New England considers stronger CO2 caps

• 7 years ago (2017-07-14)
• David Flin

Emissions 65 North America 1021

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While the US Federal government has withdrawn from the Paris agreement on climate change, the states of New England are considering more aggressive curbs on carbon emissions from power plants. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a market-based cap-and-trade programme that sets limits on CO2 emissions in nine states, including the six states of New England. So far, RGGI’s allowance auctions have raised over $2.5 billion, with the proceeds flowing to the states, and most of them investing heavily in energy efficiency efforts.

Peter Shattuck, Director of the Clean Energy Initiative at the environmental policy group Acadia Center, said: “All the evidence points to the fact that RGGI’s working well. It has been a great success since its inception. Since RGGI’s start-up in 2009, carbon pollution is down 40 per cent, electricity prices are down 3 per cent, and at the same time, the participating states’ economies have grown by 25 per cent.”

The states are currently debating how far the carbon cap should be lowered. In 2012, the states agreed that CO2 emissions should be reduced by 2.5 per cent a year until 2020. A goal of an annual reduction of between 2.5-3.5 per cent is under discussion.