Government incentives key to green investment, firms say
Posted on November 20th, 2009
Greenwire: While the upcoming U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen is important, the future of American clean technology investment will be determined by incentives proposed by lawmakers in Washington, businesses say.
“Of course carbon price, whether foreign or domestic, is the critical element in the long-term economics of renewables and efficiency — but is of little consequence now,” said Seth Kaplan, a vice president at the Conservation Law Foundation.
In the short term, even more important than the price on carbon that would eventually result from a cap-and-trade system will be whether the government mandates a federal renewable electricity standard. About half the states already have such mandates, which require a certain percentage of the electricity mix to stem from renewable sources or efficiency improvements.
The Waxman-Markey bill passed by the House of Representatives earlier this year containing such a mandate (20 percent by 2020), while the Senate is considering a slightly weaker requirement.
Perhaps the business with the most interest in a successful deal at Copenhagen are carbon traders, which will be hungry for the expansion of their business, according to Alex Rau, a principal at the carbon management firm Climate Wedge.
“If you had to pick one industry that is most ‘leveraged’ to an agreement in Copenhagen, it would be this industry that develops, finances or buys credits from greenhouse gas reduction projects internationally,” he said (Kate Galbraith, New York Times, Nov. 19). – PV