Breaking the Stalemate in the Fight Against Climate Change

As the second largest annual emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, the United States is fundamental to the global solution to climate change.

Yet despite some positive steps, U.S. emissions increased rapidly in 2018‚ in the face of warnings that emissions should be cut by 45 percent worldwide by 2030, to avoid worst-case scenarios. Meanwhile, political resistance has blocked the solution many economists favor: a single federal price on carbon, set through a cap-and-trade program or carbon fee. 

There is another way to solve this conundrum, though, writes Tim Profeta, director of Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, in an op-ed for The Hill. To quickly achieve real solutions to climate change, Profeta suggests that Congress should strongly consider a model that has been successfully proven through our nation’s history: the federal-state partnership.

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Read Profeta's policy brief, "Using the Old to Solve the New—Creating a Federal/State Partnership to Fight Climate Change."

Watch Profeta's testimony to the House Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change on Dec. 5, 2019.

Read Profeta’s prepared written testimony to the Subcommittee.