An Opportunity to develop a North American price on carbon

  Instruments for pricing carbon are beginning to proliferate. In recent years, South Korea implemented a trading system; France and Portugal implemented carbon taxes; China began seven subnational trading system pilots and announced a national trading system for implementation by 2020; and South Africa and Chile announced carbon taxes that will take effect in 2016 and 2017, respectively. These developments augment a landscape of carbon pricing instruments that are already well-established in various countries and regions, including the European Union, Japan, New Zealand, and the Nordic countries.

Alison Cassady: The Clean Power Plan: A critical step toward decarbonizing America’s energy system

  The United States is in the midst of an energy transition in which cheap natural gas is displacing coal as the go-to fuel choice for electricity generation. While this trend has helped reduce carbon pollution from the nation’s power plants, switching fuel sources does not go far enough to achieve the deep reductions necessary to prevent catastrophic and irreversible climate change. Ambitious deployment of renewable energy and energy-efficiency technology must form the cornerstone of any successful climate mitigation strategy. The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA’s, Clean Power Plan is a critical part of the U.S. strategy to transition away from carbon-intensive fuels and toward a cleaner energy future.