Cap-and-trade, which began in January 2013, places a cap on emissions from industries in California, and then auctions off emission “credits” to companies that pollute, thus creating billions of dollars that can be invested in further greenhouse gases reductions. The data showing that cap-and-trade has cut climate pollution come from the state's Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, which requires the largest polluters to report their emissions every year.
Jonathan Camuzeaux and Tim O'Connor of the Environmental Defense Fund report that total climate pollution in the first compliance period—2013 and 2014—decreased over three percent. This puts California's emissions levels well under its 2014 cap, and puts the state well on its way to achieving the 2020 emissions levels target set by AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.
At the same time, California's economy has prospered and employment has increased. Camuzeaux and O'Connor write:
California also experienced remarkable job growth during the same period. In 2013, California saw total employment increase by 2.1 percent, beating the national average. In 2014, job growth in the state reached an impressive 3.2 percent. As a comparison, the rest of the United States experienced only an average 2.2 percent growth in jobs that year.
The cap-and-trade system is a totally new idea, and whether it is workable or not is a question closely watched by the rest of the world. This early report shows that companies subject to the cap are figuring out how to comply with the rules, and incorporating them into their business practices.
But plenty of questions remain, including how truthful companies are in their reporting—a question not easily dismissed in view of the recent VW scandal. Another question is whether measuring, comparing, and reporting emissions on a per capita basis--something CARB and the legislature have chosen to do for a variety of good reasons—will let us off the hook in terms of the total emission reductions the state really needs.
But it's a really good start.
CARB's data [PDF] do not include all of the transportation sector, which came under the cap-and-trade system in January of 2015. Since transportation produces such a large portion of the state's greenhouse gas emissions-- almost forty percent—and fuel companies have resisted legislative efforts to control their emissions, next year's report should be interesting indeed.
Streetsblog California editor Melanie Curry has been thinking about transportation, and how to improve conditions for bicyclists, ever since commuting to school by bike long before bike lanes were a thing. She was Managing Editor at the East Bay Express, editor of Access Magazine for the University of California Transportation Center, and earned her Masters in City Planning from UC Berkeley.
No other field would tolerate this level of death and destruction. The tragedy of West Portal is more evidence that the traffic engineering profession is fundamentally broken
Climate change is affecting the earth's rotation; Republicans in Congress are out to kill California transit "boondoggles"; Reducing driving is essential; Rethinking intersections for safety; More
The National Household Travel Survey has never given a full picture of how often Americans get around on foot. But a recent change in methodology may have made made matters worse.