California Adopts Climate Game Plan for 2030

Cap and trade is like the goalie – it’s there keeping California’s emissions in check even if it’s the state’s other policies that are scoring most of the goals. Photo: Wikimedia

By Katelyn Roedner Sutter and Erica Morehouse

Today the California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted the 2017 Climate Change Scoping Plan, the strategy for achieving California’s 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target. Developing and updating this Scoping Plan is a process pioneered by California that provides a game plan of how the state intends to meet its climate goals with an increased focus on air quality.

The cap-and-trade program continues to be a centerpiece of the current Scoping Plan because it allows the state to put a firm limit on overall carbon emissions. This is essential as the state charts a path to an ambitious 2030 target. The Scoping Plan lays out the blueprint for California’s overall climate policies. Cap-and-trade design details will be further developed in future ARB rulemakings; EDF will be deeply engaged on details like setting a high enough price ceiling and setting the level of the cap with a focus, as always, on environmental integrity.

Cap and trade is a team sport in California: focusing on who makes the goals is missing the point

The role of cap and trade is an important one: assuring that California doesn’t exceed the emissions limit it has adopted into law. California has a variety of policies in place to meet its climate targets, which means there are multiple programs acting to lower the same emissions. But cap and trade is the policy that will ensure California reaches its climate target by setting a firm limit. If other policies do not do as much as anticipated to reduce emissions, cap and trade will make up the difference. The flip side is that if other policies are driving down emissions faster than expected, cap and trade may need to do less of the work to reduce emissions.

I’m a hockey fan, so here is one way to think about it. A goalie on a hockey team isn’t failing when they aren’t the one who scores the winning goal. They are succeeding when they are preventing the other team from scoring. Cap and trade is like that goalie – it’s there keeping California’s emissions in check even if it’s the state’s other policies that are scoring most of the goals. But cap and trade is also a versatile athlete, it can play the forward position when needed. California has designed its climate policies as a team sport, though, and whatever position cap and trade plays, it’s a critical member of the team as today’s Scoping Plan recognizes.

Beating reduction goals is a good thing and an opportunity

California’s emissions are declining and the state is on track to beat its 2020 goal. There’s discussion about the implications of having emissions significantly below the cap, but rather than being a concern, we see this as a sure sign of success. More emission reductions earlier in the program is good news for the environment. It’s also an opportunity for California to consider cutting emissions even more by trimming the overall number of allowances it makes available in the coming years as the state looks to the ambitious 2030 target.

Today’s adoption of the 2017 Scoping Plan helps ensure the ongoing success of California’s team of climate strategies, with cap and trade as the check on carbon pollution. Together, California’s suite of climate and air policies can keep driving down global warming pollution while improving the health and environment across the Golden state.

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One Comment

  1. staffing1
    Posted December 15, 2017 at 2:32 pm | Permalink

    Electricity alone does not run our economy. The green movement is beneficial to reducing emissions, but wind and solar are only able to provide intermittent electricity to the grid, but they are not alternatives to the hydrocarbon products that are driving the airports, military, vehicles and trucks, and are the basis of every component of modern civilizations’ industries and infrastructures.

    The aviation industry and the military have limited options to replace their fossil fuel needs, as intermittent alternative electricity from wind or solar are unable to provide their energy needs.

    More important than transportation fuels for the aviation and the military, are the related chemicals and by-products that also get manufactured out of each barrel of crude oil. Those chemicals have revolutionized our infrastructure and dramatically improved our quality of life and especially our leisurely lifestyle.

    Those chemicals and by-products manufactured from fossil fuels are NOT manufactured from solar panels or from wind turbines.

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