Topic: business

This report develops a future scenario—named “Ecoflation”—in which policies and natural resource constraints force firms to add environmental costs to the costs of doing business. It estimates a 13-31 percent reduction in earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) by 2013 and 19-47 percent in 2018 for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies that do not develop strategies to respond to the risks of environmental pressures.

Energy savings certificates (ESCs) are used in some states as a mechanism through which third parties, such as commercial and industrial companies, can help utilities comply with energy efficiency targets. This issue explains ESCs and discusses their role in compliance markets.

By encouraging clean technology deployment and imposing new costs on commonly traded commodities, climate policy would have significant impacts on international trade flows. This document answers basic questions about climate policy and its implications for the international trade of goods.

As different statewide greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction policies continue to emerge in the United States, more and more businesses are calling on the federal government to enact a single, uniform policy. The prospect of complementary policies between different levels of government—as well as the potential for conflicting and even duplicative regulations—could have significant implications for business. This installment of WRI’s “Bottom Line” series explores the fundamental debates about, and potential outcomes of, different degrees of state and federal policy action.

Climate policy debates often feature discussions about the role of a carbon tax, either as an alternative or a supplement to a cap-and-trade program. This fact sheet describes the similarities and differences between the two policy approaches and answers other common questions about a tax on carbon.

Cap-and-trade programs are the foundation of many climate policy proposals and have been a focus of debate in state, regional, and national legislatures. This fact sheet provides answers to some of the basic questions about cap-and-trade programs and reviews how such a system might work in the United States.