Emissions Trading?

Question

Can anyone summarize the pros and cons of emissions trading?

Answer 1

I haven't followed it in the past couple of months, but as far as I can tell and have been taught it's just paying to pollute. I think big polluters should have to pay for damaging the environment in theory, but say a company/country/etc just buys up a bunch of carbon credits then they don't really have to stop putting co2 in the air. Theoretically there is/should be a cap on the number of credits available to everyone, but not sure how going over on credits will be realistically monitored and penalized and by who. Selling credits that aren't being used would be a good source of income, and thus there is an economic incentive to bring emissions down, unless you're making a ton of money already with your current practices. Plus if emissions trading programs are really going to work, they have to be implemented and followed in most industrialized countries with a cap on the total that will actually be much lower than what is produced already. Most time tables for reducing co2 emissions are too little, too late for preventing negative impacts of global warming. As a positive, it does continue to get the word out about the need to lower co2 and it may give a business a better image if they were viewed as 'green', leading heavy polluting businesses to join in so they too can look good to the public. AND the money is supposed to go for the environment I'm pretty sure.

Answer 2

The above answerer seems a little confused.

Emissions trading works like this: A government agency chooses a pollutant, such as CO2.  They then determine which industries will be subject to the program, such as electric power generators.  Next, they determine how much CO2 is currently being created by each power plant.  The plants are assigned a credit for each ton of CO2 released per year.

If the agency wishes to reduce emissions, they reduce the number of credits assigned to each plant by a percentage.  The plants must reduce their emissions by that percentage, or buy credits to make up for the ones they were not assigned.  If they do not have the needed credits, they are fined heavily.

PROS: The overall emissions are reduced by the desired percentage.  The plants that can reduce emissions cheaply do so and sell their extra credits, so the economic burden of the system is less than a flat-percentage law.  This system works well for pollutants that have no local effect, such as CO2.

CONS: The major con is when dealing with pollutants like particulate matter, which have local effects.  Power plants in poor urban areas may not be able to economically reduce their emissions, so they will buy credits.  Plants in affluent areas can reduce their emissions because of more modern equipment, and so sell their credits.  The end result is that people in poor areas suffer from worse air quality.

Answer 3

This is coming--- mark my words. Everything you buy will have a carbon tax ADDED-- and US business will trade credits with Russian, Chinese, and Indian companies( some of the worst polluters on the planet!) who already have CREDITS to sell because they are  "developing" countries.

Just another global monetary scam.