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Policies to Reduce CO2 Emissions: Fallacies and Evidence from the United States and California

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  • José A. Tapia Granados
  • Clive L. Spash

Abstract

Since the 1990s, advocates of policy to prevent catastrophic climate change have been divided over the appropriate economic instruments to curb CO2 emissions—carbon taxes or schemes of emission trading. Barack Obama claimed that policies implemented during his presidency set in motion irreversible trends toward a clean-energy economy, with the years 2008-2015 given as evidence of decoupling between CO2 emissions and economic growth. This is despite California being the only state in the USA that has implemented a specific policy to curb emissions, a cap-and-trade scheme in place since 2013. To assess Obama’s claims and the effectiveness of policies to reduce CO2 emissions, we analyze national and state-level data from the USA over the period 1990-2015. We find: (a) annual changes in emissions strongly correlated with the growth conditions of the economy; (b) no evidence for decoupling; and (c) a trajectory of CO2 emissions in California which does not at all support the claim that the cap-and-trade system implemented there has reduced CO2 emissions.

Suggested Citation

  • José A. Tapia Granados & Clive L. Spash, 2019. "Policies to Reduce CO2 Emissions: Fallacies and Evidence from the United States and California," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2019_04, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
  • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwsre:sre-disc-2019_04
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    Cited by:

    1. Yanqiu He & Hongchun Wang & Rou Chen & Shiqi Hou & Dingde Xu, 2022. "The Forms, Channels and Conditions of Regional Agricultural Carbon Emission Reduction Interaction: A Provincial Perspective in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-22, September.
    2. Andrew Adewale Alola & Glory Chiyoru Dike & Uju Violet Alola, 2022. "The Role of Legal System and Socioeconomic Aspects in the Environmental Quality Drive of the Global South," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 953-972, September.
    3. Shenhai Huang & Chao Du & Xian Jin & Daini Zhang & Shiyan Wen & Yu’an Wang & Zhenyu Cheng & Zhijie Jia, 2022. "The Boundary of Porter Hypothesis: The Energy and Economic Impact of China’s Carbon Neutrality Target in 2060," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-18, December.
    4. Ramzan, Muhammad & Abbasi, Kashif Raza & Iqbal, Hafiz Arslan & Adebayo, Tomiwa Sunday, 2023. "What's at Stake? The empirical importance of government revenue and debt and renewable energy for environmental neutrality in the US economy," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 475-489.
    5. Wu, Rongxin & Tan, Zhizhou & Lin, Boqiang, 2023. "Does carbon emission trading scheme really improve the CO2 emission efficiency? Evidence from China's iron and steel industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Climate change; Cap-and-trade; Carbon emissions trading; Decoupling; Economic growth;
    All these keywords.

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