National and State Energy Use and Carbon Emissions Trends

Howard Geller and Toru Kubo

2000

Executive Summary

In December 1997, 160 nations negotiated and reached agreement on the Kyoto Protocol to the Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Kyoto Protocol establishes binding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets for industrialized nations during the first "budget period"(2008-2012). For the United States, the target is 7 percent below 1990 emissions. But the United States emitted 1,803 million metric tons (MMT) of carbon or carbon equivalent in 1998, nearly 10 percent more than U.S. GHG emissions in 1990. With the passing of time, is it still possible for the United States to meet its Kyoto Protocol target (or substantially meet its target) through domestic actions? What set of policies could be adopted to reach or approach America's Protocol target? What economic costs and benefits would these policies have? And what other impacts?

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30 pp., 2000, $13.00, E001