A new int’l org works toward a global carbon market, leaves U.S. federal gov’t out

Interesting. Across the transom comes news of a new treaty, the International Carbon Action Partnership, signed today by a collection of countries and U.S. states that have implemented carbon cap-and-trade systems.

The idea is to share knowledge and work to standardize best practices in order to facilitate the growth of a global carbon market.

From the press release:

The ground-breaking international and interregional agreement was signed today by U.S. and Canadian members of the Western Climate Initiative, northeastern U.S. members of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, as well as European members including the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, and the European Commission. New Zealand and Norway joined on behalf of their emissions trading programs.

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Global warming is a problem that requires a global solution. ICAP will facilitate such a global solution by:

• Rigorously and accurately monitoring, reporting and verifying emissions and working to determine reliable sources appropriate for inclusion in a globally linked program.
• Encouraging common approaches and furthering partners’ ability to link together to expand the global carbon market, helping to prevent leakage.
• Creating a clear price incentive to innovate, develop and use clean technologies.
• Encouraging private investors to chose low carbon projects and technologies, generating the flow of money needed to support a shift to a low-carbon future.
• Providing flexible compliance mechanisms that ensure reliable reductions at the fastest pace and lowest cost

This kind of international diplomacy by individual U.S. states is something new, as far as I know.