Californian regulators approve state carbon-trading scheme
Regulators in the US state of California approved the final regulations for a carbon trading-scheme on Thursday, as one of the biggest indications yet that the country is finally getting serious about climate change.
Regulators in the US state of California approved the final regulations for a carbon trading-scheme on Thursday, as one of the biggest indications yet that the country is finally getting serious about climate change.
The move marks a major milestone for the global carbon market as a whole, as the state scheme becomes the second of its kind in the US alongside the voluntary Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, adopted by a number of north-eastern states.
Under the proposals of the climate mitigating scheme, companies will be capped on their greenhouse emissions and will have to buy permits for any emissions that extend beyond their limit. However, businesses will be able to trade their emission permits with other companies, providing a financial incentive whilst at the same time encouraging California’s oil refineries, electricity generators and other polluters to clean up their plants.
Some 350 companies representing nearly 600 California oil refineries and factories will have to comply with the regulations from 2013. From 2015, California’s transportation fuels will also be brought under the scheme, which will see the system cover up to 85% of the states economy. California has the eighth largest economy in the world and is the most populous state in the US.
The regulations of the scheme received a unanimous vote of confidence by all eight members of the Air Resources Board. “We are charting new ground here. The country and the world are watching,” said board member Lydia Kennard. Chairwoman Mary Nichols also praised California’s efforts in providing a climate mitigating benchmark that the whole country should take note of in regards to their own environmental policies. “We are staking out new ground in the battle against global warming, and we are doing it in difficult times and doing it in a way we believe others will want to follow,” said Nichols.
Federal regulators rejected a similar carbon-trading scheme for the entire nation, on the grounds that it would have too much of an effect on American business as a whole.
The Californian scheme is being seen as vital for the state if it wants to achieve its target of reducing greenhouse emissions to that of levels seen back in 1990 by the year 2020. This would mean that if state business continued to operate under a business-as-usual output they would have to cut emissions by 22%.
The states’ carbon market however, could still be put in jeopardy if citizen and trade groups, who claim that the scheme will increase pollution in poorer communities, follow through with a law suit opposing the plan.
Image 01: Steven Buss | Flickr
Image 02: Aliazimi | Wikimedia Commons