Putting a Price on Carbon: Evaluating A Carbon Price and Complementary Policies for a 1.5° World

The text asserts that a carbon price alone is insufficient for full decarbonization by 2050. It emphasizes the need for complementary policies to address market barriers, externalities, and long-lead-time mitigation options, specifically to transform the U.S. energy system through increased efficiency, electricity decarbonization, and electrification of buildings, transport, and industry.

• A carbon price is essential for integrating climate costs into economic decisions and reducing U.S. emissions, especially in electricity, but it cannot achieve full decarbonization on its own.
• Achieving deep decarbonization of the U.S. energy system by 2050 requires a combination of increasing energy efficiency, decarbonizing the electricity supply, and electrifying industry, transportation, and buildings.
• Complementary policies are required to address non-climate externalities and market barriers, and should be judged by their ability to lower the cost of long-term targets rather than near-term reductions.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Putting a Price on Carbon: Evaluating A Carbon Price and Complementary Policies for a 1.5° World. https://www.wri.org/research/putting-price-carbon-evaluating-carbon-price-and-complementary-policies-15deg-world

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Putting a Price on Carbon: Evaluating A Carbon Price and Complementary Policies for a 1.5° World. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/putting-price-carbon-evaluating-carbon-price-and-complementary-policies-15deg-world.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Putting a Price on Carbon: Evaluating A Carbon Price and Complementary Policies for a 1.5° World |url=https://www.wri.org/research/putting-price-carbon-evaluating-carbon-price-and-complementary-policies-15deg-world |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendputting, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Putting a Price on Carbon: Evaluating A Carbon Price and Complementary Policies for a 1.5° World}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/putting-price-carbon-evaluating-carbon-price-and-complementary-policies-15deg-world}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }