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US Status on Climate Change Mitigation

Author

Listed:
  • Burtraw, Dallas

    (Resources for the Future)

  • Woerman, Matt

    (Resources for the Future)

Abstract

In 2009, President Obama pledged that, by 2020, the United States would achieve reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of 17 percent from 2005 levels. With the failure of Congress to adopt comprehensive climate legislation in 2010, the feasibility of the pledge was put in doubt. However, we find the United States is near to reaching this goal; currently, the country is on course to achieve reductions of 16.3 percent from 2005 levels in 2020. Three factors contribute to this outcome: greenhouse gas regulations under the Clean Air Act, secular trends including changes in relative fuel prices and energy efficiency, and subnational efforts. Nonetheless, global emissions likely will be greater than if comprehensive climate legislation had passed because of the absence of offsets, and at this point the United States is expected to fail to meet its financing commitments under the Copenhagen Accord for 2020.

Suggested Citation

  • Burtraw, Dallas & Woerman, Matt, 2012. "US Status on Climate Change Mitigation," RFF Working Paper Series dp-12-48, Resources for the Future.
    • Handle: RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-12-48
    as

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    File URL: http://www.rff.org/RFF/documents/RFF-DP-12-48.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Winston Harrington & Richard D. Morgenstern & Peter Nelson, 2000. "On the accuracy of regulatory cost estimates," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(2), pages 297-322.
    2. repec:rff:dpaper:dp-11-43-rev is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Burtraw, Dallas & Palmer, Karen & Kahn, Danny, 2010. "A symmetric safety valve," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(9), pages 4921-4932, September.
    4. Dallas Burtraw & Art Fraas & Nathan Richardson, 2011. "Policy Monitor--Greenhouse Gas Regulation under the Clean Air Act: A Guide for Economists," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 5(2), pages 293-313, Summer.
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    6. Joshua Linn & Erin Mastrangelo & Dallas Burtraw, 2014. "Regulating Greenhouse Gases from Coal Power Plants under the Clean Air Act," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 97-134.
    7. Dallas Burtraw & William Shobe, 2008. "State and Local Climate Policy under a National Emissions Floor," Working Papers 2008-05, Center for Economic and Policy Studies.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

    1. Wright, Evelyn & Kanudia, Amit, 2014. "Low carbon standard and transmission investment analysis in the new multi-region US power sector model FACETS," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 136-150.
    2. Luke Kemp, 2017. "US-proofing the Paris Climate Agreement," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 86-101, January.
    3. Burtraw, Dallas & Woerman, Matt, 2013. "Technology Flexibility and Stringency for Greenhouse Gas Regulations," RFF Working Paper Series dp-13-24, Resources for the Future.
    4. Michel Damian, 2014. "La politique climatique change enfin de paradigme," Post-Print halshs-00969308, HAL.
    5. Burtraw, Dallas & Woerman, Matt, 2013. "Economic ideas for a complex climate policy regime," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(S1), pages 24-31.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    greenhouse gases; additionality; emissions cap and trade; Clean Air Act; carbon dioxide;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism

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