THE ROLE OF CARBON PRICING.

• Author: Green, Michael

Journal of International Affairs (JIA): How did you become involved in climate policy and environmental advocacy?

Michael Green (MG): I think everyone who is working on climate change has some root force that pushes them to work on the issue and I am no different. I am from a small town in upstate New York where the snow industry fuels the economy. When I grew up, I noticed climatic shifts and told myself that I'd be a forest ranger. However, I soon realized that just being out in the forest wasn't going to be enough to save it from climate change.

After this realization, I first went into activism, working for Greenpeace and Rainforest Action, and then I grew interested in climate science. I found myself doing research in Geneva, Switzerland, focusing on communication and scientific consensus-building at the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), through which I worked on the relationship between science and policy. At that time, I realized that climate science was still disputed in the political sphere, which I felt was wrong. While the solutions to the crisis merit debate, the scientific facts don't. I believed that a quick way to overcome this challenge, was to work more closely with the private sector, which funded and fuelled a lot of the debate, and was also ultimately responsible for building solutions.

Working with several of my closest colleagues, I launched the 'Climate Action Business Association (CABA)' in 2013. Today, it represents over 450 businesses from across the Northeast United States, and is expanding nationally. CABA helps member-businesses address sustainability and resiliency goals in their operations, works with them to better understand the political landscape, and creates what we call a community of shared values. Businesses can come together to leverage their mutual interests and share best-practices. One of the policy related agendas which quickly surfaced to the top of members' interests was the need for market-based policies to address the climate crisis.

So, my background is somewhat meandering, but it has allowed me to work on climate change from many different angles.

JIA: How would you define carbon pricing for a general audience? What are some types of national or subnational variants?

MG: Carbon spewed into the atmosphere is a form of pollution that is responsible for the climate crisis we are in today. It has a massive external cost to our economy, health, society, and future generations that currently not accounted for in the price we pay for the fuels that produce it. If we price this external cost accurately, we can not only steer markets away from pollution, but also generate meaningful revenue for funding infrastructure such as electricity and transportation grids.

Some examples of carbon pricing schemes are the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and Transport Climate Initiative (TCI), and the California Climate Investments (CCI). RGGI is a sub-national cap and invest policy covering the electricity generation sector in northeastern states, where revenues help fund energy efficiency projects. As a result of it, homeowners receive incentives to upgrade infrastructure, replace lighting, or install more insulation. TCI is a similar market based policy for the transportation sector, which focuses its generated revenues on transportation systems--for highways, public transportation, and transportation access opportunities. CCI...