Ep. 8: Danny Cullenward on rethinking cap-and-trade policies, what's wrong with carbon offsets, and more

In today's episode, climate economist and lawyer Danny Cullenward discusses Making Climate Policy Work, a book he wrote with coauthor David Victor.  He talks about how structural political forces so often prevent cap-and-trade programs from working in practice the way they're supposed to in theory. He explains how industrial policy, usually thought of as less efficient than tradeable pollution permits, is often much more impactful in the real world.  He also talks about the many problems with carbon offsets--in both compliance and voluntary markets.

Cullenward is a Research Fellow with the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy at American University.  He co-founded the nonprofit organization Carbon Plan and serves as vice chair of California’s Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee.

Resources discussed in or related to this episode:

• Making Climate Policy Work, By Danny Cullenward and David G. Victor
• Bloomberg article: This Timber Company Sold Millions of Dollars of Useless Carbon Offsets
• Guardian article: Revealed: more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest certifier are worthless, analysis shows
• https://carbonplan.org/
• https://frontierclimate.com/
• How Solar Energy Became Cheap: A Model for Low-Carbon Innovation, By Gregory F. Nemet 
• Follow Danny Cullenward on Twitter