Sticking Points in Offsets Policy

Nicholas Institute Discussion Memo

Author(s): Lydia Olander, Tim Profeta, and Christopher Galik

Published: January 2010

download: memo (.pdf) >

As the U.S. congressional debate about climate policy matures, the design of a carbon offsets program has become increasingly central to the debate. Offsets have attracted the support of a number of stakeholders because of their promise to provide low-cost, flexible compliance in a carbon trading scheme. They have also, however, evoked a number of concerns in the political discourse, as stakeholders have made different judgments about how to balance the assurance of performance with the efficient administration of the program. As policymakers need to understand and evaluate these tradeoffs, this memorandum is intended to outline and compare a range of policy options that would address key issues in offsets policy in a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system.