8. What to do? Policy options
There are many policies which governments could employ to decrease their use of fossil fuels, and thus lower their emissions of greenhouse gases. Some could be command-and-control, i.e. mandating how industries and consumers must reduce their use of fossil fuels. For example, nation-states could:- impose stricter energy efficiency standards on manufacturing processes, electricity generation, consumer appliances, and/or automobiles and trucks.
- simply ban the use of fossil fuels in certain cases, as the Danish government has recently done, in pledging that no new power plants will be built designed to burn coal, the most carbon-intensive of the fossil fuels.
Other policy options could include market mechanisms. For example, nation-states could:
- eliminate subsidies to fossil fuels, which would raise their prices, and thus discourage their use. The World Bank has estimated that if the industrialized nations eliminated coal subsidies, the global emissions of carbon dioxide would be reduced by 1.5% . (Ironically, the German government, which has come out in support of mandatory greenhouse gas emissions reductions, recently decided to continue its policy of heavy subsidies to the domestic coal industry.)
- impose a fuel or carbon tax, which also raises the price of fossil fuels, and garners revenue that can be invested in renewable (non-carbon based) energy, or used to lower some other already existing tax.
- establish a cap on emissions, along with a system of tradable emission allowances, in which rights to emit greenhouse gases could be bought and sold on the open market, either by fossil fuel producers or users.
Each of these methods has its advantages and disadvantages; in the following weeks and months we will explore some of their pros and cons.
WEB POLICY RESOURCES
You can examine the scintillating official US National Energy Policy Plan, entitled SustainableEnergy Strategy: a Clean and Secure Energy for a Competitive Economy, from July 1995.
The US Government's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy lays out the case for an increase in the Federal budget for research in conservation and renewable energy of 37 percent, which, it says, would lead to 38 million tons of carbon reductions per year.
The Cities for Climate Protection gives an overview of the climate issue as it affects urban areas, and points out some things cities can do to minimize their greenhouse gas emissions.
Check out the page at Solstice, run by the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology, which provides access to many of the voluntary government programs that encourage clean energy use. Solstice also posts the useful report from the Center for Policy Alternatives, "Energy Wise Options for State and Local Governments", by Michael Totten and Nita Settina, which clearly sets out what state and local officials can do to encourage energy efficiency and further the use of renewable energy.Resources for the Future (RFF)is an independent, nonprofit research organization that applies economic analysis to issues related to natural resources and theenvironment. It has released the first paper in a series on climate change, "Climate Change Risks and Policies: An Overview, "which sets out certain principles that should be taken into account in constructing a cost-effective response. In a
briefing paper, RFF also outlines the elements of a possible domestic system of emissions trading.
More on Climate:
Table of Contents | Twelve Hundred Words or Less... | Web Resources
Activist Groups | Voices | New in
the Literature | Hotspots
History of Climate Negotiations | Glossary of Negotiator Terms | On the Other Hand...
Policy Options | Technological Breakthroughs? | Want to Get Involved?
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