The Cap and Trade Carbon System Promises Results
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by: DanielStouffer | Total views: 132 | Word Count: 521
Several hundred years of consumption and a disregard for associated consequence has led us to the position where we need to take significant and immediate action to avoid the worst effects of environmental damage and climate change. Our reliance on fossil fuels and the production of energy has led to such a volume of greenhouse gases in our environment that the potential for catastrophic change is now clear. No longer can we assume that the status quo is acceptable and must cut down significantly on our emission of these dangerous gases.
It is unlikely that consumers in general would take sufficient steps by themselves to cause significant reversal to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions. It will be necessary for governments to take stringent action to force a change and to curtail the amount of carbon emissions. Within the United Kingdom, the cap and trade carbon system is now in place, which will ultimately drive down the production of greenhouse gases by effectively forcing the largest consumers to change their ways.
The Carbon Reduction Commitment is legislation aimed squarely at the largest producers in the United Kingdom. This cap and trade carbon system will place a limit on the total amount of carbon emissions and force individual organizations to trade between themselves and with the government, effectively reducing the overall volume emitted.
A cap and trade carbon system is a development of a scheme that has been in existence for some time now. The concept of setting a limit and forcing those consumers to trade in the marketplace to achieve overall reduction is not a new one, but the establishment of a commodity price for carbon emissions is. Many eyes are on the British initiative to see how it works, as it is likely to be adopted in similar format in many other countries.
The British government has decided that approximately 5,000 companies in the country are major producers of greenhouse gases due to their consumption of energy. Within a couple of years, each of these companies will be required to actively reduce their carbon footprint as part of the cap and trade carbon system. Those that do not, will find that they face an increasing cost as they purchase their carbon allowances and will also find that their underperformance will be communicated to society as a whole.
The Carbon Reduction Commitment is aiming squarely at the year 2050 and programs have been designed to take the project up to that point, reducing carbon emissions by 80%. Hopefully, this will contain and even reverse some of the worst damage to our environment that has been caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
Within the United States, legislators are a little slower to take up the cause of climate change, although they are considering a program similar to the cap and trade carbon system now in place. It remains to be seen how far this piece of legislation gets.
Without the intervention of government, it is unlikely that either individuals or corporations would take the scale of action required to address climate change. Thus, although the cap and trade carbon system has its detractors, it is likely to make significant headway.
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