Peter Wood’s Recent Comments

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  It is not healthy if the Senate is as much of an old boys club as the article suggests. My understanding Boxer did some good work on the scheme - improving the Market Stability Reserve to reduce the perceived likelihood that it will be too costly at the same time as improving the environmental effectiveness by increasing the floor price.On What does recent Senate drama on the climate bill mean? Peak Boxer posted 1 week ago 7 Responses

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  One thing that concerns me is the lack of funding for international adaptation. As far as I can tell, Kerry-Boxer only allocates 0.25 percent of allowances for international adaptation (p. 638). This is significantly less than the 1 to 4 percent of allowances in the Waxman-Markey Bill. This will make an international agreement much more difficult.On The Kerry-Boxer bill is not "more ambitious" than Waxman-Markey posted 3 weeks, 4 days ago 2 Responses

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  If Kerry-Boxer passes the Senate, its hard to say what the final joint bill will look like. Some things Boxer-Kerry does a little bit better are the price floor, which is slightly higher; and the amount of permits going into the "Market Stability Reserve", 2% of all permits between 2012 and 2019 instead of 1%. Making methane into an offset is pretty dodgy - it means that there's quite a bit of a perverse incentive to mine open cut gassy coal mines. And unfortunately they will probably do exactly the same thing with the Australian legislation.On The Kerry-Boxer bill is not "more ambitious" than Waxman-Markey posted 3 weeks, 6 days ago 2 Responses

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  There are several ways that allowances can be allocated in such a way that emissions reductions are increased: Firstly, if allowances are added to the 'Market Stability Reserve', emissions will be reduced if the carbon price is low. Secondly, if allowances are used to fund emission reductions for sectors that are not covered by the scheme, such as land use and agriculture, then there will be additional reductions. The alternative option, domestic offsets, does not have this advantage and adds risks to the credibility of the scheme if they are not well regulated. But global warming is a global problem, so there is a third way that allocations can be used that it important: they can be used to fund adaptation in developing countries. All three of the above forms of allocation should be increased, compared to the Waxman-Markey bill.On Bingaman hearing on pollution allowance allocation; progressive greens beware posted 1 month ago 17 Responses

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  The CDM, REDD, and cap-and-trade are all different mechanisms and it is incorrect to lump them all together under the banner of "carbon trading". Yes there are problems with the CDM, and we don't know how REDD will pan out but that does not imply that a cap-and-trade approach is automatically bad. It is a completely different thing. It is quite possible to have a cap-and-trade scheme without any linkage to offsets, CDM credits or REDD mechanisms. A cap-and-trade scheme places a price on carbon by setting the quantity of emissions and allocating or auctioning licences. It has absolutely nothing at all to do with "privatizing the air". The fact is it will be politically impossible and economically difficult to achieve the required emissions reductions without some price on carbon. If we don't have a price on carbon then all we are left with is a bunch of ad hoc measures and steadily increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. Having a carbon price is not the solution to all of our problems, but it is a good start. The rhetoric of "false solutions" takes us nowhere. I'm in agreement with Paul Krugman when he says that opposition to a carbon price because it is "market based" is not a case of the perfect being the enemy of the good, it’s a case of the perfect being an enemy of the planet.On Calling all radicals: Unite for Kerry-Boxer posted 1 month ago 32 Responses