On March 29, Environmental Defense announced the launch of a new national media campaign urging the U.S. Congress to put a firm cap on carbon emissions, highlighting the need for an economy-wide limit on global warming pollution to meet the climate challenge.
Environmental Defense will run ads in major online outlets across the country to underscore the need for a mandatory cap on carbon. Scientific consensus says we need to reduce emissions by 60 to 80 percent by mid-century to avoid dangerous interference in the climate, and only a cap can guarantee those results.
Alternatives such as a tax on carbon do not guarantee emission reductions and could stifle economic innovation, and proposals that do not account for emissions from all economic sectors fail to get the job done.
"We're sending the message to the congressional leadership that small steps won't get us to where the science says we need to be. It might seem easier, but there's no safety valve in the science and no escape hatch in the math," said Steve Cochran, national climate campaign director for Environmental Defense.
Pioneered by Environmental Defense as an economically efficient way to control sulfur dioxide emissions from electric utilities, a cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases would set a hard limit on emissions and let businesses and the market find the best ways to make reductions.
The cap-and-trade approach is the foundation of several bills now pending in the Senate. It also is the goal of business leaders ranging from the CEOs of major manufacturers and utilities that have joined with Environmental Defense in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, to the heads of America's big three car companies and technology innovators and investors across the country.
The ads and more information on cap-and-trade can be found online at www.capcarbonpollution.org.
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