New Energy Finance
London, Washington
14-Feb-2008
The United States will be home to a $1 trillion carbon emission market by 2020 if federal and state policymakers continue on their current path towards a comprehensive “cap-and-trade” program that is confined to domestic trading only.
In an analysis of bills today before the U.S. Congress, New Carbon Finance research economists based in New York, Washington D.C. and London, U.K. predict that in 12 years a carbon-constrained U.S. economy that includes a cap-and-trade system allowing only domestic trades will produce:
* A $1 trillion carbon trading market — more than twice the size of the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme;
* A carbon price of $40 per tonne as soon as 2015, which will result in a rise in consumer energy prices in real terms of roughly 20% for electricity, 12% for gasoline and 10% for natural gas — as well as impacts on other prices as higher energy and transportation costs filter through the economy; and
* Major U.S. investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and greenhouse gas mitigation projects and technologies.
The analysis was released Feb. 14 by Michael Liebreich, CEO of New Energy Finance, parent of New Carbon Finance, attending climate change roundtable discussions at U.N. headquarters, New York.
Full story: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-02/nef-tu021208.php
Example coverage, by New Scientist, click here