US Carbon Cap & Trade

Carbon - Risk or Opportunity?

That's the question the Americans in the data centre industry have been asking themselves this year. Having done the keynote presentation in San Francisco in July I went on to do a repeat presentation in Chicago later in the year.

I'm not sure anyone knows how the USA will move on regulating carbon emissions yet. I do know there is a lot of strong feelings from both the supporters and the detractors. Obama has recently come out with a statement that the USA will set a 17% reduction target. That would be the first target of its kind after years of the Bush administration rejecting to control GHG emissions.

There is still much resistance in the USA to any sort of carbon emissions trading/regulation although I was suprised to find that there is a growing faction that support the idea.

Personally I was there presenting how here in Europe we've had a carbon cap and trade system in place for some time now. EU-ETS for the primary emitters of carbon. I was also explaining to my American audiences how the UK was taking the lead on bringing legally binding carbon reduction commitments into the secondary emitter market and that data centres would be hit with the introduction of that system in 2010.

There are clearly states in the USA that are way ahead of the laggards. California has a history for environmental activism, New York also seems to be leading the way. Of course there are other states, notably some of the worst offenders in terms of emissions such as Texas that appear to be trying to weasel out of the whole idea of carbon reduction.

Personally as I always say to people who've asked me the question after my presentation at these sort of events, I think carbon regulation and reduction targets are inevitable for the USA, the question really is when and how its implementation may affect the data centre industry there.

Only time will tell.....