Hague prelude: emissions permits in America?
Saturday, November 4, 2000
By Robinson Shaw, Environmental News Service
An international community concerned
about climate change and prepared to
convene for a conference in the
Netherlands appears to be waiting for
the United States, the world's leader in
carbon emissions, to come up with a
plan to curb the crud.
Ministers and diplomats from 160
governments will gather in The Hague
Nov. 13-24 to decide how to
implement international goals to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions
that are outlined in the 1992 United
Nations Climate Change Convention
and the subsequent 1997 Kyoto
Protocol.
In the meantime, Americans for
Equitable Climate Solutions believes it has a plan that
addresses those goals. The group calls its
program the Sky Trust Initiative.
The Sky Trust proposal would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by
selling carbon emission
permits. Income from permit sales would be distributed equitably
among U.S. citizens.
"No matter what comes out of The Hague or how we move forward,
in one sense, what may be the
most important issue is what happens in the United States. So
long as we remain ambivalent,
and without a strong domestic policy, the rest of the world is
not going to do anything either," said
Rafe Pomerance, director of Sky Trust.
Most governments, including the United States, have yet to
ratify the Kyoto Protocol. As a result,
emissions targets for developed countries — which amount to a 5
percent reduction compared
with 1990 levels by 2008 — are not yet in effect.
The goal of the Hague meeting, dubbed the Sixth Session of the
Conference of the Parties to the
Convention, or COP 6, is to decide how the protocol will work
and ensure that its implementation
is environmentally credible and economically prudent.
"This plan was designed by economists to reduce carbon emissions
in the United States," said
Pomerance, who will attend the Hague conference. "Our policy
says you don't have to have the
Kyoto Protocol to move forward.
"We can do this under the treaty already ratified (at the 1992
convention). We don't require the
Kyoto Protocol to move forward with aa proposal, but we do need
a consensus by both houses of
Congress to move forward, and it seems dependent on the business
community."
Under the Sky Trust Initiative, some 2,500
businesses and industries that deal in fossil
fuels would be required to buy emission permits
for the total amount of carbon in the fuel. The U.S.
government would auction emission permits to
those companies.
The permits could be traded in secondary
markets for two years, after which they would
expire. Additional one-year permits would be
made available at $25 per metric ton.
Initially, 75 percent of the receipts from
government sales of the permits would be
returned in annual payments to every American
citizen of legal age. At the outset, the per capita
payment would amount to about $100 a year, or
$400 for a family of four.
Economic models indicate that the $25-per-ton
price for emission permits could reduce carbon
emissions by as much as 16.4 percent below
current levels, which eventually would put the
United States in accordance with the Kyoto
Protocol, according to the initiative.
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