http://www.opposingviews.com/questions/will-carbon-trading-work Opposing Views - Will Carbon Trading Work? http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-interferes-with-positive-solutions-to-global-warming On India's Bhilangana river, local farmers run a finely-tuned terraced irrigation system that provides them with rice, wheat, mustard, fruits and vegetables. This ingenious, extremely low-carbon system of agriculture is threatened by a new... Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:31:04 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-interferes-with-positive-solutions-to-global-warming http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-is-antidemocratic In the carbon markets, both buyers and sellers have an incentive to conceal from the public whether emissions reductions have actually been made. Buyers want to snap up cheap pollution rights; sellers want to make money flogging them. It doesn't... Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:31:00 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-is-antidemocratic http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-requires-knowledge-we-don-t-have Carbon trading assumes that the climate doesn't care where we make a one million ton cut in carbon dioxide emissions. If Lahore can cut a million tons more cheaply than LA, then let Lahore do the work and LA can pay for it. The market saves... Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:28:27 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-requires-knowledge-we-don-t-have http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-is-based-on-faith-not-experience The case for carbon trading is based largely on stirring abstractions. Here is one, from Matthew Whittell of Climate Exchange: “None of us is clever enough to work out what is the best way to tackle climate change, but if we have a global carbon... Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:47:43 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-is-based-on-faith-not-experience http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-squanders-resources-and-ingenuity-on-the-wrong-things It’s bad enough that carbon trading is aimed at the wrong goal. What’s worse is that to try to achieve that goal, it has to set up an apparatus that ties up so many resources that it leaves little room for anything else. Vast bureaucracies are... Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:47:08 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-squanders-resources-and-ingenuity-on-the-wrong-things http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-is-aimed-at-the-wrong-objective Carbon trading is aimed at the wrong target. It doesn’t address global warming. Solving global warming means figuring out how to keep most remaining fossil fuels in the ground. It means reorganizing industrial societies’ energy, transport and... Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:47:00 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-is-aimed-at-the-wrong-objective http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/an-economic-disaster Carbon trading has a limited ability to mitigate global warming—objective (5). The Kyoto Protocol, even if it included the United States and nobody cheated, would barely slow the growth in global emissions, and have little or no detectable impact... CEI Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:46:53 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/an-economic-disaster http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/fluctuating-costs-overstated-emissions-reduction Would carbon trading facilitate long-term business planning—objective (3)? Many business advocates claim cap-and-trade will provide “regulatory certainty” by establishing statutory targets and timetables for emissions reductions. But EPA’s... CEI Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:46:47 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/fluctuating-costs-overstated-emissions-reduction http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/no-breakthroughs-in-innovation Carbon trading might contribute marginally to objective (2), but will probably not midwife any big or important breakthroughs. Gasoline prices in Europe are about double U.S. prices, because EU governments tax gasoline at $3.00 a gallon and more. CEI Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:46:38 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/no-breakthroughs-in-innovation http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/we-must-define-the-objectives Will carbon trading “work”? A policy “works” or fails to do so only in relation to its objectives. Carbon trading schemes have multiple objectives, including: (1) increase the cost of fossil energy, (2) foster innovation, (3) facilitate... CEI Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:46:37 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/we-must-define-the-objectives http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-is-part-of-the-solution Some opponents of cap and trade programs argue that a single program cannot solve the problem of climate change. They are right on two accounts. First, a cap and trade program is not the only policy mechanism available to reduce GHG... The Climate Group Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:46:35 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-is-part-of-the-solution http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-is-cost-effective The idea behind carbon trading - to allow those who can reduce emissions at low cost to sell emissions allowances to those who can only reduce emissions at high cost - is not new. It’s this difference in relative costs that underpins any kind of... The Climate Group Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:46:30 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-is-cost-effective http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-is-worth-the-cost Reducing GHG emissions through a cap and trade program comes with a cost. In fact, that’s partly the point.   It’s the additional cost of using high-carbon energy sources that’s meant to encourage businesses and individuals to use... The Climate Group Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:46:25 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-is-worth-the-cost http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-reduces-emissions One of the benefits of carbon trading, as part of a cap and trade program, is that it places an absolute limit on the quantity of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As long as the cap is set below the actual level of emissions, emissions will be... The Climate Group Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:46:19 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-reduces-emissions http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/the-european-union-has-demonstrated-that-carbon-trading-can-work The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is the world's first, and largest, multinational carbon trading program. The first phase of the program was started in 2005 and lasted for three years, through 2007. Phase I was a learning phase... International Emissions Trading Assoc Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:46:18 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/the-european-union-has-demonstrated-that-carbon-trading-can-work http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-holds-the-greatest-hope-for-reducing-global-emissions Nearly every nation, including the United States, signed and ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In signing this treaty, countries set a goal of stabilizing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that would... International Emissions Trading Assoc Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:46:18 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/carbon-trading-holds-the-greatest-hope-for-reducing-global-emissions http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/cap-and-trade-provides-the-flexibility-to-address-competitiveness Domestic competitiveness and emissions "leakage" -- in which a company simply shifts emissions overseas rather than reducing them -- are a significant concern when designing any emissions reduction program. Poorly designed or inherently inflexible... International Emissions Trading Assoc Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:46:17 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/cap-and-trade-provides-the-flexibility-to-address-competitiveness http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/cap-and-trade-is-relatively-easy-to-establish Under cap-and-trade, the government establishes the cap using sound science. Cap-and-trade does not require the government to make arbitrary decisions to set prices, ration allowances, or determine which technologies are winners and losers. International Emissions Trading Assoc Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:46:16 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/cap-and-trade-is-relatively-easy-to-establish http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/cap-and-trade-protects-the-economy The second part of cap-and-trade -- trading -- provides covered entities with the freedom and flexibility to identify the most efficient, least cost means of reducing emissions. A well-designed emissions trading program will reduce costs for both... International Emissions Trading Assoc Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:46:15 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/cap-and-trade-protects-the-economy http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/capping-emissions-is-the-surest-way-to-guarantee-emissions-reductions Carbon trading provides the environmental certainty of a fixed cap on emissions. Other means of reducing emissions, such as carbon taxes, efficiency standards, and traditional command and control reductions, do not guarantee that total emissions... International Emissions Trading Assoc Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:46:14 -0500 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/capping-emissions-is-the-surest-way-to-guarantee-emissions-reductions