system, 1 government first sets an overall cap
on emissions. As polluting facilities respond, some will have better success reducing emissions than others. In

this figure, 2 Plant A succeeds in cutting its emissions well below the cap, whereas 3 Plant B fails to cut its

emissions at all. As a result, 4 Plant B pays money to Plant A to purchase allowances that Plant A is no longer
using. Plant A profits from this sale, and the government cap is met, reducing pollution overall. Over time, the
cap can be progressively lowered to achieve further emissions cuts.
lessons for how to set up effective and sustainable programs WEIGHING THE ISSUES
in the future. One lesson is that in the long run, permits will be
valuable and the market will work only if government policies CAP-AND-TRADE OR A CARBON TAx? What advantages and
are in place to limit emissions. disadvantages do you see in using a cap-and-trade system to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions? What pros and cons do
you see in using carbon taxes to achieve this goal? What do
Carbon taxes are another option you think of the idea of a “fee-and-dividend” program? If you
were a U.S. senator, what type of policy would you support
As the world’s carbon trading markets show mixed results early in order to address emissions in the United States, and why?
in their growth, some economists, scientists, and policymakers
are saying that cap-and-trade systems are not effective enough,
don’t work quickly enough, or leave too much to chance. Many
of these critics would prefer that governments enact a carbon Carbon offsets are popular
tax instead. In this approach, governments charge polluters a
fee for each unit of greenhouse gases they emit. This gives pol- Emissions trading programs generally allow participants to
luters a financial incentive to reduce emissions. buy carbon offsets, voluntary payments intended to enable
Such a tax can be implemented in various ways; it can be another entity to help reduce the emissions that one is unable
charged to energy producers, utilities, or motor vehicle users, to reduce. The payment thus offsets one’s own emissions. For
and it can be scaled according to energy efficiency. Carbon example, a coal-burning power plant could pay a reforestation
taxes of various types have so far been introduced in roughly project to plant trees that will soak up as much carbon dioxide
20 nations. In the United States, Boulder, Colorado, imple- as the coal plant emits. Or a university could fund the develop-
mented a tax on electricity consumption, and Montgomery ment of clean and renewable energy projects to make up for
County, Maryland, is taxing polluting power plants. fossil fuel energy the university uses. Carbon offsets have fast
The downside of a carbon tax is that most polluters sim- become popular among utilities, businesses, universities, gov-
ply pass the cost along to consumers by charging higher prices ernments, and individuals trying to achieve carbon-neutrality, CHAPTER 18 • Glob al Cli M aT e Chan G e
for the products or services they sell. Proponents of carbon a condition in which no net carbon is emitted.
taxes have responded by proposing an approach called fee- In principle, carbon offsets seem a great idea, but rigorous
and-dividend. In this approach, funds from the carbon tax, oversight is needed to make sure that the offset money actu-
or “fee,” paid to government by polluters are transferred as a ally accomplishes what it is intended for. Offsets are effective
tax refund, or “dividend,” to taxpayers. This way, if polluters only if they fund emissions reductions that would not occur
pass their costs along to consumers, those consumers will be otherwise. And because trees can soak up only so much car-
reimbursed for those costs by the tax refund they receive. In bon dioxide, at some point our ability to reduce emissions by
theory, the system should provide polluters a financial incen- funding reforestation could reach its limit. Efforts to create
tive to reduce emissions while imposing no financial burden a transparent and enforceable system for verifying the effec-
on taxpayers. tiveness of offsets are ongoing. If these efforts succeed, then 531

M18_WITH7428_05_SE_C18.indd 531 12/12/14 4:05 PM