Ontario and Qubec start cap and trade scheme.

Treehugger today picked up a story about Ontario and Qubec who are jointly moving ahead with a ghg emission cap and trade scheme. The significance of this is twofold, influence and direct impact. In terms of influence we are all hoping that the Canadian govornment will get its act together and put a federal system together; also Canada is one of the few countries that feature highly in the American conciousness so hopefully this will add futher to the pressure on US congressmen to implement a system soon. Lets just hope that in both cases we get progress soon, and we get progress worthy of the title.

In terms of direct impact Ontario and Qubec are only two of 13 provences but they have 60% of the population so it’s more than a purely symbolic scheme. However when Alberta is convered by such a scheme the rest of the world will rest a little easier; there is a lot of very dirty carbon intensive oil shale in Alberta and it needs to stay in the ground.

tWP75: The Carbon Taxman

The latest episode of TheWatt Podcast is out now. (30MB, MP3)

Panel discussion podcast with Mark Seall, Rod Adams, Robb Worthington and Ben. Topics include carbon taxes vs cap-and-trade policies, OECD Environmental Outlook, nuclear power in the UK, carbon limits on cars in the EU, $106/bbl oil.

Panelists:

Mark Seall – Talk Climate Change and Green Options

Rod Adams – The Atomic Show Podcast and Atomic Insights

Robb Worthington – Sustainable Living

Ben Kenney – theWatt

Topics/Show Notes:

A good carbon tax/cap-and-trade discussion

2008 OECD Environmental
Outlook – How much will it cost to address today’s key environmental problems?

Showdown between France and Germany: Carbon emission limits on cars in
the EU

UK ‘to seek more nuclear power’,

Nobel winner: Nuke power
must be part of the equation

Oil prices/OPEC giving Bush some tough love

Cap and Trade, Green Tax Switch, Ineqaulity and International Climate Funds.

A short time back i was asked to contribute one simple policy to a website called ‘day one’ that is seeking to concentrate suggestions for day one of the next US presidency.

My suggestion was:

“I suggested taxing pollution more and income less. Income tax would be
reduced most at the lower levels of income to overcome the regressive nature of a carbon tax. This ‘green tax switch’is one no brainer that every country
should adopt in combination with other measures.”

After all my recent reading and video watching on ineqaulity recently I think it’s fair to say that i would go beyond simply balancing the regressive nature of a carbon tax with the progressive nature of income tax cuts for the poor. I would create a dramatically progresive system to counterbalance both structural economic feature disadvantaging the poor and the current tax system that steals from the poor to give to the rich.

I would like to thank Christopher Mitchel for passing on this link to me. The New Rules Project sketches out a cap and trade scheme based on an auction of permits with the revenues being recycled into the economy as suggested be me for a carbon tax.

It really dosent matter to me if this scheme is followed or a carbon tax approach is used for funding tax cuts for the poor. What i would say is that both a carbon tax and a cap and trade scheme are needed, and one of them will need to fund projects agreed on internationally. Adaptation and clean development in the global south require significant revenues. Politicians have proven appauling at looking through their domestic budgets and finding a little slack so they can fullfil their international responsibilities. However the EU ETS and some US cap and trade schemes are considering a hypothication of auction revenues for international commitments. I think that this is sensible and that as cap and trade systems are likely to all function under a post-kyoto framework it seems logical if not absolutely nessicary that they provide the funds and that a revenues neutral but progresive carbon tax recycling schemes can be a purely national matter.

Cap and Trade systems explained in detail: Collaboration by WRI, Pew

The EU has had an emissions trading scheme for some time, the first revision was absurdly overallocated so the price of credits fell through the floor. We will have and wait to see how this develops, one of the major changes going forward is the movement towards a auction based system. The system is also becoming broader. With the US likely to adopt a similar system soon it’s important to take a look at what works and what dosent. The New America Foundation, the Pew Centre for Global Climate Change and the World Resources Institute have produced a series of 10 (6 currently available) detailed videos looking at every aspect of effective emissions regulation.

Video:

Webinar 1: Introduction to Cap-and-Trade Programs

Moderator: Sonia Hamel, New America Foundation
Speakers: Judi Greenwald (Pew Center), Franz Litz (World Resources Institute)

Webinar 2: Program Scope and Point of Regulation

Moderator: Franz Litz (World Resources Institute)
Speaker: Judi Greenwald (Pew Center)

Webinar 3: Electricity Sector Options

Moderator: Franz Litz (World Resources Institute)
Speakers: Richard Cowart (Regulatory Assistance Project),
Dallas Burtraw (Resources for the Future)

Webinar 4: Cap-and-Trade Design Issues in Depth, Part I: Lessons from the US/Canadian Acid Rain SO2 and NOx Trading Programs

Moderator: Judi Greenwald (Pew Center)
Speakers: Brian McLean (U.S. EPA),
Denny Ellerman (MIT),
John Hutchison (Ontario)

Webinar 5: Cap-and-Trade Design Issues In-Depth, Part II: Lessons from the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and the Northeast Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)

Moderator: Franz Litz (World Resources Institute)
Speakers: Peter Zapfel (The European Commission), Chris Sherry (New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection & RGGI*)

Webinar 6: Design Elements in current Federal Cap-and-Trade Proposals

Moderator: Judi Greenwald (Pew Center)
Speakers: David McIntosh (Senator Lieberman’s Office), Lorie Schmidt, Counsel, Energy and Commerce Committee, US House of Representatives

>Still to come

Webinar 7: Distributing Allowances

Moderator: Franz Litz (World Resources Institute)
Speakers: Christopher Nelson (Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection*), Jill Duggan (United Kingdom, DEFRA), Kelley Kizzier (Ireland, EPA)

Webinar 8: Offsets

Moderator: Judi Greenwald (Pew Center)
Speakers: Mike Burnett (The Climate Trust), Chris Sherry (New Jersey DEP)

Webinar 9: Linking Cap-and-Trade Programs

Moderator: Sonia Hamel (New America Foundation)
Speakers: Jonathan Pershing (World Resources Institute), Damien Meadows (European Commission*)

Webinar 10: Emissions Trading Market Fundamentals

Moderator: Franz Litz (World Resources Institute)
Speakers: Olivia Hartridge (Morgan Stanley*), Gia Schneider (Credit Suisse*)