Grist | Topics | 8 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 8 of 8
Headline	Author	Published	Section
Markets vs. emission reductions Why secondary carbon markets should be minimized in climate legislation	Gar Lipow	29 Apr 2008	Gristmill
It is fine and necessary to put a price on carbon, via either a carbon tax or 100 percent auctioned cap-and-trade permits. But in the latter case, when those permits are not sold directly to polluters but are released into a secondary market (either via auctioning or, worse, via giveaways), those markets tend to prioritize maintaining their own existence over reducing emissions. In short, a price is fine; an actual market is not. Part of this is that creating such marke ...
Topics: business, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate (all these topics)

Let me boil it down for you ... When additionality always matters	Gar Lipow	01 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Sean Casten and Adam Stein have been discussing when it is important that a carbon savings be additional -- that is, when it is important that we not pay for a saving that would have happened anyway. You guys are making this way more complicated than it needs to be. Iron-clad additionality is critical when you're selling a permission for someone else to pollute. If you are reducing emissions, generating a financial instrument from that fact, and then selling it to some ...
Topics: business, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

Carbon policy details: Part 4 Spots vs. strips	Sean Casten	31 Mar 2008	Gristmill
This is the fourth post in five-part series on the details required to get carbon policy right. See also parts one, two, and three. We now get into an issue that will seem a bit arcane, because no one's talking about it, at least not explicitly. But it's a real choice, and in many conversations about carbon policy we are implicitly getting it wrong. Should we price carbon in spots, or strips? Or, to take it out of financial jargon, should we: set up markets ...
Topics: business, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

Carbon policy details: Part 3 Carbon taxes vs. carbon trading	Sean Casten	28 Mar 2008	Gristmill
This is the third post in a series about details we are still getting wrong in the climate policy discussion. See also part one and part two. There is no shortage of economic analysis and policy discourse that shows that carbon tax and cap-and-trade methodologies can deliver economically equivalent outcomes. The general consensus -- at least today -- seems to be that since they're equivalent, it really comes down to politics, and it's politically difficult to do anyt ...
Topics: business, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

Windfalls Why consumer protection means selling carbon permits	Eric de Place	27 Mar 2008	Gristmill
One of the thorniest problems in cap-and-trade programs is deciding how to distribute the carbon permits. Should the public sell pollution privileges or give them away for free? Some folks worry that if we make polluters pay for carbon permits, they'll just raise prices for consumers. That's a perfectly legitimate concern. Unfortunately it turns out to be true, whether we sell the permits or give them away for free. Prices rise by the same amount in either scenario ...
Topics: business, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, economy (all these topics)

Climate justice: yes. Carbon trading: no. Carbon offsetting is not the best way for the global north to subsidize the global south	Gar Lipow	11 Mar 2008	Gristmill
Okay, my last post summarized Tom Athanasiou and Paul Baers' arguments in favor of drastic cuts in emissions. They place responsibility on the rich and to some extent the middle class rather than the poor. As you might expect, I agree with both these points. I disagree with their arguments that carbon trading and even offsets are the best way for the global north to subsidize the global south. Tom and Paul's argument: the rich countries are responsible for cuts exceedin ...
Topics: business, climate, carbon trading, carbon tax (all these topics)

Not-so-great grandfathering Cap-and-trade vs. a carbon tax	Clark Williams-Derry	27 Nov 2007	Gristmill
I don't know what to say about this article, which is largely a critique of a grandfathered "cap-and-trade" system for reducing greenhouse emissions. On the one hand, I shouldn't complain. Any serious discussion in the press of climate policy is welcome. But on the other hand -- jeez, is it so hard to get climate policy right? My problem isn't so much that the article gets things wrong (though it does). It's that it tells, at most, half the stor ...
Topics: business, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, energy (all these topics)

Big Business, cap-and-trade, and carbon taxes Business is splitting from Republicans; the time is right for a tax	David Roberts	29 May 2007	Gristmill
In Washington Monthly, Chris Hayes draws attention to the "revolt of the CEOs." Big Business is parting ways with the Republican Party, actively seeking greater government involvement in the realms of health care and climate change. Why? Two reasons. One, CEOs recognize that rising health care costs and global warming are real problems that will affect their bottom lines. Two, they see the way the wind is blowing. They realize that public pressure is bui ...
Topics: business, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, greening biz operations, politics (all these topics)

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