China’s national carbon market to start in 2016
Chinese government announced that market regulations will be sent to the State Council for approval by the end of the year for a 2016 national level cap and trade system. System will help the world’s largest emitter achieve the pledged carbon reduction per unit of GDP 40-45 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. China already has 7 regional pilot systems in place, but at national program will pass up the European Union to be the world’s largest. Emissions will be capped for sources such as electricity generators and producers. By Kathy Chen and Stian Klev for Reuters.
What will climate change do to the economy?
Check out this engaging 10-minute video of William Nordhaus, Professor of Economics at Yale University, discussing his work modeling the economic costs of climate change to inform policy. The long-term projections guide what policies need to include today to minimize the future costs of climate change or achieve a specific objective such as keeping the earth below a 3 degree change in temperature. And the policy prescription is a price on carbon. As the price on carbon goes up, emissions go down. However, the models can estimate what that price of carbon should be for the desired outcome. To Nordhaus, the most important objective in modeling is to find the ‘balance between reflecting the complexity of the world and maintaining transparency and simplicity.’
New York climate summit is a chance to push for long-term climate neutrality
In a blog post by Christiana Figueres and Mario Molina in the Guardian, the authors outline the possibility of this September’s Climate Summit in New York City being an opportunity to talk about how we can get greenhouse gas emissions down to zero.
The Sustainability Co-Op 