Watch the recording of Dr Danny Richter and Dr Catherine Wolfram discussing the 2025 opportunity for carbon pricing
T Todd Elvins
2974 Posts

There may be an opportunity in the next Congress for a carbon price. However, external forces could constrain the opportunity such that if something passes, it will look different from the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. This webinar explores how three external constrain the debate, what that means for CCL’s priorities, and most importantly, for the climate.

After you watch, discuss what you learned with a fellow CCLer.

Here's the recording https://community.citizensclimate.org/events/item/24/17016

And slides are here: https://cclusa.org/carbon-pricing-opportunities

9 Replies

@T Todd Elvins

I was just able to listen to Dr. Richter and Wolfram's presentation. Thank you. I have one observation and one question:

Observation - I noted the three goals of a carbon price - reduce climate pollution, take care of low income households and political staying power. What I find missing for my conservative peers is reference to “market based”, “empowering citizens”, "not growing government". I like your use of “climate pollution” (vs. "climate change") but I have found it powerful to also highlight the concept of a market dislocation/imperfection, letting individuals decide for themselves how to spend the dividend, and letting our capitalist system then driver the transformation (not a continuous stream of new regulations).

Question - I liked the idea of going beyond just a “carbon price" and including NOX, SOX and PM2.5. This fits better with the idea of climate pollution. For my benefit, what percent of emissions do these three items represent as compared to CO2?

Thanks again,

Max (Montana CCL)

T Todd Elvins
2974 Posts

@Max Scheder-Bieschin

Loads of info on general carbon pricing topics on CCL's public website, https://cclusa.org

@Dana Nuccitelli @Daniel Richter can you help Max with his question above:

NOX, SOX and PM2.5. …, what percent of emissions do these three items represent as compared to CO2?

That's a complicated question @T Todd Elvins @Max Scheder-Bieschin, because it varies by source. Also we've had a lot of success regulating most air pollutants, and so their levels are considerably lower than they were before the Clean Air Act was passed, for example. But in general we in the US annually emit about:

  • 6.8 million tons of nitrogen oxide (NOx)
  • 1.7 million tons of sulfur dioxide (SO₂)
  • 1.7 million tons of particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5)
  • 6.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gases

@Dana Nuccitelli - Thank you. So much much smaller, but still good for the narrative of reducing pollution rather than just carbon. For a success story there are two - acid rain in the US and CFC globally. We can come together… Max

John Gage
170 Posts

@Max Scheder-Bieschin - for a global perspective of how much each climate forcing contributes, this graph from the IPCC's AR6 is instructive:

https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/figures/chapter-2/figure-2-10

24fb67a1adf238dae060ca9fb7a10022-huge-ip


John - This is a great chart. Thank you. Max

But just to clarify, @Max Scheder-Bieschin @John Gage, the other pollutants discussed above (NOx, SOx, PM2.5) are fossil fuel air pollutants that cause other adverse health effects. They're not climate pollutants (a.k.a. greenhouse gases).

John Gage
170 Posts

Hi @Dana Nuccitelli, Figure-2-10 of the IPCC AR6 WG1 is specifically showing climate forcings. So I believe that all the gases shown there are driving change in the climate in some way.

Yes @John Gage, those are all greenhouse gases in the figure you showed, but they don't include the NOx, SOx, and PM2.5 mentioned by Danny and discussed above (note the difference between N2O and NO2 and other NOx).

Forum help

Select a question below

CCL Community's Sitewide Forums are an easy and exciting way to interact with other members on CCL Community.  The Sitewide Forums are focused on subjects and areas of general interest to members.  Each forum consists of topics that members have posted, along with replies from other members. Some forums are divided into categories to group similar topics together. 

Any members can post a topic or reply to a topic.

The Sitewide Forums are open to the entire CCL community to create, comment on, and view online discussions.  Posts and comments should address the subject or focus of the selected forum. 

Note: Categories can only be created by community administrators.

Guidelines for posting: (also see general Community Guidelines)

  • Don’t see your question or topic? Post it.
  • Be thoughtful, considerate (nonpartisan) and complete. The more information you supply, the better the better and more engaging the conversation will be. 
  • Feel like cursing? Please don’t.
  • Ask yourself, “Would my topic post reveal sensitive or confidential information?” If so, please don't post!

Flag/report any offending comments, and then move on. In the rare instance of a comment containing a potentially credible threat, escalate that immediately to CCL.

If the Sitewide Forum has no categories, select the "Add Topic" button at the top of topics window. 

If the forum has categories, when you click on "Add Topic," a dropdown list of the categories appears. Select the desired category and then "Add Topic."
In either case this brings up a box to enter both the topic subject and topic text.

If you have questions or wish to add comments on a posted forum topic, open the post and click the blue “Add Reply” button at top. You can also click on the “Reply” link at the bottom of the original topic posting.

This opens a text box. Add your reply. You can also add documents by dragging a file into the text box. Click “Post” at the bottom of the reply window This will add your reply to other replies (if there are any), sorted by oldest on top. 

If, however, you want to reply directly to someone else’s reply, click on the “Reply” link at the bottom of their reply. 

When replying to a topic post or a topic reply it may be helpful to quote the original text, or the part that your reply is referring to. To quote a topic or reply, click on the "Quote" link at bottom of post. 

When you do this the full text of either the post or reply will be pulled into a reply text box. If desired, you can remove parts of the quoted text in order to get the portion you are interested in quoting.

You can subscribe to notifications of new postings from any of the Sitewide Forums or forum categories. To subscribe, select the green “Subscribe” button at the top of the forum. Click on dropdown arrow to select frequency of notification.

If you are already subscribed, the button will display “Unsubscribe.”  Select it to unsubscribe or select the dropdown arrow to modify frequency of notification. 

Note: If you subscribe to a Sitewide Forum, such as "Media Relations" that has categories (such as "LTEs and Op-Eds"), you will also be subscribed to all the categories. If you wish to subscribe to only one or more of the categories, unsubscribe to the parent forum and subscribe individually to desired categories.

.

If you see a topic post or reply that interests you or that you like, you can click the “Like” icon at the bottom of the topic post or the reply. This lets the poster know that the topic was helpful. It also contributes to the topic’s popularity, which influences where it is listed in the "Popular" forum tab. There are also additional reactions available for members to use. Mouseover the "Like" icon to choose one of these options: Love, Clap, Celebrate, Insightful, or Interesting.

CCL Community Guidelines

  • Discuss, ask and share
  • Be respectful
  • Respect confidentiality
  • Protect privacy

More guidelines
 

CCL Blog Policy Area Categories