2010

A CLEAR OPPORTUNITY FOR SUCCESSFUL CLIMATE LEGISLATION

Last weekend, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) withdrew his support from a highly-anticipated climate bill, co-sponsored with Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT). While it’s still unclear whether any climate legislation will reach the floor of the Senate before November’s elections, David Wheeler’s recent blog post, “OK, Enough Boodling: Turn the Carbon Account Over to America’s Working Families,” touts a less-prominent bipartisan alternative, the Carbon Limits and Energy for America’s Renewal (CLEAR) Act, co-sponsored by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) Susan Collins (R-ME). David proposed similar ideas in a past working paper and blog on the failure of the Warner-Lieberman Climate Security Act: Give Americans tangible, tradable claims on the stream of dividends, so that families can treat them as stocks and sell them to help finance college educations, homes, or household clean energy systems.

INDIA CONSIDERS MOMENTOUS CLEAN ENERGY POLICY

A recent CGD working paper by David Wheeler and Saurabh Shome reports that India’s proposed massive investments in clean power will cost about $50 billion more than generating the same power with coal.  As they state in the paper, “Less Smoke, More Mirrors:  Where India Really Stands on Solar Power and Other Renewables,” India is considering such investments “despite the absence of any meaningful international pressure to cut emissions, no guarantees of compensatory financing, and a continuing American failure to adopt stringent emissions limits.” With this initiative, India would join China, South Africa, and other industrializing countries that have begun large clean technology programs at their own expense.  Wheeler declares this move a “game changer” in a recent blog post.

LOOKING FORWARD

The next few months could see a number of important developments in climate policy.  Climate and energy bills are being debated in Congress.  The World Bank is developing a new Environment Strategy.  A new United Nations High-Level Advisory Group is debating proposals to mobilize adequate climate change financing.  Keep an eye out for blogs about these developments from the CGD climate team!

Best,

David Wheeler
Senior Fellow
Center for Global Development

Climate change around the web

• Quiet Progress on Senate Climate Bill
• China’s Motives on Climate and Energy
• Is China Putting the Brakes on its Solar Program?
• Exhibit India: The Case for Decarbonization
• Thinking About Tomorrow