Dickinson to Durban » Entries tagged with "RFF"
Climate Kick Boxing: Make the First Strike
By Sam Pollan, ‘14 Environmental policy in the United States is in a precarious position. While urgent action is recognized as necessary, it has not yet been institutionalized. One of the main conflicts in policy making is the epic battle between the economy and the environment. A federal policy that is expensive, even if it is likely to produce the highest reduction in emissions, will never be implemented as a US policy. The current contenders for possible policies are market based solutions. Robert Stavins, in his article “A Golden Opportunity to Please Conservatives and Liberals Alike,” mentions four policies with almost identical yields in reductions. These policies range from absolute regulation, the most costly, to cap-and-trade systems, which are up to 90 percent cheaper. Market based approaches (i.e. cap-and-trade) provide economic incentives … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change
Technology Race: The Solution to Climate Change?
By: Christine Burns ’14 Finding an economically viable solution to global climate change is an arduous task, but if we want a planet that can continue to support life, than we must take up the challenge. Assessing US Climate Policy Options is a report written through the Resources for the Future (RFF). The major contributors to this report are listed in Figure 1. Clearly most of these companies have something to loose should America shift in … Read entire article »
Filed under: Carbon Markets, Climate Change
The Corporations Speak
By: Anna McGinn ’14 Reading industries’ and corporations’ take on climate change policy is an interesting perspective to dissect especially after reading IPCC and scientific documents. Their focus is not to describe the science of climate change or to create international agreements on GHG emissions. Rather their report, “Assessing U.S. Climate Policy Options: A report summarizing work at RFF as part of the inter-industry U.S. Climate Policy Forum,” explains how corporations would like the United States to approach climate change regulations. From page one, they focus on regulating GHG emissions through various market approaches. In the realm of corporations, everything has a dollar value. Further, they are careful to use non-committal language and are vague in their explanations of solutions. Despite some drawbacks, it seems impressive that these 23 corporations came … Read entire article »
Filed under: Carbon Markets, Climate Change
Key Players in U.S. Climate Policy
The companies listed above are those establishments chosen by Resources for the Future (RFF) research on an executive summary and overview of potential U.S. climate change policy implementations. The opinions of these companies, along with RFF researchers, provide a wide range of inputs and estimations for appropriate climate legislation in the United Sates. The array of representatives ranges from oil and gas companies to agricultural and chemical producers. It is important for these companies to have a say in legislation because it is likely that they will be most affected by changes in policy. Possible implementations for greenhouse gas emission reductions are market-based approaches, like a cap-and-trade system or a carbon tax. Such policies enforce greenhouse gas emission reductions on those companies most responsible for emitting in the first place. Thus, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Summer Reading Responses
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