California has long been the leader for US green policy, but 33 states now plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and 28 have signed up to a carbon trading scheme, said Terry Tamminen, former advisor to Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The Californian model, featuring an emissions trading scheme and complementary policies to promote energy efficiency, renewables and clean technologies, has been highlighted by US President Barack Obama as a possible template for a federal climate policy. The experts, however, agreed that US-wide policies would probably prioritise a cap-and-trade system.
Key issues to be addressed by the emerging US climate policy include the level at which emissions should be capped and how quickly the scheme is implemented, argued David Hawkins, director of the climate centre at the Natural Resources Defence Council. It is easy to propose an 80% emissions reduction target for 2050, but 2020 is approaching fast and setting targets for then is much more challenging, he said.
Experts agreed that the US is looking to Europe, reflecting a desire to learn from the EU's experiences but develop a truly American model. The biggest lesson learned from the EU is not to go for 100% auctioning or 100% free allocations, they said, explaining that the US is looking for a more balanced approach.
Any climate bill will nevertheless have to deal with coal, honestly reflecting the fact that it is a major power source in Midwestern and south-western states, they said. The situation almost mirrors European negotiations over the climate and energy package, during which coal-intensive new member states argued for substantial derogations for their industries (EurActiv 21/11/08).
One option is to return auctioning revenues to industry so that coal customers will only gradually have to bear the costs of emission reductions, one US representative said. A US climate plan would thus have to provide both a carrot and a stick: incentives to develop clean technologies and prices for carbon.
Business, environmental leaders offered blueprint
One such plan was proposed in January by 26 large corporations and five environmental organisations under the banner of the United States Climate Action Partnership. This politically weighty alliance includes actors such as General Electric, Shell, Siemens, Environmental Defence and the Pew Centre on Global Climate Change.
The alliance proposes a comprehensive climate policy for the US administration and Congress, including a federal cap-and-trade programme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% (2005 levels) by 2050.
However, the business and environmental leaders want the scheme to be coupled with an array of complementary measures to prevent large hikes in energy prices and to promote research into and deployment of clean coal technology, low-carbon transportation technologies and systems, as well as improved energy efficiency in buildings, industry and appliances.
The alliance recommends that Congress provide substantial funding for carbon capture and storage (CCS; see EurActiv LinksDossier) and regulatory certainty for deploying the technology. With these prerequisites in place, it believes CO2 emissions standards for coal plants could be implemented.
In Europe, emission performance standards which put a cap on emissions per unit of energy output have been called for by some MEPs, including Claude Turmes (Greens, Luxembourg) and Anders Wijkman (EPP-ED, Sweden), as well as environmental organisations like WWF (EurActiv 14/01/09). But these were rejected in both the EU's emissions trading scheme (EU ETS; see EurActiv LinksDossier) and the recast Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (EurActiv 23/01/09).
The US experts, on the other hand, favoured setting such standards for various reasons, including as a "consumer protection measure" to ensure that electricity bills manageable. They also highlighted the benefits of standards for promoting CCS technologies.
Asked whether the US was ready to sign a global climate agreement, they said President Obama's high-level appointments suggest that he intends to see a deal done. They said passing a US climate bill on time is feasible, but warned that the Congress would have many opportunities to delay the legislation.
In the Senate, 60 votes are needed before any legislation can be passed. As the different states have various energy mixes, the future bill will have to be very inclusive.
Hawkins suspects that the House of Representatives will be the first to present draft legislation, perhaps by as early as the end of next week, but said the Senate may take longer considering its complex committee structures.
