Washington state should join Quebec and California in a new carbon market.
Quebec’s Ministry of the Environment announced Wednesday that the three jurisdictions “officially express their interest in the possible creation of a linked carbon market between the three states.”
Like Quebec since 2013, California has managed a cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions since 2012. These two markets were linked on 1er January 2014.
After Ontario’s withdrawal in 2018, the Quebec government had been looking for several years to integrate new players.
“The link between the Quebec-California carbon market and that of Washington State would strengthen the capacity of the three states to work together to develop and implement effective programs to combat climate change, while allowing each to maintain its authority for the design and implementation of its own program,” we can read in a press release published by the Ministry of the Environment.
The ministry specifies that “the three states are following their respective processes to assess the possibility of linking their carbon markets” and that if an agreement is concluded, “the link will be done by updating the regulations adopted by each of them “.
The press release also indicates that “each government would retain authority over its respective programs, but companies would have access to a greater number of emission allowances.”
Currently, the carbon market in which Quebec participates with California operates according to the rules of the Cap and Trade System for Emission Rights (SPEDE), also called the carbon exchange.
The SPEDE aims to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the two federated states: companies in the most polluting large sectors can buy “units”, in a way emission rights, at auction every three months. .
Year after year, the ceiling on authorized emissions decreases, which forces the price of units to rise and encourages companies to reduce their emissions, or to buy “units” in the other territory.