Download or read book Carbon Offsets as a Cost Containment Instrument written by Jieun Kim (S.M.) and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Carbon offset is one type of flexibility mechanism in greenhouse gas emission trading schemes that helps nations meet their emission commitments at lower costs. Carbon offsets take advantage of lower abatement cost opportunities from unregulated sectors and regions, which can be used to offset the emissions from regulated nations and sectors. Carbon offsets can also meet multiple objectives; for example, the Clean Development Mechanism in the Kyoto Protocol encourages Annex I countries to promote low carbon sustainable projects in developing countries in exchange for carbon offsets. Alternatively, the costs under cap-and-trade policies are subjected to uncertainties due to uncertainties about technology, energy markets, and emissions. There are several cost-containment instruments to address cost uncertainties, such as banking, borrowing, safety valve, and allowance reserves. Although carbon offsets are verified to reduce expected compliance costs by providing a surplus of cheap allowances that can be used by Annex I countries to help meet their commitments, they have yet to be studied as a cost-containment instrument. Carbon offsets could potentially be a cost-containment instrument as purchasing carbon offsets during instances of high carbon price volatility could potentially provide some relief from high prices. This paper analyzes the effect of carbon offsets on carbon prices, specifically under carbon price uncertainty. I use carbon offsets from abatement activities that reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) as a case study example. My results show that carbon offsets reduce upside costs and thus can be an alternative cost-containment instrument, but cost-effectiveness can be limited by supply uncertainties, offset purchasing restrictions, emission target stringency and competition over demand. Carbon offsets, such as REDD, can serve as a flexibility instrument for developed nations, encourage global participation in reducing GHG emissions, and provide sustainable development support to developing nations.

Download or read book A Comparison of Cost containment Instruments for US Carbon Reduction Policies written by Lisa Michelle Jakobovits and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A cap-and-trade program, as is used in the European Trading Scheme, is currently the most widely discussed method in the US for reducing greenhouse gases. A basic cap-and-trade program operates by mandating a fixed level of emissions for a given period, issuing permits, and then allowing a market for those permits to develop. The resulting market price for emissions permits, and hence the economic impacts of the chosen policy, can only be estimated in advance with a high degree of uncertainty. Many of the current US cap-and-trade proposals contain provisions for cost-containment instruments which reduce the possible range of emissions prices. This paper analyzes the relative effectiveness of three such cost-containment instruments, including a safety valve, an intensity target, and banking and borrowing. The results presented rely on two computable general equilibrium models developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and show the predicted performance of these instruments under a simulated range of economic outcomes.

Download or read book Voluntary Carbon Offsets written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 15 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Businesses and individuals are buying carbon offsets to reduce their "carbon footprint" or to categorize an activity as "carbon neutral." A carbon offset is a measurable avoidance, reduction, or sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) or other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Offsets generally fall within the following four categories: biological sequestration, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and reduction of non-CO2 emissions. In terms of the carbon concentration in the atmosphere, an emission reduction, avoidance, or sequestration is beneficial regardless of where or how it occurs. A credible offset equates to an emission reduction from a direct emission source, such as a smokestack or exhaust pipe. The core issue for carbon offset projects is: do they actually offset emissions generated elsewhere? If the credibility of the voluntary offsets is uncertain, claims of carbon neutrality may be challenged. Evidence suggests that not all offset projects are of equal quality, because they are developed through a range of standards. In the voluntary market, there are no commonly accepted standards. Although some standards are considered stringent, others are less so. At least 30 companies and organizations (domestic and international) sell carbon offsets to individuals or groups in the international, voluntary carbon market. Two recent studies that examined many of the offset sellers found a general correlation between offset price and offset quality. Due to the lack of common standards, some observers have referred to the market as the "wild west." This does not suggest that all carbon offsets are low quality, but that the consumer must necessarily adopt a buyer-beware mentality when purchasing carbon offsets. This places the responsibility on consumers to judge the quality of carbon offsets. The viability of the voluntary offset market may influence future policy decisions regarding climate change mitigation. For example, credible offsets could play an important role, particularly in terms of cost-effectiveness, in an emissions control regime. There is some concern that the range in the quality of voluntary market offsets may damage the overall credibility of carbon offsets. If this occurs, it may affect policy decisions concerning whether or not to include offsets as an option in a mandatory reduction program.

Download or read book Carbon Offsets Reversal Risk and US Climate Policy written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Background: One controversial issue in the larger cap-and-trade debate is the proper use and certification of carbon offsets related to changes in land management. Advocates of an expanded offset supply claim that inclusion of such activities would expand the scope of the program and lower overall compliance costs, while opponents claim that it would weaken the environmental integrity of the program by crediting activities that yield either nonexistent or merely temporary carbon sequestration benefits. Our study starts from the premise that offsets are neither perfect mitigation instruments nor useless "hot air." Results: We show that offsets provide a useful cost containment function, even when there is some threat of reversal, by injecting additional "when-flexibility" into the system. This allows market participants to shift their reduction requirements to periods of lower cost, thereby facilitating attainment of the least-cost time path without jeopardizing the cumulative environmental integrity of the system. By accounting for market conditions in conjunction with reversal risk, we develop a simple offset valuation methodology, taking into account the two most important factors that typically lead offsets to be overvalued or undervalued. Conclusions: The result of this paper is a quantitative "model rule" that could be included in future legislation or used as a basis for active management by a future "carbon fed" or other regulatory authority with jurisdiction over the US carbon market to actively manage allowance prices -- abstract.

Download or read book Handbook of Carbon Offset Programs written by Anja Kollmuss and published by Earthscan. This book was released on 2010 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Greenhouse gas (GHG) offsets have long been promoted as an important element of a comprehensive climate policy approach. Offset programs can reduce the overall cost of achieving a given emission goal by enabling emission reductions to occur where costs are lower. Offsets have the potential to deliver sustainability co-benefits, through technology development and transfer. They can also develop human and institutional capacity for reducing emissions in sectors and locations not included in a cap and trade or a mandatory government policy. However, offsets can pose a risk to the environmental integrity of climate actions, especially if issues surrounding additionality, permanence, leakage, quantification and verification are not adequately addressed. The challenge is to design offset programs and policies that can maximize their potential benefits while minimizing their potential risks. This handbook provides a systematic and comprehensive review of existing offset programs. It looks at what offsets are, how offset mechanisms function, and the successes and pitfalls they have encountered. Coverage includes offset programs across the full swath of applications including mandatory and voluntary systems, government regulated and private markets, carbon offset funds, and accounting and reporting protocols such as the WBCSD/WRI GHG Protocol and ISO 14064. Learning from the successes and failures of these programs will be essential to crafting effective climate policy. This is an essential reference for all regulators, policy makers, business leaders and NGOs concerned with the design and operation of GHG offset programs world-wide. Published with SEI

Download or read book Modeling the Economics of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2011-02-24 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Models are fundamental for estimating the possible costs and effectiveness of different policies for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There is a wide array of models to perform such analysis, differing in the level of technological detail, treatment of technological progress, spatial and sector details, and representation of the interaction of the energy sector to the overall economy and environment. These differences impact model results, including cost estimates. More fundamentally, these models differ as to how they represent fundamental processes that have a large impact on policy analysis-such as how different models represent technological learning and cost reductions that come through increasing production volumes, or how different models represent baseline conditions. Reliable estimates of the costs and potential impacts on the United States economy of various emissions reduction and other mitigation strategies are critical to the development of the federal climate change research and development portfolio. At the request of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Academies organized a workshop, summarized in this volume, to consider some of these types of modeling issues.

Download or read book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster written by Bill Gates and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical—and accessible—plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions—suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.

Download or read book The Green Paradox written by Hans-Werner Sinn and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-02-03 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading economist develops a supply-side approach to fighting climate change that encourages resource owners to leave more of their fossil carbon underground. The Earth is getting warmer. Yet, as Hans-Werner Sinn points out in this provocative book, the dominant policy approach—which aims to curb consumption of fossil energy—has been ineffective. Despite policy makers' efforts to promote alternative energy, impose emission controls on cars, and enforce tough energy-efficiency standards for buildings, the relentlessly rising curve of CO2 output does not show the slightest downward turn. Some proposed solutions are downright harmful: cultivating crops to make biofuels not only contributes to global warming but also uses resources that should be devoted to feeding the world's hungry. In The Green Paradox, Sinn proposes a new, more pragmatic approach based not on regulating the demand for fossil fuels but on controlling the supply. The owners of carbon resources, Sinn explains, are pre-empting future regulation by accelerating the production of fossil energy while they can. This is the “Green Paradox”: expected future reduction in carbon consumption has the effect of accelerating climate change. Sinn suggests a supply-side solution: inducing the owners of carbon resources to leave more of their wealth underground. He proposes the swift introduction of a “Super-Kyoto” system—gathering all consumer countries into a cartel by means of a worldwide, coordinated cap-and-trade system supported by the levying of source taxes on capital income—to spoil the resource owners' appetite for financial assets. Only if we can shift our focus from local demand to worldwide supply policies for reducing carbon emissions, Sinn argues, will we have a chance of staving off climate disaster.

Download or read book Understanding and Analysis The California Air Resources Board Forest Offset Protocol written by Eric Marland and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-03-28 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a product of the initial phase of a broader study evaluating the voluntary and regulatory compliance protocols that are used to account for the contributions of forests in U.S.-based greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation programs. The research presented here is particularly concerned with these protocols’ use of the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data to describe forest conditions, ownership, and management scenarios, and is oriented towards providing regulators and other interested parties with an objective comparison of the options, uncertainties, and opportunities available to offset GHG emissions through forest management. Chapters focus on the protocols for recognizing forest carbon offsets in the California carbon cap-and-trade program, as described in the Compliance Offset Protocol; U.S. Forest Projects (California Air Resources Board, 2011). Readers will discover the protocols used for quantifying the offset of GHG emissions through forest-related project activity. As such, its scope includes a review of the current methods used in voluntary and compliance forest protocols, an evaluation of the metrics used to assign baselines and determine additionality in the forest offset protocols, an examination of key quantitative and qualitative components and assumptions, and a discussion of opportunities for modifying forest offset protocols, in light of the rapidly changing GHG-related policy and regulatory environment. Finally, the report also discusses accounting and policy issues that create potential barriers to participation in the California cap-and-trade program, and overall programmatic additionality in addressing the needs of a mitigation strategy.

Download or read book International Aspects of a Carbon Cap and Trade Program written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Finance and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Climate Change and Select Financial Instruments An Overview of Opportunities and Challenges for Sub Saharan Africa written by Anna Belianska and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2022-11 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is the region in the world most vulnerable to climate change despite its cumulatively emitting the least amount of greenhouse gases. Substantial financing is urgently needed across the economy—for governments, businesses, and households—to support climate change adaptation and mitigation, which are critical for advancing resilient and green economic development as well as meeting commitments under the Paris Agreement. Given the immensity of SSA’s other development needs, this financing must be in addition to existing commitments on development finance. There are many potential ways to raise financing to meet adaptation and mitigation needs, spanning from domestic revenue mobilization to various forms of international private financing. Against this backdrop, SSA policymakers and stakeholders are exploring sources of financing for climate action that countries may not have used substantially in the past. This Staff Climate Note presents some basic information on opportunities and challenges associated with these financing instruments.

Download or read book Carbon Markets in a Climate Changing Capitalism written by Gareth Bryant and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-21 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The promise of harnessing market forces to combat climate change has been unsettled by low carbon prices, financial losses, and ongoing controversies in global carbon markets. And yet governments around the world remain committed to market-based solutions to bring down greenhouse gas emissions. This book discusses what went wrong with the marketisation of climate change and what this means for the future of action on climate change. The book explores the co-production of capitalism and climate change by developing new understandings of relationships between the appropriation, commodification and capitalisation of nature. The book reveals contradictions in carbon markets for addressing climate change as a socio-ecological, economic and political crisis, and points towards more targeted and democratic policies to combat climate change. This book will appeal to students, researchers, policy makers and campaigners who are interested in climate change and climate policy, and the political economy of capitalism and the environment.

Download or read book Instruments for Climate Policy written by Johan Albrecht and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'This book will be invaluable both to researchers wanting to understand latest developments in theory and practice, and to those in the policy process wishing to design and implement climate change policies using the flexibility mechanisms.' - Frank Convery, University College Dublin, Ireland The Kyoto Protocol introduced international flexible mechanisms into climate policy and since then, the design and most effective use of flexible instruments have become key areas for climate policy research. Instruments for Climate Policy focuses on economic and political aspects related to the recent proposals and the debate on limits in flexibility, and discusses EU and US perspectives on climate policy instruments and strategies.

Download or read book Global Carbon Pricing written by Peter Cramton and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2017-06-16 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why the traditional “pledge and review” climate agreements have failed, and how carbon pricing, based on trust and reciprocity, could succeed. After twenty-five years of failure, climate negotiations continue to use a “pledge and review” approach: countries pledge (almost anything), subject to (unenforced) review. This approach ignores everything we know about human cooperation. In this book, leading economists describe an alternate model for climate agreements, drawing on the work of the late Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom and others. They show that a “common commitment” scheme is more effective than an “individual commitment” scheme; the latter depends on altruism while the former involves reciprocity (“we will if you will”). The contributors propose that global carbon pricing is the best candidate for a reciprocal common commitment in climate negotiations. Each country would commit to placing charges on carbon emissions sufficient to match an agreed global price formula. The contributors show that carbon pricing would facilitate negotiations and enforcement, improve efficiency and flexibility, and make other climate policies more effective. Additionally, they analyze the failings of the 2015 Paris climate conference. Contributors Richard N. Cooper, Peter Cramton, Ottmar Edenhofer, Christian Gollier, Éloi Laurent, David JC MacKay, William Nordhaus, Axel Ockenfels, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Steven Stoft, Jean Tirole, Martin L. Weitzman

Download or read book China s Way to Carbon Emissions Reduction written by Ying Shen and published by Kluwer Law International B.V.. This book was released on 2015-08-18 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now that the most recent scientific estimates have shown that China has become the world's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, China's influence on the world's environment and sustainable development highlights the importance of tailoring Chinese climate change law to conform with the requirements of international conventions and agreements on climate change. This thorough analysis, based on an examination of climate status, legal background, and current regulatory systems in China, examines the potential role of different policy instruments in reducing carbon emissions in order to find an appropriate choice for China, and recommends approaches to key issues for relevant authorities. The author conducts a comprehensive and in-depth study on the three mainstream environmental policy instruments used to control carbon emissions – the cap-and-trade system, the carbon tax, and command-and- control regulations – in a Chinese context. She reviews China's current policies, and elucidates how the issues of climate change and global warming call for social, environmental, economic, and legal reforms in China, especially in the areas of administrative law and property rights law. Among the issues and topics covered are the following: - key issues on designing and implementing each of the three policy instruments; - the choice of regulatory instruments for carbon emissions reduction in a socialist market economy based on the discussion of market failure and government failure theories; - legal challenges from China's current administrative legislation and the definition of carbon emissions entitlements; - practical effect of China's climate change policy at the national, provincial, and local levels; - effectiveness of China's implementation of its international obligations; - lessons learned from schemes implemented in the United States and Australia; - comparison of China's seven regional pilot emissions trading scheme (ETS) programmes with the well-established EU ETS; - linkage between China's ETS and other ETSs from a global perspective; and - future direction of an emerging carbon market in China. The analysis assesses the critical costs and benefits of each approach in the context of selected case studies, taking legal literature in the field fully into account. Given that the Chinese government is taking steps to reduce emissions by altering energy production and usage and is signalling a willingness to make similar commitments in a multilateral treaty, it is very timely and important for lawmakers and scholars, within and outside China, to think about new and appropriate regulatory measures to respond to the crisis and plan for a sustainable future. This study provides not only a useful benchmark for both China and other countries in formulating initiatives on enhancing climate protection, but also details the global implications for governments and for international organizations concerned with the understanding between China and the rest of the world in the context of climate change mitigation.

Download or read book Managing Climate Risk in the U S Financial System written by Leonardo Martinez-Diaz and published by U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission . This book was released on 2020-09-09 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication serves as a roadmap for exploring and managing climate risk in the U.S. financial system. It is the first major climate publication by a U.S. financial regulator. The central message is that U.S. financial regulators must recognize that climate change poses serious emerging risks to the U.S. financial system, and they should move urgently and decisively to measure, understand, and address these risks. Achieving this goal calls for strengthening regulators’ capabilities, expertise, and data and tools to better monitor, analyze, and quantify climate risks. It calls for working closely with the private sector to ensure that financial institutions and market participants do the same. And it calls for policy and regulatory choices that are flexible, open-ended, and adaptable to new information about climate change and its risks, based on close and iterative dialogue with the private sector. At the same time, the financial community should not simply be reactive—it should provide solutions. Regulators should recognize that the financial system can itself be a catalyst for investments that accelerate economic resilience and the transition to a net-zero emissions economy. Financial innovations, in the form of new financial products, services, and technologies, can help the U.S. economy better manage climate risk and help channel more capital into technologies essential for the transition. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5247742

Download or read book Hearing to Review the Future of Our Nation s Forests written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Agriculture. Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition, and Forestry and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: