Advancing Innovative and Centrist Climate Change Policies

Climate Policy Center (CPC) is an independent, bipartisan, non-profit organization incorporated in June 2000. The Climate Policy Center seeks to develop and advocate politically realistic U.S. greenhouse gas emission reduction policies. Such policies should be designed to minimize the combined costs of climate change damages and greenhouse gas emission abatement. Enacting domestic emission controls would encourage the development of low emission energy sources, improve America's image abroad, especially in Europe, and enable the United States to begin encouraging the largest developing countries to reduce their rapid greenhouse gas emission growth rates.

We believe that it is imperative that cost-effective and viable policies be available when the U.S. climate change policy debate generates the political opportunity to act. Our initial objective is to develop a package of such policies and the leadership support for implementing them. We are developing those policies with the countrys top economists at Columbia University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Resources for the Future, Stanford University, University of Georgia, and University of Maryland.

CPC believes that a U.S. policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions must have three elements:

1. Emission reduction policy should rely on price incentives instead of either rigid Kyoto-like quantitative targets or command and control regulations. Price based incentives avoid the risk that emission control costs will be excessive, either because fluctuating economic circumstances or because of errors in predicting abatement costs.
2. Although some of the revenues from the sale of emission allowances (or emission taxes) may be used to offset the economic losses of energy sector firms or workers, some revenue should also be reserved for public purposes. Appropriate public purposes include raising the national savings rate, funding government sponsored climate-related R&D, or encouraging emission reductions in less developed countries.
3. After implementation domestic emission controls, Americas climate policy should focus on finding ways to assist developing countries to restrain their currently high greenhouse gas emissions growth rates. The U.S. should play a leading role in ensuring that less developed countries can reduce emissions growth without delaying economic development.