[SEMCO] March 31st lecture at Woods Hole Research Center

[Allison B. White]

Woods Hole Research Center to Host Talk on Carbon Markets and Forest
Conservation

 

On Tuesday, March 31, at 7:00 PM, Woods Hole Research Center Senior
Associate Thomas Stone will speak on carbon markets and forest conservation,
focusing on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.  The lecture, entitled
Carbon Markets and Forest Conservation: A Regional Blueprint for National
Policy?, will be held in the Harbourton Auditorium of the Woods Hole
Research Center's Ordway Campus, 149 Woods Hole Road, Falmouth.  The lecture
is free and open to the public, but registration is required. To RSVP,
please contact Connie Johnson, 508 540 9900, ext. 117, or connie at whrc.org.

 

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a collaboration of
Massachusetts and nine other east coast states stretching from Maine to
Maryland, is demonstrating leadership in tackling one of the planet's most
complex problems. RGGI is a landmark effort to address the buildup of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The RGGI region has an economy of $2.4
trillion, or 19 percent of the entire US economy, and emits more carbon
dioxide than the UK, Canada, South Korea, or France.  What we do as a region
has an impact on global emissions.

 

As of January 1, carbon dioxide emitted from power plants in the RGGI region
is a commodity that comes with a price tag. The mechanism that RGGI is using
to lower CO2 emissions is called "cap and trade," cap, meaning capping or
limiting the amount of CO2 emissions regionally, and trade, because
purchasers of emission allowances may buy and sell those allowances or
permits. Buying and selling allowances means that those who have excess
allowances because they emitted less CO2 than anticipated, due to, for
example, milder weather, can sell allowances to those who need them.
Encouraging the buying and selling of allowances lets the market determine
which power plants can most economically reduce their CO2 emissions. 

 

What does RGGI mean for Falmouth and Cape Cod?  To date, Massachusetts has
raised $28 million from the sale of the allowances in the first auctions
held last September and December. As these "allowance" auctions will
continue quarterly, more money will be raised and distributed statewide.
Those funds are earmarked for energy efficiency programs, low-income
weatherization and heating assistance, and clean energy research and
development.  These programs are critical to equity, to lowering demand, to
stimulating research, and to helping us reduce our dependence on foreign
oil.  There are other benefits as well. As it becomes more expensive for
dirtier and less efficient power plants to operate, they will be used less
and the associated pollutants emitted such as mercury, nitrogen, and sulphur
will be reduced, allowing us all to benefit from cleaner air and water. 

 

The Commonwealth is in the forefront nationally of greenhouse gas (GHG)
legislation and has recently enacted three key companion bills.  These
include, the "Green Jobs Act & Clean Energy Technology Center" bill, which
allocates $50 million to the creation of new jobs and revenue for the
state's clean energy industry; the "Green Communities Act" to create energy
efficient cities and towns and streamline our energy bureaucracy; and the
"Global Warming Solutions Act," which sets CO2 emissions targets out to the
year 2050.  Reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is a part of
allowing the world's climate to function normally, which is critical to the
public interest. 

 

Mr. Stone's talk will examine how, even in these challenging times, efforts
like RGGI can tackle several pressing issues simultaneously, with the goals
of halting climatic disruption and of moving the economy to one that is more
sustainable and less damaging to the planet.  

 

In 2000, Mr. Stone led the effort to produce the Center's well-known study,
Losing Cape Cod: Land Use Changes over 40 Years.  He is an environmental
geologist who uses remote sensing technologies to map vegetation and to
determine rates of land use change and deforestation, both in the
northeastern US and globally. The results of this work assist in the
determination of biotic contributions to the global warming problem. 

 

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