The Impact of Carbon Restrictions: Carbon emissions regulations will benefit both the nation and the environment in the long run
Carbon emissions regulations are currently needed in the response to climate change and global warming through containment within the threshold levels past which it would cause catastrophic changes. It was found that greenhouse gas emissions pose a threat to public health and welfare as a result, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) supported the carbon emissions regulation which was under the Clean Air Act. Carbon emissions resulted from greenhouse gases emissions from motor vehicles and the EPA was required to move forward with regulatory rulemaking procedures.
In addressing climate change, the government have been faced with two options. The first is the more direct command-and-control regulation as the Obama administration implementation. On the other hand, there is the more market-based option where the government imposes a price on carbon in form of carbon tax and consequently, the market organically, reduces carbon emissions. Carbon emissions regulations are effective in the achieve the highest percentage reduction possible for that emission source. Carbon emission regulations are more practical in the implementation. They have an effect of cutting down fossil fuel combustion sources which involve the primary portion of reduction projects which come from electric power generation. The carbon emissions regulations using the regulatory scheme work in the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from electric power generation by fifty percent by 2050. The carbon emissions regulations also have an effect on other sub-source of fossil fuel combustion through combined regulatory schemes which would reduce emissions by 39 percent.
Carbon emission regulations have an effect of reducing the carbon dioxide emission which result to global social benefits. From the estimation of the monetary value of the impacts associated changes in the carbon dioxide emissions, there would be a wide range of anticipated climate impacts. The anticipated climate impacts would involve net changes in agricultural productivity and human health, the property damage from increased flood risk and the changes in energy system costs from the reduced costs of heating and increased costs for air conditioning. The carbon emission regulations have the effect of avoiding the damages as a result of regulatory actions through rulemakings which has a positive incremental impact on the global carbon dioxide emissions.
The other associated benefits of carbon emissions regulation include the monetized benefits coming from the reduced exposure to precursor pollutants. Carbon emissions regulations influences the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions which is identified as an air pollution health co-benefit. Health benefits resulting from the effective carbon emission reduction include avoided premature deaths for infants and adults and avoidance of morbidity effects from lower respiratory symptoms and heart attacks. It is also important to understand the carbon emission regulations from comprehensive market-based policies to the targeted regulations reduce amounts of emissions as well as improve the efficiency of vehicles, power plants and the large industrial sources.
In conclusion, carbon emissions benefit the nation and the environment by taking actions to reduce carbon emission that lead to the yielding of important economic benefits. The benefits accrue from the reductions of the risks to human health and welfare from the lower possibility of global warming and climate change. The carbon emission regulations in a way benefit the environment by limiting the amounts of methane gas leakage from gas and oil operations. Carbon emissions regulations play an important part in spurring innovation where more ways are implemented to reduce waster and increase profits.
The Impact of Carbon Restrictions: Carbon Emissions Regulations Will Be Detrimental to The Nation Because They Will Cause Many Workers to Lose Their Jobs
The oppositions of regulations and restrictions have advance that the theory that the carbon emissions have the primary effect of harming the economy and the employment. The arguments involve the fact that these regulations have the consequence of increasing costs for firms which leads to the reduction of sales and employment. From a one-dimensional perspective it is not clear how regulations affect the markets and the economy. Using the multidimensional perspective, the effects of carbon emissions regulation can be reflected from the mixed impacts found from economic regulation studies. There has been evidence from well-structured and executed studies that show that certain carbon regulations have an effect towards job losses in particular areas.
Most studies against regulations have evaluated carbon emission regulation with the focus on the theory that regulations raise costs for firms in the country. As an influence of carbon emissions, the raising of costs for firms undercut their competitiveness with firms from other countries and as a result it leads to the transfer of jobs and workers to countries with less stringent carbon emission regulations. The opponents of carbon emissions regulations hold to the argument that whenever the government forces businesses to do something it negative influences the ability to employ workers. Moreover, the carbon emission regulations involving the raise of taxes contribute directly on making the operation of businesses more costly and harder.
It remains clear that the costs of climate change are high enough in a way that justifies the carbon emissions regulations even if the have a negative effect to the workers. Following the effect of environmental policies towards unemployment there have been mixed findings. According to the book, “Does Regulation Kill Jobs”, it is concluded that generally regulations are neither a prime job killer nor a significant job creator. While on the other hand, other researcher found that carbon emission regulations and other environmental policies does not have any significant effect on employment.
Carbon emission regulations have the effect of reducing the industries labor demands due to the increased regulated businesses costs. Labor demands decrease may increase involuntary unemployment and underemployment which has social costs. Analyzing the labor demand effects, there direct job effects and general labor market effects. Carbon emission restriction lead to the direct job displacement from polluting industries and also cause negative labor demand shock that affects all workers broadly. The displaced workers turn to the labor markets to search for other jobs resulting to competition with other workers for jobs in the market. Consequently, the effect of the competition over jobs causes the reduction of other workers employment rates and wage rates.
The regulatory induced net drop in labor demand, thereby, reduces employment through the slight reduction of the wage rate. The slight reduction in the wage rate induces some workers to lose hope and drop out of the labor market. Reduction in the wage rate leads to a significant loss to the workers. In an economy where involuntary unemployment is rampant, there might be social costs resulting from the regulatory-induced job loss.
References
Dedoussi, I. C., Allroggen, F., Flanagan, R., Hansen, T., Taylor, B., Barrett, S. R., & Boyce, J. K. (2019). The co-pollutant cost of carbon emissions: an analysis of the US electric power generation sector. Environmental Research Letters, 14(9), 094003.
Liu, Y., & Yao, W. (2020, December). Impact of Waste Import Restriction on Carbon Emission: Evidence from East Asia. In International Conference on Resource Sustainability-Sustainable Urbanisation in the BRI Era (pp. 431-442).
Nguyen, T. T., Pham, T. A. T., & Tram, H. T. X. (2020). Role of information and communication technologies and innovation in driving carbon emissions and economic growth in selected G-20 countries. Journal of Environmental Management, 261, 110162.
Wu, P., Jin, Y., Shi, Y., & Shyu, H. (2017). The impact of carbon emission costs on manufacturers’ production and location decision. International Journal of Production Economics, 193, 193-206.
