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Cut emissions across multiple parts of the economy, from climate targets and carbon pricing to procurement and economy-wide planning.

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488 resources

Resource Congress

Proposed American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009

The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 would have created a national green bank. It passed the House but failed in the Senate.
Resource Private Entities

Clif Bar Energy Subsidies

According to a Sustainable Food Trade Association report, Clif Bar’s Cool Commute program (2006) provided employees with a $6,500 taxable cash incentive to use toward the purchase of a high-mileage hy...
Example States and State Governments

Colorado Legislation for E-Bike, Diesel Truck Replacement, Electric School Buses, and Clean Air Grants

In June 2022, the Colorado legislature passed SB193, establishing grant programs for replacing diesel trucks ($15M), purchasing electric school buses ($65M), the purchase of E-Bikes ($12M), and a gene...
Resource Local Governments

Cambridge Gas Pump Warning Labels

Cambridge, Mass., passed an ordinance in January mandating warning labels be placed on gas pumps. The warnings will include information about the effects of fossil fuel consumption on human health and...
Resource Local Governments

Community Solar Policy Decision Matrix

The Coalition for Community Solar Access has authored a matrix intended to lead policymakers through important questions in the community solar development process, with factors grouped into five cate...
Resource Congress

Proposed Agriculture Resilience Act (2020)

The proposed Agriculture Resilience Act of 2020 would set a target of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. agriculture by the year 2040. It would pursue this target by: Increasing Resear...
Resource Local Governments

Boulder’s Deconstruction Ordinance

Boulder, Colorado’s deconstruction ordinance requires deconstruction of any building being torn down regardless of age and whether it’s residential or commercial. Boulder’s ordinance also includes wha...
Resource Private Entities

HERS Index

RESNET’s Home Energy Rating System index is an industry standard by which a home’s energy efficiency is measured. It is nationally recognized for inspecting and calculating a home’s energy performance...
Resource Private Entities

Green Building Alliance

The Green Building Alliance catalogs a variety of Green Building Certifications, Rating Systems, and Labels, including Energy STAR, LEED, Living Building, WELL Building, Passive House, Net Zero Energy...
Example States and State Governments

California’s Global Warming Solutions Act and AB 341

California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (2006) prompted a scoping plan from the California Air Resources Board that included mandatory commercial recycling in order to achieve a reduction of five mi...
Example Local Governments

Salt Lake City Energy Benchmarking & Transparency Ordinance

Salt Lake City’s Energy Benchmarking and Transparency Ordinance requires all commercial buildings above 25,000 sf to benchmark and report their energy consumption. Beginning in 2020, Salt Lake City wi...
Example States and State Governments

Washington State’s Cap-and-Trade Legislation

In April 2021 legislation from Washington State establishes a cap-and-trade system that puts a price on carbon emissions. The bill creates a “cap-and-invest” program to gradually set tighter limits on...
Resource Local Governments

Model Executive Order on Municipal Leadership on Food Waste Reduction

Given the large amount of food that some municipalities procure and the many people that they employ, the impact of food waste reduction measures in municipal operations can be substantial and far-rea...
Resource Congress

Report, Optimal environmental border adjustments under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

Iowa State University’s Economics Dept. authored a 2018 paper, Optimal environmental border adjustments under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, arguing that border adjustments should be pric...
Resource Congress

Proposed Clean Energy Innovation and Deployment Act of 2020

This proposed 2020 Congressional legislation: Would provide financial support for RD&D into long-term energy storage and carbon storage infrastructure, among other things. Would enact a federal Clean ...
Example States and State Governments

Maine C-PACE Legislation

This bill establishes commercial property assessed clean energy (C-PACE) programs to finance energy savings improvements related to energy efficiency, weatherization, or the installation of renewable ...
Resource Executive Branch

RFF Report, Policy Guidance for US GHG Tax Legislation and Regulation: Border Tax Adjustments for Products of Energy-Intensive, Trade-Exposed and Other Industries

This report describes how border adjustments set up around a greenhouse gas tax and an appropriately designed greenhouse gas index can be framed in a fashion analogous to value added taxes (VAT) that ...
Example States and State Governments

California’s Electric Coop Law

California’s coop statute permits a group of adjacent customers in any area to establish their own generation and distribution system.
Resource Private Entities

Model Performance-Based Lease Template

Under a traditional lease arrangement, energy efficiency may not be addressed, and one party—often, the landlord—may carry the burden of investing in efficiency while the other party benefits from the...
Example States and State Governments

Virginia Acts ch. 763 (2019)

Virginia’s Acts Ch. 763 (2019) required utilities to develop pilots in community solar and time-of-use rates.utility
Example Private Entities

Virgin Earth Challenge

The Virgin Earth Challenge, offered by billionaire Richard Branson, was a $25 million prize for the development of a commercially viable design which results in the removal of anthropogenic, atmospher...
Example States and State Governments

Rhode Island Community Choice Aggregation

R.I. General Laws §96-H8124B established Rhode Island’s Community Choice Aggregation program. The Act was amended in 2002 by House Bill 7786 to give municipalities the ability to set up “opt out” prog...
Example Foreign

Canadian Federal Carbon Tax

Under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, the Canadian federal government implemented a coordinated nation-wide carbon price for all provinces without their own carbon pricing mechanism, beginni...
Resource Congress

Report, Effect of subsidies to fossil fuel companies on United States crude oil production

A 2017 study in Nature Energy finds that, at recent oil prices of $50 per barrel, tax subsidies push nearly half of new, yet-to-be-developed oil investments into profitability, potentially increasing ...
Example Local Governments

Scituate, MA Municipal Aggregation Plan

The town of Scituate, MA submitted a 2019 petition to DOER for approval of their municipal aggregation plan, with the goals of providing long term price stability, lower cost power and more renewable ...
Example Public Utilities

Burlington Commercial On-Bill Financing Program

The Burlington Electric Department’s Commercial On-Bill Financing Program offers an on-bill financing program for business customers. All projects that qualify for rebates and incentives under Burling...
Example Foreign

Waste Free Ontario Act

Ontario’s 2016 Bill 151, the Waste Free Ontario Act, marks a shift towards Extended Producer Responsibility for all products — e-waste, tires, packaging, compost and more. The second part of Bill 151,...
Example Foreign

Japanese carbon tax

Japan’s Tax for Climate Mitigation was imposed on all fossil fuels via Law No. 16 of 2012. The tax base is the amount of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use (covering 70% of Japan’s GHG emissions), wit...
Resource States and State Governments

Carbon Costs Coalition

The Carbon Costs Coalition is a group of state legislators from 12 states devoted to accurately accounting for the cost of carbon pollution. Their efforts aim to strengthen the regional momentum and a...
Resource Congress

WRI report, Putting a Price on Carbon

World Resources Institute’s 2016 report, Putting a Price on Carbon, is a comprehensive reference guide to the design features, revenue options and economic consequences from different approaches to pr...
Resource States and State Governments

NYSERDA Behavioral Consulting

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority provides behavior design and evaluation consulting services to organizations that are interested in using behavioral strategies to increase...
Example States and State Governments

Hawaii’s GEM$ On Bill Program

Hawaii’s Act 204 (2011) directed the Public Service Commission to investigate the viability of an on-bill financing program. After one short-lived program, the Commission published a 2017 Decision (Or...
Example Executive Branch

DOE Advanced Battery R&D Awards

In 2017, DOE made a collective $5.7M award to Battery500, a consortium of battery companies, to fund 15 projects geared towards developing a battery that costs less than $100/kWh. In 2018, DOE followe...
Resource Congress

Proposed SEA FUEL Act of 2019

The proposed SEA FUEL Act of 2019 would require DOD to develop a two-phased research, development, demonstration and subsequent testing program for direct air capture and blue carbon removal technolog...
Resource Congress

The Inflation Reduction Act

New: The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and Environmental Defense Fund are announcing the launch of an additional resource on the Inflation Reduction Act Tracker website: the IRA litigation case ...
Resource Public Utilities

Report, Independent System Operators (ISOs) & Carbon Pricing: An Explainer

This 2020 report from Climate Xchange surveys the policy options for carbon pricing at the Independent System Operator (ISO) level. ISOs coordinate real-time electricity flow, ensure fair competition,...
Resource States and State Governments

ASHRAE Procedures for Commercial Building Energy Audits

ASHRAE publishes Procedures for Commercial Building Energy Audits. These standards describe three levels of energy audits, which are frequently cited in defining the scope of an energy audit required ...
Example Private Entities

LEED for Homes

The LEED for Homes program is a private standard and certification system that verifies the energy efficiency of a property and estimates cost savings for potential homebuyers.
Example Local Governments

Atlanta Benchmarking Ordinance

Atlanta’s Code of Ordinances (2016) requires both energy benchmarking and auditing. Benchmarking is required for city-owned buildings over 10,000 sf or certain classes of buildings over 25,000 sf. The...
Example Public Utilities

PJM’s demand response markets

PJM, a Regional Transmission Organization serving several Midwestern states, solicits demand response managed by curtailment service providers, which is integrated into the wholesale markets and used ...
Example Executive Branch

National and State vehicle mercury programs

End of Life Vehicle Solutions is a national not-for-profit corporation formed by automobile manufacturers providing educational materials, collecting and recycling automotive switches at no cost to di...
Example Congress

Energy Policy Act of 2005

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized DOE to offer cash prizes of up to $10 million for “breakthrough achievements in research, development, demonstration, and commercial application” for energy-re...
Resource States and State Governments

Bottle Bill Resource Guide

The Container Recycling Institute’s projects at bottlebill.org and container-recycling.org document active and proposed bottle bills in the US and abroad.
Example States and State Governments

California SB 1383

SB 1383 mandates the Air Resources Board to establish targets for reducing organic waste in landfills and mandates the adoption of regulations to reduce methane emissions from livestock and dairy manu...
Example Foreign

Basic Law for Establishing a Recycling-Based Society

In the 2000 Basic Law for Establishing a Recycling-Based Society, Japan assigned basic waste management responsibilities to the national government, local governments, businesses, and citizens, and es...
Example Foreign

World Bank Green Bonds

The World Bank Green Bond raises funds from fixed income investors to support World Bank lending for eligible projects that seek to mitigate climate change or help affected people adapt to it. The pro...
Example States and State Governments

Vermont’s Proposed Climate Superfund Bill

This proposed 2024 bill imposes a one-time fee on major fossil fuel producers responsible for more than a billion metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution from 2000 through 2019. The funds collected th...
Resource Private Entities

Model Green Investment Obligations Clause

The Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative effort of UK lawyers to develop new contracts and model laws to help fight climate change, has published a model amendment to standard non leveraged investme...
Resource Congress

Proposed Clean Energy Victory Bonds Act (2019)

This proposed 2019 legislation directs the Secretary of Treasury to work with the Secretary of Energy and the Secretary of Defense to establish Clean Energy Victory Bonds. Bonds would be available to ...
Resource Private Entities

Renew Financial

Renew Financial administers CaliforniaFIRST, which provides affordable financing for home upgrades to more than 27 million Californians. CaliforniaFIRST has funded millions of dollars worth of project...
Resource Local Governments

NYC’s Model Energy Aligned Lease Provision

NYC’s Model Energy Aligned Lease Provision details language intended to solve the split incentive problem in typical modified gross commercial leases for base buildings.
Example States and State Governments

NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation Carbon Pricing Guidance

The New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation published a 2021 guidance document outlining the value of carbon and other climate pollutants for use by other agencies in a regulatory context. ...
Resource Local Governments

Milan Urban Food Policy Pact

The MUFPP is an international pact signed by 209 cities with over 450 million population supporting best practices in managing food waste. The MUFPP website also contains best practices, awards, and o...
Example Local Governments

Brisbane CA Bag Ban

Brisbane’s Ordinance 580 requires retailers to stop giving out single-use plastic bags and instead only offer recycled-content paper or reusable bags for a minimum charge of 10 cents per bag.
Example Local Governments

Reno Energy and Water Efficiency Program

In addition to benchmarking requirements, Reno’s Energy and Water Efficiency Program requires that all buildings not receiving an Energy Star score of at least 50 must conduct an energy audit and retr...
Example Local Governments

DC Green Bank

The District of Columbia Green Finance Authority Establishment Act of 2018 made Washington, DC the first city in the United States to establish a green bank. The DC Green Bank aims to attract private ...
Example States and State Governments

Maine’s Extended Producer Responsibility for Plastic Packaging

In July 2021, Maine became the first state in the nation to adopt a law requiring companies that create consumer packaging to pay for the costs of recycling. LD 1541 establishes an “extended producer ...
Example Foreign

Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian Population

Brazil’s Dietary Guidelines encourage the use of minimally processed plant-based foods over animal products to reduce GHGs and deforestation.
Resource Congress

Report, Using Regulation to Change the Market for Innovation

A classic 1985 article, Using Regulation to Change the Market for Innovation, argues that market pull can be stimulated by properly structured regulation. It presents a model of the effects of regulat...
Resource Congress

Proposed Financing Our Energy Future Act of 2019

The proposed Financing Our Energy Future Act of 2019 concerns Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs). An MLP is taxed as a partnership but ownership interests are traded like corporate stock on a market. ...
Resource Public Utilities

NRDC report, On-Bill Financing

NRDC’s 2013 report, On-Bill Financing: Overview and Key Considerations for Program Design, describes key benefits and challenges to consider when exploring an on-bill program.
Resource Executive Branch

Ecolabel Index

The Ecolabel Index catalogs over 200 different ecolabel programs in the United States.
Example Public Utilities

Kentucky How$martKY On-Bill Financing Program

The Mountain Association for Community Economic Development’s How$martKY On-Bill Financing Energy Efficiency Program organizes four rural utility cooperatives in Eastern Kentucky to provide energy ret...
Resource Private Entities

Off4Firms report, Accelerating CO2-Emission Reductions via Corporate Programmes

Off4Firms report, Accelerating CO2-Emission Reductions via Corporate Programmes, provides an intensive study of the efficacy of the COYou2 Program offered by the company Swiss Re (providing funding fo...
Resource Congress

Proposed Solar Energy Research and Development Act of 2019

The proposed Solar Energy Research and Development Act of 2019 directs DOE to carry out an RD&D program that improves the capacity, efficiency, reliability, security, and affordability of solar energy...
Resource Congress

Columbia’s Near-Term to Net Zero Carbon Pricing Approach

The social cost of carbon (SCC) is commonly described and used as the optimal CO2 price. However, the wide range of SCC estimates provides limited practical assistance to policymakers setting specific...
Resource Local Governments

Comparison of State Laws on Electronics Recycling

The Electronics TakeBack Coalition’s 2013 spreadsheet comparing state laws on electronics recycling provides a survey of states with producer responsibility laws and other models.
Resource Executive Branch

Report, Carbon Pricing in Wholesale Electricity Markets: An Economic and Legal Guide

The Institute for Policy Integrity’s 2020 report explains how such carbon-pricing rules in organized wholesale electricity markets can improve economic efficiency. It then explores the economic princi...
Example States and State Governments

California Recycling Market Development Act

The California Recycling Market Development Act (2019) reauthorizes a Recycling Sales Tax Exemption; reauthorizes the Recycling Market Development Zone Program; and establishes a “Statewide Commission...
Resource Congress

Proposed Green Bank Act of 2014

The proposed Green Bank Act of 2014 (HR 4522) would have established a Green Bank as a federally-owned independent corporation with a 20-year charter. It would have authorized an initial capitalizatio...
Resource Foreign

Green Business Leases Model Law

The Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative effort of UK lawyers to develop new contracts and model laws to help fight climate change, has published a model law amending existing UK law to require that...
Resource Private Entities

Model Net Zero Target Supply Chain Cascade Clauses

Many businesses and organisations are publicly announcing targets to be net zero by a particular date, not just in their own operations, but including emissions upstream in their supply chains and dow...
Resource Public Utilities

RAP reports on Utility Reform and Integrated Planning

The Regulatory Assistance Project has prepared a report, Leading Utility Regulatory Reform, highlighting key elements of a successful reform process (including scoping, creative process elements, stak...
Model Law States and State Governments

LPDD Model Law: Legislation Enabling Guaranteed Conservation Performance Contracting for Public Entities

Employing energy-efficiency retrofits can improve the energy-efficiency of existing buildings by approximately 30-50%. One model for financing and installing such retrofits is the guaranteed energy sa...
Resource Congress

Report, A Minilateral Solution for Global Climate Change

The London School of Economics’ 2016 paper, A Minilateral Solution for Global Climate Change, assesses the strength of limited “climate clubs” among progressive nations, arguing that they can enhance ...
Example Public Utilities

New Jersey Natural Gas SAVEGREEN On-Bill Financing Program

New Jersey Natural Gas’ SAVEGREEN On-Bill Financing Program offers 0% APR on-bill repayment for eligible small to mid-sized commercial, industrial, and local governmental buildings in its service area...
Resource States and State Governments

Repair.org

Repair.org promotes legislative efforts to enshrine the right to repair in state and federal law. They have published a model state right to repair law.
Resource Private Entities

ACEEE report, Mobilizing Energy Efficiency in the Manufactured Housing Sector

A 2012 ACEEE report, Mobilizing Energy Efficiency in the Manufactured Housing Sector, estimated that a typical manufactured home could achieve net savings of $279 per year if all buyers took advantage...
Example Local Governments

Model Community Choice Aggregation Ordinances

MCE, a California-based Community Choice Aggregator, has compiled a number of ordinances establishing CCA from among its member communities.
Example Private Entities

OPOWER programs

OPOWER is a popular technological platform, purchased in 2016 by Oracle, for helping residential customers monitor and reduce their energy usage. They have been selected as the platform of choice in n...
Resource Local Governments

Model Ordinance on Mandatory Reporting for Large Food Waste Generators

Up to 40 percent of food in the United States is wasted—and 95 percent is disposed of in landfills or incinerated. Diverting food waste from landfills by preventing food waste, donating surplus food, ...
Resource States and State Governments

Model Community Solar Legislation

The Coalition for Community Solar Access has authored two sets of model community solar legislation for vertically integrated states and restructured states.
Resource Private Entities

Energy Efficiency Model Clauses for Design and Build Contracts

The Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative effort of UK lawyers to develop new contracts and model laws to help fight climate change, has published model clauses for Design and Build Contracts to make...
Example States and State Governments

New Jersey C-Pace Legislation

A-2374 requires the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) to establish a Garden State Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (“C-PACE”) Program to facilitate the financing of C-PACE pro...
Example Public Utilities

NY REV Proceeding

Under New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision proceeding, the Commission ordered New York utilities to develop methodologies for assessing distribution system needs and the potential value of DER solut...
Resource Private Entities

Green MLS

The Green MLS Tool Kit is an effort to define fields that help home buyers using the Multiple Listings Service quickly find green homes, make it easy to fully promote the special features of a green h...
Example Executive Branch

Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear

DOE’s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear program seeks to provide the nuclear community with access to the technical, regulatory, and financial support necessary to move innovative nuclear ...
Resource Congress

RFI report, Environmental Taxation

Resources for the Future’s 2016 discussion paper, Environmental Taxation, examines potential environmental tax policy reforms, focusing primarily on a carbon tax. The paper draws on recent theoretical...
Resource Foreign

Report, The Circular Economy and Benefits for Society

The Club of Rome’s 2015 report, The Circular Economy and Benefits for Society, broadly explores the potential for a significant increase in resource efficiency and assesses what the main benefits for ...
Resource Local Governments

Model Municipal Zoning Ordinance on Community Composting

This Model Municipal Zoning Ordinance on Community Composting, published by NRDC and ELI, is a template ordinance that can be adapted and enacted by a municipality to establish community composting as...
Example States and State Governments

California’s Climate Catalyst Revolving Loan Fund

In June 2020, California passed AB78 to establish the Climate Catalyst Revolving Loan Fund to provide low-cost, low-interest finance to support eligible low carbon technology and infrastructure projec...
Example Executive Branch

Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E)

The Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) was established in 2007 to bring new technologies from laboratory to market. ARPA-E has distributed $1.5 billion in R&D funding to more than 580 p...
Resource Executive Branch

FERC Technical Conference regarding Carbon Pricing in Organized Wholesale Electricity Markets (Sept. 2020)

At a September 2020 FERC Technical Conference, legal experts agreed that FERC does have the legal authority to implement a carbon price. Under sections 206 and 205 of the Federal Power Act, FERC has t...
Resource States and State Governments

ILSR Report, State of Composting in the US

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance published a 2014 report, State of Composting in the US, which takes a national snapshot of composting practices and identifies model public policies and programs.
Example Foreign

Law on Recycling of Specified Kinds of Home Appliances

Law 97 of 1998 required consumers and retailers to return air conditioners, television, refrigerators and freezers, and washing machines and clothes dryers to manufacturers, and required manufacturers...
Model Law Congress

LPDD Model Law: Federal or State Carbon Labeling Act

Carbon footprint product labels could influence consumers to make environmentally friendly choices without substantial effort on their part, by providing more information than the consumer has at pres...
Resource States and State Governments

New Mexico Climate Change Task Force

Through Executive Order 2019-003, New Mexico established a Climate Change Task Force to evaluate strategies and policies to reduce GHG emissions, including the adoption of a comprehensive market-based...
Example States and State Governments

New York’s Clean Water, Clean Energy, Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act

In the 2022 election, New York voters overwhelming voted in favor of the Clean Water, Clean Energy, Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act, or Proposition 1. The Act includes up to $1.5B for climate change...
Example Foreign

Saitama’s Emissions Trading Scheme

Saitama’s ETS was established in April 2011 as part of the Saitama Prefecture Global Warming Strategy Promotion Ordinance. Under the ETS, large buildings and factories in Saitama are required to reduc...
Resource Congress

ITIF report, An Innovation Agenda for Deep Decarbonization

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation report, An Innovation Agenda for Deep Decarbonization, diagnoses the limits of the current clean energy innovation agenda and identifies sectors an...
Resource Local Governments

LBNL report, Quantifying the Effect of the Principal-Agent Problem on US Residential Energy Use

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s 2006 report, Quantifying the Effect of the Principal-Agent Problem on US Residential Energy Use, quantifies the extent that the principal agent problem affects energy ...
Example Foreign

British Columbia’s Carbon Tax

British Columbia’s Carbon Tax Act (2008) implemented a tax beginning at $10 CAD per ton of CO2-eq emissions, and ramping up to its current rate of $30 CAD, applying to 20 classes of fossil fuels and o...
Example Local Governments

Portland’s Deconstruction Ordinance

Deconstruction ordinances catalyze local material recovery markets, reducing demand for virgin materials and creating jobs in skilled deconstruction. The City of Portland (Oregon) Deconstruction Ordin...
Resource Congress

Report, A Survey of Key Technological Innovations for the Low Carbon Economy

The Grantham Institute’s report, A Survey of Key Technological Innovations for the Low Carbon Economy, summarizes the main technological innovation priorities required to achieve deep decarbonization....
Model Law States and State Governments

LPDD Model Law: State Legislation Supporting Sustainable Management of Food Waste

The model law below addresses methods by which states can support the sustainable management of food waste. It targets individuals producing food residuals, and establishes state policies for the redu...
Resource States and State Governments

Report, Massachusetts Microgrids

Harvard’s 2014 report, Massachusetts Microgrids: Overcoming Legal Obstacles, surveys the laws surrounding extending distribution systems and selling power to neighboring customers in Massachusetts. In...
Example Public Utilities

Massachusetts Smart Meter Authorization

The Dept. of Public Utilities issued a 2018 Order authorizing utilities to make $220 million in investments in grid modernization technologies over three years to upgrade their distribution systems to...
Resource Local Governments

San Francisco’s Green Tenant Toolkit

San Francisco’s Green Tenant Toolkit includes a guide to integrating sustainability throughout the life-cycle of commercial leases, toolkits for stakeholder engagement, and a checklist summarizing key...
Example Foreign

Denmark’s Livestock Carbon Tax

In a world first, Denmark is set to become the first nation to impose a GHG tax specifically on livestock emissions. In 2030, a fee of 300 Danish crowns ($43.60 USD) will be charged to farmers per ton...
Resource Foreign

IRENA report, Renewable Energy Technology Innovation Policy

The 2015 IRENA report, Renewable Energy Technology Innovation Policy, is a guide for policy makers in implementing national or sub-national policies to support innovations in renewable energy. It prov...
Resource Congress

Brookings Institute report, A U.S. Cap-and-Trade System to Address Global Climate Change

A U.S. Cap-and-Trade System to Address Global Climate Change proposes a specific cap-and-trade system with several key features including: an upstream cap on CO2 emissions with gradual inclusion of ot...
Example Local Governments

Ohio Community Choice Aggregation

Ohio was among the first states to authorize CCA (called Governmental Electricity Aggregation there) as part the Energy Choice Act of 1999 (SB3). More than 250 communities in Ohio have switched to mun...
Resource Congress

Proposed American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009

The proposed American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (“Waxman-Markey”) would have included a form of border carbon adjustment at Section 401 of Part IV of the bill. The proposed adjustment meas...
Example States and State Governments

New Mexico’s Community Solar Act

In March 2021, New Mexico passed SB84, the Community Solar Act. The Act outlines the requirements for qualifications, ownership, administration, and rulemaking around community solar projects. Under t...
Example States and State Governments

Wisconsin Green Bank Exploratory Order

In April 2023, Wisconsin’s Governor signed EO 195, creating the Green Ribbon Commission on Clean Energy and Environmental Innovation to advise on establishing the Green Innovation Fund, which would be...
Resource Private Entities

Goldman Sachs report, The Low Carbon Economy

Goldman Sachs report, The Low Carbon Economy: Technology in the Driver’s Seat, argues that LEDs, solar PV, onshore wind and electric vehicles will maintain momentum and are now as much a transformativ...
Resource Executive Branch

White House Guidance on Cost-Benefit Analysis in Regulation

In November, 2023, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) issued revisions to Circular A-4, the government-wide guidance on regulatory analysis, for the first time since 2003. The rev...
Example States and State Governments

Massachusetts’ Proposed Climate Superfund Bill

Massachusetts joined the group of states in 2024 proposing variations on a climate superfund bill, targeting $75 billion in damages for climate change from fossil fuel companies, to be spent on climat...
Resource Local Governments

The Green Lease Library

The Green Lease Library is a centralized site for commercial green leasing resources. Their website catalogs guidance and case studies, public sector green leasing resources, model green leasing langu...
Resource Congress

Report, Innovation and Climate Policy

David Popps 2010 report, Innovation and Climate Policy, reviews the literature on environmental innovation and diffusion, with a focus on studies relevant to the development of clean energy technologi...
Example Congress

Proposed Zero Waste Act of 2019

A proposed grant funding program for organics recycling infrastructure, e-waste, source reduction, and market development.
Example Local Governments

Seattle’s Priority Green Expedited Program

Seattle provides customized green building education, early design guidance, technical assistance, incentives, and recognition of sustainable building. They also provide expedited construction permitt...
Resource States and State Governments

Report, States Should Spur Use of “Direct Pay” Tax Credits to Advance Clean Energy in Low-Income Communities

Seventy percent of the IRA’s $400 billion in climate investments is in the form of uncapped, direct pay tax credits, which are available through at least 2032. Beyond its scale, direct pay is unique i...
Example States and State Governments

Get Food Smart Tennessee

Get Food Smart Tennessee is a state-run program coordinating with restaurants, schools, governments, non-profits, grocers, agriculture, and industry to reduce food waste. Their partners collaborate to...
Example States and State Governments

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is a nine-state compact (as of October 2019) among Northeastern states to cap carbon emissions from the power sector and use permit auction proceeds to spur clea...
Example States and State Governments

Washington’s Sustainable Food Management Legislation

Washington’s HB2301 (2024) creates programs to prioritize food waste prevention, donation, or upcycling over composting or anaerobic digestion, and directs the state’s newly created Center for Sustain...
Example Foreign

Swiss Emissions Trading System

The Switzerland ETS began with a voluntary phase as an alternative option to the CO2 levy on fossil fuels. Revised regulations entered into force in January 2013. The system subsequently became mandat...
Resource Congress

Model Environmental Heads of Terms

Heads of Terms for a commercial transaction are preliminary terms that drive many of the workflows and set the tone and spirit of a negotiation. The Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative effort of UK...
Example Foreign

Dutch Dietary Guidelines

The Health Council of the Netherlands published 2015 dietary guidelines that recommended more plant-based and less animal-based nutrition, particularly processed red meat. The report notes that limiti...
Example Local Governments

Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund

The Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) provides dedicated funding for climate action that advances racial and social justice. PCEF was created by local ballot measure #26-201 in Nove...
Model Law Congress

LPDD Model Law: Removal of Favorable Tax Treatment for Coal

The attached model bill and supporting memorandum propose amendments to the Internal Revenue Code to eliminate favorable treatment of coal mining and production, as recommended in Chapter 4 of the LPD...
Example Public Utilities

CAISO ancillary services markets revisions

In 2016, the California Independent System Operator filed proposed revisions to its Open Access Transmission Tariff with FERC to facilitate participation of aggregations of distribution-connected or d...
Resource Private Entities

The Climate Bonds Initiative and Market Reports

The Climate Bonds Initiative is an international investor-focused not-for profit working to mobilize the bond market for climate change solutions. They promote investment in projects and assets necess...
Example States and State Governments

Western Climate Initiative

Under AB 32, California authorized a statewide cap-and-trade program in 2006. Under Chapter Q-2, r. 46.1, Quebec did the same in 2012. California and Quebec linked their cap and trade systems under th...
Resource Public Utilities

Minnesota research studies on residential energy use behavior change pilots

Franklin Energy conducted a literature review and interviews across eight utilities, five consultants, and three research organizations to probe the efficacy of customer behavior programs. The program...
Example States and State Governments

Washington’s SB 5116

Washington’s 2019 SB 5116 grants the Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) the authority to shift utilities from a return-on-capital business model to a performance-based model. Rather than pr...
Resource Private Entities

ACEEE report: Behavior Change Programs

ACEEE’s 2016 report, Behavior Change Programs: Status and Impact surveyed different types of behavior change programs, including the deployment of smart meters and other technologies designed to give ...
Example States and State Governments

Virginia’s HB 1184 (2020)

Virginia’s HB 1184 (2020) promotes the establishment of distributed renewable solar and other renewable energy by, among other measures, requiring the State Corporation Commission to establish by regu...
Resource Congress

Proposed carbon pricing bills in US Congress

A variety of carbon pricing bills circulated through the US Congress in 2019 and 2020. They are linked and summarized here. The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act of 2019 (HR 763) places a pric...
Resource Congress

Report, Designing Border Carbon Adjustments for Enhanced Climate Action

Climate Strategies’ 2017 paper, Designing Border Carbon Adjustments for Enhanced Climate Action, reviews past border carbon adjustment proposals and offers design principals and recommendations on que...
Example States and State Governments

Rhode Island Food Waste Diversion Law

Rhode Island’s law required covered entities to divert organic waste to an authorized composting or anaerobic digestion facility, or a facility that uses any other authorized recycling method, includi...
Resource Private Entities

International Carbon Markets Association: Green Bond Principles

The International Carbon Markets Association’s Green Bond Principles promote integrity in the Green Bond market through guidelines that recommend transparency, disclosure and reporting. They are inten...
Resource States and State Governments

California’s proposed SB 54 (2019)

SB 54, The California Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act, would require all single-use plastic packaging and products be reduced or recycled by 75 percent by 2030; require all single...
Example States and State Governments

Illinois Community Choice Aggregation

Illinois’ Power Agency Act established community choice aggregation in the state.
Resource States and State Governments

New York’s proposed S3998B

New York’s proposed S3998B (2016) would have required manufacturers to make available parts and repair information to owners and independent repair providers in the same manner as they make these reso...
Resource Executive Branch

IWG Social Cost of Carbon

The Interagency Working Group Social Cost of Carbon’s 2013 update gave four updated SCC estimates for 2020 at $12, $43, $64, and $128 (2007$) based on different integrated assessment models.
Example Foreign

China’s planned emissions trading system

China has been developing and running test pilots for a national emissions trading system for some years. Since 2011, China has been operating seven test pilot carbon markets in different regions. A 2...
Resource Executive Branch

Berkeley report, Addressing Climate Change Without Legislation

UC Berkeley School of Law’s publication, Addressing Climate Change Without Legislation, proposes that through FERC’s authority over electricity rates, power contracts, and utility planning, as well as...
Example Public Utilities

Hawaii Performance-Based Regulation and Integrated Grid Planning proceedings

On April 18, 2018, the Public Utilities Commission of Hawaii (PUC) opened a Performance-Based Regulation proceeding to investigate the economic and policy issues associated with performance-based regu...
Resource Congress

OECD report, United States Self-Review of Fossil Fuel Subsidies

The U.S.’s 2015 report to the OECD catalogs producer and consumer subsidies for fossil fuels and argues that fossil fuel subsidies in the U.S. amount to roughly $8.7 billion. These estimates are lower...
Resource Private Entities

Best Workplaces for Commuters

Best Workplaces for Commuters is a membership program that provides qualified employers with national recognition and an elite designation for offering outstanding commuter benefits. Employers and dev...
Resource Congress

Proposed Nuclear Energy Leadership Act of 2018

The proposed Nuclear Energy Leadership Act of 2018 would have included enhanced federal investment in the nuclear industry, establishing facilities to test and develop advanced nuclear reactors and to...
Example Local Governments

Cleveland’s green leasing initiatives

Cleveland was named the first municipal “green lease leader” in the country by the Institute for Market Transformation. Cleveland began implementing green leases in 2013, when it developed its first C...
Resource States and State Governments

ACEEE Report, Energy Efficiency in Real Estate Listings: A Controlled Experiment

ACEEE’s August 2020 report shows that including home energy efficiency scores in online real estate listings would lead buyers to choose more-efficient homes with lower energy costs. The study provide...
Example Public Utilities

PJM carbon pricing study

PJM, an independent system operator in the mid-Atlantic states, has proposed to study the effects of a carbon price on wholesale markets in tandem with the carbon pricing discussion being advanced by ...
Resource Private Entities

Clean Power Exchange

CPX serves as a California-focused hub of information, resources, and conversation for communities interested in or considering a Community Choice Energy program, and those already serving customers.
Resource Private Entities

ACEEE report, After the Audit

ACEEE published a 2019 report, After the Audit: Improving Residential Energy Efficiency Assessment Reports, which surveyed over 600 customers who received home energy assessments to see how they respo...
Model Law States and State Governments

MCLI Model Law – Methane from Wastewater Treatment Facilities (WWTF)

Methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas that is the second biggest contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide (CO2). One ton of CH4 emissions has the same global warming potential (GWP) as ap...
Resource States and State Governments

Oregon’s defeated cap and trade bill

Oregon’s House Bill 2020 proposed a statewide cap-and-trade program starting in 2021, with a declining allowance budget leading to a 45% reduction in GHG emissions below 1990 levels by 2035. From 2036...
Resource Congress

Proposed Off Fossil Fuels for a Better Future Act (H.R. 3671)

2018’s proposed H.R. 3671 would have amended several sections of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to eliminate subsidies aimed specifically at the fossil fuel industry.
Example States and State Governments

Virginia Community Choice Aggregation

Virginia has permitted CCA since 1999, but no current programs are in operation. In 2003, the state passed legislation to spur the adoption of CCA programs through state-run pilots.
Model Law States and State Governments

LPDD Model Law: State Green Leases Legislation

Green leasing is an opportunity for owners and tenants to work together in going green. Specifically, a green lease outlines the way in which a building will be occupied, managed, and operated to achi...
Example Local Governments

NYC’s Commercial Organic Waste Law

New York City’s Local Law 146, the Commercial Organic Waste Law, requires covered food waste generators to source-separate their organic material and either arrange for the transportation of this mate...
Example States and State Governments

Maryland’s Climate Solutions Now Act (2022)

In March 2022, both houses of the Maryland legislature passed the Climate Solutions Now Act, which calls for Maryland to reduce GHG emissions by 60% (compared to a 2006 baseline) by 2031 and for the M...
Example States and State Governments

Connecticut Shared Clean Energy Facility Pilot Program

Connecticut’s Shared Clean Energy Facility Pilot Program was established in response to Public Act 15-113, as amended by Public Act 16-116, as a two-year initiative to support the development of SCEFs...
Example States and State Governments

California’s Endorsement of a Fossil Fuel Nonproliferation Treaty

Through SJR 2, the California legislature made a significant show of public support for the United States to endorse an international Fossil Fuel Nonproliferation Treaty. The resolution supports a glo...
Resource Foreign

Report, Scaling Technologies to Decarbonize Energy

The World Economic Forum’s 2015 report, Scaling Technologies to Decarbonize Energy, highlights 15 high potential technology areas and pathways to speed up renewable energy development and deployment.
Example Local Governments

Seattle Food Waste Ordinance

In 2014, Seattle passed an ordinance prohibiting food waste and compostable paper from going in the trash, with a $50 associated fine. While the enforcement provisions of the ordinance were later stru...
Resource Private Entities

LEAN Energy US

The Local Energy Aggregation Network is a broad network of CCA and energy market experts dedicated to the accelerated expansion and competitive success of clean energy CCA nationwide. They work in par...
Resource Private Entities

CAL-CCA

The California Community Choice Association is an organization that a represents the interests of California’s community choice electricity providers in the legislature and at state regulatory agencie...
Resource Foreign

Model Law on Parent Company Liability for Environmental Damages of Subsidiaries

The Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative effort of UK lawyers to develop new contracts and model laws to help fight climate change, has published a model law amending UK corporate law extend liabili...
Example Foreign

Mexico’s carbon tax and nascent emissions trading scheme

The foundation of Mexico’s climate policy is the General Law on Climate Change (2012) (analyzed by ELI and EDF, with relevant sections on trading translated by EDF). It established the basis for clima...
Example States and State Governments

New York’s Digital Fair Repair Act

In late December, New York enacted the Digital Fair Repair Act, giving citizens the right to fix their phones, tablets, and computers. The Act requires original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to make ...
Resource Congress

Proposed Green Bank Act of 2016

The proposed Green Bank Act of 2016 (HR 5802) would have established a U.S. Green Bank that provides financial support to assist regional, state, and local institutions finance clean energy or energy ...
Example Executive Branch

USDA Energy Efficiency and Conservation Loan Program

The USDA’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Loan Program provides direct loans to finance energy efficiency and conservation projects for commercial, industrial, and residential consumers in rural a...
Example Executive Branch

USDA Environmental Quality Incentives Program

USDA’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program provides agricultural producers with direct financing to pay for energy efficiency improvements.
Example Local Governments

Honolulu Plastic Ban

Honolulu’s Bill 40, Relating to Plastic (2019), has been called one of the strongest single-use plastic ban in the nation. It was approved in December 2019. This law bans nearly all takeout plastic ov...
Resource Congress

Report, Energizing America

This 2020 report by the Columbia University SIPA Center on Global Energy Policy offers the incoming Biden administration and Congress a strategic framework to triple US annual investment in energy inn...
Resource Private Entities

Model Green Supplier Agreement Terms

The Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative effort of UK lawyers to develop new contracts and model laws to help fight climate change, has published a model green procurement checklist and clause to ma...
Example Congress

EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement

The EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement incorporates provisions on environmental protection and sustainable development, including provisions addressing climate change mitigation.
Example States and State Governments

Connecticut’s Composting Requirements

Public Act 13-285, An Act Concerning Recycling and Jobs, requires that food wholesalers, manufacturers, grocery stores, and conference centers located within 20 miles of a composting facility must sou...
Example Executive Branch

Pilot Program for Green Technologies Including Greenhouse Gas Reduction

The US Patent and Trademark Office’s commenced a Pilot Program for Green Technologies Including Greenhouse Gas Reduction in 2009, under which patent applications for green technologies received expedi...
Resource Private Entities

Model Paris-Compliant Objects Clause for Company’s Articles of Association

The Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative effort of UK lawyers to develop new contracts and model laws to help fight climate change, has published a model draft objects or general-purpose clause for ...
Example States and State Governments

Utah’s HB 411 (2019)

Utah’s HB 0411 (2019) provides cities with mechanisms to establish and achieve a community goal to source net-100% of electric energy from renewable resources by 2030. Through this legislation, cities...
Resource Private Entities

Report, Achieving a Circular Economy

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s 2015 report, Achieving a Circular Economy: How the Private Sector is Reimagining the Future of Business, surveys companies making investments in circular econ...
Example Foreign

Korea’s End of Life Vehicles Legislation

Korea’s 2007 Act for Resource Recycling of Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Vehicles (referred to as RoHS) creates a framework to hold producers and importers responsible for their use of resou...
Resource Local Governments

Zero Waste Design Guidelines

In support of NYC’s goal of sending zero waste to landfills by 2030, the Zero Waste Design Guidelines surveyed architects, planners, developers, city officials, waste haulers, recycling experts and bu...
Example Local Governments

Denver’s Waste No More Ballot Measure

Via ballot measure in the 2022 midterms, Denver voters endorsed new rules mandating that large apartment buildings, restaurants and a broad range of other commercial businesses be required to recycle ...
Example Local Governments

DC’s PACE program

DC’s PACE program is designed to function through the issuance of pooled bonds under the National Capital Energy Fund.
Example States and State Governments

Vermont PACE program

Vermont authorized PACE financing in 2009 with House Bill 446. There is currently no program operating.
Example States and State Governments

California ETS Border Carbon Adjustment

California’s emissions trading system requires carbon border adjustments for imports of electricity from jurisdictions without a carbon trading framework. First deliverers of imported electricity are ...
Example Local Governments

Palo Alto’s EV-Readiness Ordinance

A 2014 Ordinance amending Palo Alto’s building code requires that all new single-family residences and commercial buildings (including multifamily dwellings, mixed-use facilities, and hotels) be “EV r...
Resource States and State Governments

Institute for Market Transformation

The Institute for Market Transformation is a Washington, DC think tank that works to catalyze widespread and sustained demand for high-performing buildings. They work in partnership with businesses, p...
Example Local Governments

Cape Light Compact

The oldest and largest CCA example in Massachusetts is the Cape Light Compact, which buys electricity and runs energy efficiency programs for all the towns on Cape Cod plus Martha’s Vineyard. The Comp...
Resource Private Entities

Model Board Minutes Drafting

The Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative effort of UK lawyers to develop new contracts and model laws to help fight climate change, has published a model drafting format for board minutes that calls...
Example States and State Governments

New Jersey Community Solar Energy Pilot

New Jersey’s A3723/S2314 (2018) mandates the creation of the Community Solar Energy Pilot Program. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities adopted rules establishing the Community Solar Energy Pilot ...
Resource Foreign

ISO 14024

The International Organization for Standardization’s Standard 14024 (2018) provides international ecolabeling standards that are generally favored in WTO jurisprudence.
Resource Local Governments

Illinois Community Choice Aggregation Network

The Illinois Community Choice Aggregation Network provides member communities with access to independent, experienced and affordable resources that place local governments and their residents and busi...
Example Foreign

Irish carbon tax

In 2010, the Republic of Ireland placed a carbon tax on all residential and commercial use of gas and oil not covered by the EU ETS, under Part 3 of the 2010 Finance Act.
Example Congress

EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement

The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement contains a chapter on the environment that holds that a lack of full scientific evidence should not be a reason for not protecting the environm...
Resource Executive Branch

CFTC’s Guidance on Carbon Credit Derivatives

As carbon credits grow in popularity as a means for purchasers to claim they have offset their emissions, a growing market of derivatives based on carbon credits has emerged. These derivatives, even m...
Resource States and State Governments

Massachusetts’ proposed H2810

Massachusetts’ proposed H2810 puts a price on carbon pollution and invests 30% of all revenue ($400–600 million per year) in local clean transportation, resiliency, and renewable energy projects. A Cl...
Resource Congress

Report, Accelerating Job Growth and an Equitable Low-Carbon Energy Transition

This January 2021 report examines the potential of a federally authorized Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator. This new nonprofit corporation, which would catalyze but not compete with private...
Example Executive Branch

DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office

The DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office supports research in a variety of fields relating to electric and hybrid vehicles, including applied battery research.
Example Private Entities

Full Harvest

Full Harvest has created an online platform for farmers to sell their ugly and surplus food directly to businesses that don’t care what the produce looks like because they process it. Businesses like ...
Example Executive Branch

SunShot Initiative

The DOE’s SunShot Initiative was launched in 2011 with the goal of reducing the cost of solar energy 75% by 2020, which target was met three years early. The program has set a 2030 goal to halve that ...
Example States and State Governments

New York Community Choice Aggregation

CCA in New York was authorized through the Public Service Commission in 2016.
Resource Local Governments

San Antonio’s Deconstruction Ordinance

With the approval of this ordinance, San Antonio became the largest city in the country to ensure that valuable materials are salvaged for reuse instead of crushed and landfilled. The ordinance went i...
Example Public Utilities

Connecticut’s Innovative Energy Solutions Program

In March 2022, Connecticut regulators approved a new Innovative Energy Solutions (IES) program to accelerate the state’s grid modernization efforts by facilitating partnerships among private companies...
Example Local Governments

San Francisco’s Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance

San Francisco’s Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance covers businesses, governmental entities, multi-family or commercial residences, and individuals. All covered persons must sort their waste...
Example Local Governments

Berkeley’s Energy Savings Ordinance

Berkeley’s Energy Savings Ordinance (No. 7397) (2015) requires energy assessments at time of sale for medium, small, and single family buildings, and will phase-in all buildings by building size and y...
Resource Private Entities

Model Clause on Public Contractors Facilitating Environmental Volunteer Opportunities

The Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative effort of UK lawyers to develop new contracts and model laws to help fight climate change, has published a a model clause for contracts that would require th...
Example States and State Governments

New York EO 88

New York’s Executive Order 88 requires that public buildings of more than 20,000 sf benchmark their energy consumption annually. Buildings that receive low scores are required to undergo ASHRAE Level ...
Resource Executive Branch

EPA Recommended Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing

EPA’s Recommended Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing are intended to help federal purchasers efficiently and effectively identify and procure environmentally sustainable products and services to meet th...
Example Public Utilities

Southern California Edison’s Non-Residential On-Bill Financing Program

Southern California Edison’s Non-Residential On-Bill Financing Program offers qualified business customers 0% financing from $5,000 to $100,000 for qualifying projects. All government and institutiona...
Resource States and State Governments

Sabin Center’s Comparative Analysis of 2024 Climate Superfund Legislation

This March 2024 blog from the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law analyzes four recent climate superfund legislative proposals, compares them, and suggests legal challenges to their implementation.
Example States and State Governments

New Jersey Ban on Single-Use Plastic and Paper Bags

In Nov. 2020, New Jersey adopted S864, which prohibits the use of single-use plastic and paper bags in all stores and food service businesses statewide. Under the law, starting May 2022, both plastic ...
Resource Congress

Report, Dirty Energy Dominance

Oil Change International’s 2017 report, Dirty Energy Dominance, catalogs federal and state fossil fuel subsidies, and identifies opportunities to eliminate them. Appendix 1 provides a complete list of...
Resource Congress

Stanford Law paper, Dynamically Estimating the Distributional Impact of US Climate Policy with NEMs

A 2014 Stanford Law paper, Dynamically Estimating the Distributional Impact of US Climate Policy with NEMs, analyzes the Climate Protection Act of 2013, a fee-and-dividend policy, and estimates the di...
Resource Congress

IPCC’s AR-5 Chapter 13

The IPCC’s AR-5 Chapter 13 provides an overview of climate agreements and instruments, including a discussion of game theory implications, multilateral and bilateral agreements, regional cooperation, ...
Example Foreign

French carbon tax

In the Finance Bill for 2014 (Dec. 2013), the French government adopted a carbon tax of US$9.70/tCO2 e in 2014; increasing to US$17.60/tCO2 e in 2015; and US$24.00/ tCO2 e) in 2016 for the use of foss...
Resource Congress

Proposed Wind Energy Research and Development Act of 2019

The proposed Wind Energy Research and Development Act of 2019 requires the DOE to carry out a wind energy research, development, testing, evaluation, and demonstration program; reduce the cost and ris...
Example States and State Governments

Massachusetts Commercial Organic Waste Ban

In 2014, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection amended regulations on solid waste disposal by adding “commercial organic material” to a list of several materials already barred from...
Resource States and State Governments

NREL report: State Considerations for Designing Community Solar Policy

The National Renewable Energy Lab published a 2018 report on State Considerations for Designing Community Solar Policy analyzing the impacts of program caps, project size caps, subscriber location req...
Example Public Utilities

FPL SolarTogether

In March 2020, Florida Power & Light Company got approval from the Florida Public Service Commission to launch FPL SolarTogether, the largest community solar program in the country at the time of laun...
Resource Private Entities

Report, Employee Engagement Best-Practices for Energy Efficiency

Quaking Aspen LLC’s report, Employee Engagement Best-Practices for Energy Efficiency, summarizes the efforts undertaken by a variety of private employers to encourage their employees to adopt more ene...
Resource Local Governments

California Green Leasing Report and Toolkit

The California Green Leasing Report(and 2017 update) provides information to policymakers and market participants about the role green leasing plays in achieving the benefits of green buildings. The r...
Resource Congress

Proposed National Green Bank Act of 2019

The proposed National Green Bank Act of 2019 would establish a U.S. Green Bank to finance climate change mitigation and adaptation projects at the state and local level by capitalizing regional, state...
Resource Private Entities

Home energy use software

Some employers have reported granting employees access to software that tracks their home energy use, including WSP, WeSpire, and Green Impact.
Resource Private Entities

Report, Adoption of New Smart-Grid Technologies

The Rand Corporation’s 2015 report, The Adoption of New Smart-Grid Technologies, includes case studies of policy successes as well as a chapter on policy levers that jurisdictions can use to advance t...
Example Foreign

UK End of Life Vehicles regulations

The UK’s End of Life Vehicles regulations transpose the EU ELV Directive through regulations passed in 2003 and 2005. The 2003 regulations include the use of improved standards for vehicle treatment s...
Example Public Utilities

NY Smart Home Rate Demonstration Projects

As part of the Reforming the Energy Vision proceeding, the NY PSC has approved several utilities to conduct Smart Home Rate demonstration projects. The projects will combine smart home capabilities wi...
Resource Executive Branch

Report, Enhancing the Social Benefits of Regulatory Review

The Institute for Policy Integrity’s 2020 report, Enhancing the Social Benefits of Regulatory Review, focuses on potential reforms through the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) at th...
Example States and State Governments

Massachusetts’ Clean Energy Grid Legislation

Massachusetts’ S.2967, An Act Promoting a Clean Energy Grid, Advancing Equity, and Protecting Ratepayers, reforms the siting and permitting of clean energy facilities, as well as the gas distribution ...
Resource Congress

Report, The Role of Patent Protection in (Clean/Green) Technology Transfer

The Santa Clara High Technology Journal’s 2010 article, The Role of Patent Protection in (Clean/Green) Technology Transfer, reviews the evidence on the role of patents for innovation and the hurdles i...
Resource Local Governments

Report, CCA in Massachusetts

The UNH Sustainability Institute’s report, CCA in Massachusetts, analyzes case studies, the use of RECs for CCA, size and cost considerations, and the political tensions and process that animates the ...
Example Executive Branch

USDA Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvement Loans and Grants Program

The USDA Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvement Loans and Grants Program provides loan guarantees to rural businesses or agricultural producers for renewable energy systems or ener...
Resource Executive Branch

CoBank

CoBank is a special purpose federal financial institution that provides financing to electric cooperatives.
Example States and State Governments

Oregon’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Program

Oregon’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Program offers a rebate to driver’s who purchase or lease electric vehicles, up to $2,500, or potentially $5,000 for low and moderate income Oregonians. The program is fu...
Example Local Governments

Austin’s Universal Recycling Ordinance

Austin’s Universal Recycling Ordinance includes organic waste requirements, which took effect in October 2016. Under the Ordinance, covered “food enterprises” must provide organics diversion services....
Example States and State Governments

Washington’s Cap-and-Trade Regulation

In October 2022, the Washington State Dept. of Ecology finalized greenhouse cap-and-trade program regulations. The regulations were promulgated in furtherance of the state’s 2021 Climate Commitment Ac...
Example States and State Governments

New Jersey rules for electric/thermal distribution

New Jersey’ Rev. Stat. §48.3-77.1 permits ownership of distribution wires by local suppliers to service customers to whom they also deliver thermal energy services.
Resource Private Entities

Barclays report, Sustainable Investing and Bond Returns

Barclays report, Sustainable Investing and Bond Returns, studies the impact of environmental, social and corporate governance investing on credit portfolio performance.
Example Executive Branch

FHA PowerSaver Loan Program

The FHA’s PowerSaver Loan Program is a pilot mortgage insurance/ home improvement loan program from the Federal Housing Administration that enables homeowners to finance cost-effective, energy-saving ...
Resource States and State Governments

Virginia proposed RGGI regulation

Pursuant to Executive Directive 11 (2017), a proposed ‘Regulation for Emissions Trading’ was prepared by the state’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and approved by the Virginia State Air Po...
Example Local Governments

Metro Portland’s Food Waste Diversion Ordinance

Portland OR’s metropolitan government approved a 2018 ordinance that requires certain businesses to separate and divert food waste. Metro’s Business Food Waste Requirement requires that local jurisdic...
Resource Foreign

OECD report, Aligning Policies for a Low Carbon Economy

OECD’s 2015 publication, Aligning Policies for a Low Carbon Economy surveys the efficacy of R&D tax credits, innovation investment portfolio theory, and the effects of removing unhelpful subsidies for...
Resource Executive Branch

EPA report, Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Emissions Through Materials and Land Management Practices

EPA’s 2009 report, Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Emissions Through Materials and Land Management Practices, assesses materials management through resource conservation and recovery methods and an...
Example Executive Branch

FERC demand response orders

FERC Order 745 ordered RTOS to open their markets to demand response. FERC Order 755 ordered RTOs to provide frequency regulation compensation to third parties. FERC Order 784 eases the barriers for t...
Example States and State Governments

Oregon Senate Bill 978

Senate Bill 978 created an open investigation into multiple aspects of the regulatory structure, including rate design, revenue regulation, grid modernization, integrated resource planning, and others...
Example Foreign

Chilean Carbon tax

In 2014, Chile adopted a carbon tax as part of a larger tax reform (Law 20780), which included changes to other taxes. The carbon tax targets plants with boilers and turbines whose emission sources su...
Example Foreign

Basic Environmental Law

In the 1993 Basic Environmental Law, Japan created an environmental council tasked with drafting an environmental plan that articulates basic principles for government, corporations, and citizens to p...
Model Law States and State Governments

LPDD Memorandum on State “Public Utility” Definitions

This memorandum sets forth the statutory definitions of “public utility” currently in use in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The document is designed to assist legislators and others as th...
Resource Congress

The Partnership for Market Readiness’ Carbon Tax Guide

The Partnership for Market Readiness’ 2017 Carbon Tax Guide surveys design and modeling principles, potential externalities, oversight and compliance considerations, and case studies.
Resource Private Entities

Model Termination for Greener Supplier Clause

The Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative effort of UK lawyers to develop new contracts and model laws to help fight climate change, has published a model standard clause in merchant-customer contrac...
Resource Congress

Proposed Master Limited Partnerships Parity Act of 2015

The proposed Master Limited Partnerships Parity Act of 2015 would have expanded the definition of “qualified income” to include clean energy resources and infrastructure projects.
Example Foreign

New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme

Authorized by the Climate Change Response Act of 2002, the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) was launched in 2008. Originally designed to cover the whole economy, it has the broadest secto...
Example States and State Governments

New Hampshire’s Group Net Metering program

New Hampshire’s Group Net Metering program (2013) allows multiple customers to engage with a common, non-utility owned DG system up to 1 MW, using solar, wind, or certain other renewables defined by l...
Example Local Governments

Boston’s Residential Composting Program

In May 2022, Boston opened a curbside food waste collection program with rolling online enrollment. Food waste, collected with residents’ scheduled trash and recycling, will be sent to a private compo...
Example States and State Governments

California PACE Loan Loss Reserve

California operates a loan loss reserve for PACE loans generated in-state. The PACE Loss Reserve Program’s goal is to increase availability of residential PACE financing by making first mortgage lende...
Resource Private Entities

Duke’s employee EE pilot incentive

Duke University conducted an energy efficiency pilot program aimed to help Duke employees complete energy efficiency home retrofits and track reductions in energy use and carbon emissions. The Environ...
Example States and State Governments

Alaska’s HB 374

HB 374, signed into law in 2018, enables utilities to offer customers on-bill financing agreements to finance measures such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy storage devices. Also eli...
Resource Local Governments

Groundswell plastic foam ban list

Groundswell, a nonprofit community solar developer, maintains a list of communities across the US that have banned polystyrene foam products.
Resource Private Entities

Model Employment Clause on Climate Sabbaticals

The Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative effort of UK lawyers to develop new contracts and model laws to help fight climate change, has published a model clause establishing “garden leave” and “clim...
Resource Congress

Article, Declining CO2 price paths

A 2019 article, Declining CO2 price paths, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, argues that traditional financial evaluation of uncertain climate risks favors an initially high (>$1...
Resource Congress

RFI paper, The Initial Incidence of a Carbon Tax across Income Groups

Resources for the Future’s 2014 discussion paper, The Initial Incidence of a Carbon Tax across Income Groups, links dynamic models of the United States to estimate the initial incidence of a carbon ta...
Resource States and State Governments

IREC Shared Renewables Resources

The Interstate Renewable Energy Council hosts a variety of resources related to shared renewables, including Model Rules for Shared Renewable Energy Programs, a National Shared Renewables Energy Score...
Example Public Utilities

SoCalGas Non-Residential On-Bill Financing Program

SoCalGas’ Non-Residential On-Bill Financing Program offers qualified business customers as well as multi-family residential owners 0% financing from $5,000 to $100,000 per meter for qualifying natural...
Example Public Utilities

Consumer’s Energy Offset Proposal for Natural Gas Customers

On October 19, 2021, Consumers Energy petitioned the Michigan Public Service Commission for approval of a voluntary carbon offset program. The Program will be marketed as a voluntary program to natura...
Resource Congress

Report, Multilateral Climate Efforts Beyond the UNFCCC

C2ES’s 2011 paper, Multilateral Climate Efforts Beyond the UNFCCC, discusses venues for forwarding climate negotiations outside the Paris Agreement, including the International Maritime Organization, ...
Resource States and State Governments

FAO factsheet, Food Wastage Footprint and Climate Change

The FAO’s brief report surveys the carbon footprint of food waste, the carbon intensities of different food types, and food waste reduction scenarios.
Example Foreign

EU End of Life Vehicles Directive

The EU’s ELV Directive (2000-53-EC) requires that manufacturers reduce the use of hazardous substances (mercury, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, lead) when designing and producing vehicles. The Directiv...
Example States and State Governments

Vermont’s Energy Loan Guarantee Program

The Energy Loan Guarantee Program, created by Act 87 in 2013, provides loan guarantees to financial institutions for loans made to businesses for energy efficiency improvements. It guarantees a maximu...
Resource Local Governments

Model Ordinance Reducing the Use of Plastic Bags, Polystyrene, and Straws

Model local ordinance from Beyond Plastics banning the “plastics trifecta” – plastic bags, plastic straws and polystyrene – three of the biggest sources of single-use plastic pollution.
Example Executive Branch

Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program

The Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) direct loan program was established in Section 136 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to support the production of fuel-efficient...
Resource Private Entities

Model Carbon Contract Clause for Environmental Performance

If a breach of contract causes or contributes to the customer to miss its GHG targets, this has negative climate impacts and may be hard to quantify and evidence the loss caused to the injured party i...
Example Local Governments

Seattle’s Deconstruction Ordinance

In Seattle, residential deconstruction permits have strict requirements: 20% minimum reuse of materials by weight, 50% minimum recycled/reused, 100% of concrete/asphalt/brick recycled/reused, and wast...
Example Public Utilities

New York’s Community Distributed Generation program

New York’s Community Distributed Generation program (2015) allows multiple customers to engage with a common, non-utility-owned DG system up to 5 MW, using solar, wind, or certain other renewables def...
Example States and State Governments

California’s Bring-Your-Own Reusable Food and Beverage Containers Law

California’s AB 619 (2019) ends the requirement that temporary food facilities at community events provide single-use foodware and makes clear for restaurants that they may serve food and beverages in...
Resource Public Utilities

E3 report on Residential Efficiency Behavior Programs

Energy and Environmental Economics 2011 report, Overview of Residential Energy Feedback and Behavior‐based Energy Efficiency, provides an overview of residential customer information and behavior ener...
Example Local Governments

Boston’s Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance

Boston’s Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance (2013) requires that buildings report energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and water use to the city using Portfolio Manager (or an equival...
Resource Local Governments

Report, Disposal Bans and Mandatory Recycling in the United States

The 2017 report from the Northeast Recycling Council catalogs disposal bans and mandatory recycling laws across all 50 states.
Example States and State Governments

California CLEEN Center

In 2014, California Green Bank legislation was introduced by Senator Kevin De Leon, and led to Governor Brown’s creation of the new California Lending for Energy and Environmental Needs (CLEEN) Center...
Resource Private Entities

Model Green Termination Provision

The Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative effort of UK lawyers to develop new contracts and model laws to help fight climate change, has published a model standard clause in merchant-customer contrac...
Resource States and State Governments

AFFORD Tool

The AFFORD tool (America’s Federal Funding Opportunities and Resources for Decarbonization) helps state, local, non-profit, and community organizations identify eligible funding, tax credits, and othe...
Example Local Governments

Orlando Ordinance 2016-64

In addition to benchmarking requirements, Orlando’s Ordinance 2016-64 requires buildings owners to conduct an energy audit or retrocommissioning every five years, unless their building receives an ENE...
Example Foreign

Swedish End of Life Vehicle and Producer Responsibility Regulation

Sweden adopted a 1997 Ordinance on Producer Responsibility (SFS 1997:185), which required manufacturers to accept ELVS free of charge and established a system for their management. Sweden has also ado...
Model Law Congress

LPDD Model Law: Federal Green Private Activity Bonds Act

Generally, public entities may only issue tax-exempt bonds for governmental purposes. The Internal Revenue Code specifies certain limited categories of tax-exempt bonds that may be issued for private ...
Resource Local Governments

Rural Electric Co-Op Bylaws

Co-oplaw.org catalogs electric co-op bylaws from around the country.
Resource Local Governments

ABC report, Green Leasing

A Better City’s 2014 report, Green Leasing: An Effective Tenant/Landlord Strategy for Energy Efficiency, details how energy disclosure ordinances have increased green leasing adoption, and provides mo...
Resource Congress

Report, Opportunities to Reduce Food Waste in the 2023 Farm Bill

Opportunities to Reduce Food Waste in the 2023 Farm Bill details how Congress can take action to reduce food waste and offers specific recommendations of provisions to include in the 2023 Farm Bill. T...
Resource Private Entities

ELPC handbook on Community Wind Financing

The Environmental Law and Policy Center has prepared a handbook on Community Wind Financing, guiding project champions and developers through best practices on financing community wind projects, inclu...
Resource Private Entities

Model Environmental Warranties in Undertaking/Sponsor Agreements

Warranties and undertakings in underwriting and sponsor agreements are not required to go into significant and granular detail as regards an applicant/issuer’s environmental position and climate chang...
Resource States and State Governments

Illinois’ Climate and Equitable Jobs Act

This 900-page energy and climate bill, passed in September 2021, covers a variety of subject areas, listed below: On electricity: The bill raises the renewable portfolio standard to require 40 percent...
Resource States and State Governments

Transportation and Climate Initiative

The Transportation and Climate Initiative is a collaboration of the transportation, energy and environment agencies from 12 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states and Washington, DC, focused on reducing gr...
Example Local Governments

Boulder’s Universal Zero Waste Ordinance

Boulder’s Universal Zero Waste Ordinance require business owners, residential property owners, institutions (including educational and nonprofit organizations), and event permit holders in Boulder to ...
Example Foreign

Switzerland carbon tax

Switzerland introduced a CO2 levy under the Federal Act on the Reduction of CO2 Emissions covering heating and process fuels as part of a comprehensive climate policy package to decrease the use of fo...
Example States and State Governments

Energize NY Finance Program

The Energy Improvement Corporation is a New York State not-for-profit, established specifically to increase the demand for energy efficiency and renewable energy building upgrades. With a growing memb...
Resource Public Utilities

ACEEE Report, On-Bill Financing for Energy Efficiency Improvements

ACEEE’s report, On-Bill Financing for Energy Efficiency Improvements, offers program profiles from across the country, and makes program and policy recommendations.
Resource Foreign

Report, Aligning Policies for Low-Carbon Systemic Innovation in Europe

The Centre for European Policy Studied and Industrial Innovation for Competitiveness published a 2016 report, Aligning Policies for Low-Carbon Systemic Innovation in Europe, which considers potential ...
Resource Executive Branch

DOE report, Energy Investment Partnerships

DOE’s 2015 report, Energy Investment Partnerships: How State and Local Governments Are Engaging Private Capital to Drive Clean Energy Investment, provides a national survey of state and local Energy I...
Resource Foreign

WTO 2016 Decision on Certain Measures Relating to Solar Cells and Solar Modules

The WTO’s 2016 decision against India invalidated solar policies for having discriminatory local content rules. The decision contours certain attributes to avoid in designing local content rules. The ...
Example States and State Governments

Colorado’s Community Solar program

Colorado’s Community Solar program (2011) allows multiple customers to engage with a common, utility- or non-utility-owned solar system up to 2 MW. Crediting is based on a total aggregate retail rate,...
Example States and State Governments

Hawaii Green Energy Market Securitization program

The Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority was created by Act 211 in 2013. The Hawaii Green Energy Market Securitization (GEMS) Program was created by the Green Infrastructure Authority and other agenc...
Example Local Governments

San Diego Polystyrene and Plastic bans

San Diego’s Ordinance 21030 (2019) regulates products made from polystyrene and the distribution of certain single-use straws and utensils. Under the Ordinance, vendors may not distribute plastic stra...
Resource Congress

Proposed USE IT Act of 2019

The proposed USE IT Act of 2019 would further the development and innovation of carbon utilization and direct air capture technologies and processes.
Example States and State Governments

Minnesota Performance-Based Regulation proceeding

Minnesota legislation (Stat. 216B.16) allowed the PUC to “initiate a proceeding to determine a set of performance measures that can be used to assess a utility operating under a multiyear rate plan.” ...
Model Law States and State Governments

LPDD Model Law: State Extended Producer Responsibility Legislation

This model state law addresses Extended Producer Responsibility for collection opportunities and recycling of packaging for all types of consumer products. Numerous states have developed EPR bills of ...
Example Foreign

End of Life Vehicle Law

Japan’s End of Life Vehicle Law (Law 87 of 2002) establishes a consumer paid recycling program for all four-wheel vehicles to collect chlorofluorocarbons, airbags, and shredder dust and to recycle aut...
Resource Private Entities

MIT Report, Solar Securitization

A 2016 MIT report, Solar Securitization: An Innovation in Clean Energy Finance, reviews the U.S. residential solar market, examines the mechanics of solar securitization, explores the potential tradeo...
Resource Congress

Proposed H-Prize Act

In 2007, the House of Representatives passed the H-Prize Act to authorize $70 million in prizes for advancements in hydrogen energy.
Resource Local Governments

Portland’s Proposed Carbon Tax

In November 2020, Portland proposed a Healthy Climate Fee, which would establish a $25 per-ton fee on GHG emissions from facilities in Portland with emissions of 2,500 metric tons of CO2-e (carbon dio...
Resource States and State Governments

NASEO report, The Role of Clean Energy Banks in Increasing Private Investment in Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

The National Association of State Energy Officials and the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions published a 2014 report, The Role of Clean Energy Banks in Increasing Private Investment in Electric ...
Resource Congress

Carbon Pricing in the Americas Declaration

On 12 December 2017, at the One Planet Summit in Paris, France, the governments of Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, as well as the US states of California and Washington and Canadian provi...
Example States and State Governments

Tennessee SB 0795 (2021)

This April 2021 legislation authorizes local governments in Tennessee to establish and adopt commercial property assessed clean energy and storm resiliency (C-PACER) programs that ensure that free and...
Resource Foreign

Global Ecolabelling Network

The Global Ecolabelling Network supports the development of third-party certified ecolabeling systems, such as ISO 14024, while also supporting other types of self-declaration and voluntary programs. ...
Model Law States and State Governments

LPDD Model Law: State Provision to Promote Local Employment in Decarbonization Policies

This Model Provision provides a regulatory framework to use decarbonization policy to promote local employment without resorting to protectionist measures that run afoul of international trade rules. ...
Resource Local Governments

WegoWise database

WegoWise maintains a database of US city benchmarking ordinances.
Example Foreign

South Korea’s Emissions Trading Scheme

South Korea’s Emissions Trading Scheme (KETS) was authorized in 2012 through the Act on the Allocation and Trading of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Permits. The KETS was launched in 2015, and in 2018 Phase...
Resource States and State Governments

Report, Food Surplus and Its Climate Burdens

This 2016 paper in Environmental Science and Technology notes that in the year 2010, food availability was 20% higher than was required on a global scale, and provides a systematic approach to estimat...
Resource States and State Governments

California’s proposed AB 1163

California’s proposed AB 1163 (2019) would require manufacturers making an express warranty with respect to an electronic or appliance product to make available sufficient service literature, at no ch...
Example Local Governments

Medford, MA CCA

The Medford Community Electricity Aggregation program for residents and businesses begins in December 2019 and will go through December 2022. It allows Medford customers to “opt-up” into a 100% renewa...
Resource Local Governments

Surfrider database on Plastic Bag Bans and Fee, Polystyrene Ordinances

The Surfrider Foundation maintains a list of plastic bag bans and fees as well as polystyrene ordinances from across the US and internationally.
Resource Congress

CPLC report, State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2018

Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition’s 2018 report, State and Trends of Carbon Pricing, focuses on data and information on the evolving initiatives that put a price on carbon, in terms of their most cu...
Example Public Utilities

California’s Integration Capacity Analysis working group

In the Integrated Capacity Analysis proceeding, the California Public Utilities Commission ordered investor-owned utilities to work with DER providers to develop a methodology to identify where DERs c...
Example Executive Branch

Fannie Mae Multifamily Green Financing Program

Fannie Mae’s Multifamily Green Financing Program provides mortgage financing to apartment buildings and cooperative for the retrofitting of U.S. rental housing stock to become more energy- and water-e...
Example Foreign

Swedish Carbon Tax

The carbon tax was introduced in 1991, and has gradually been increased to $140 US/tCO2e in 2018, the highest level in the world. Sweden’s success with high carbon tax prices is exemplary. While the S...
Example Foreign

Law for Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources

In 1991, Japan passed comprehensive materials usage legislation, the Law for Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources, which set out a legal framework for manufacturers outlined mandatory take-...
Resource Private Entities

Model Clause on Supplier Environmental Threshold Obligations

The Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative effort of UK lawyers to develop new contracts and model laws to help fight climate change, has published a model clause setting legally enforceable environme...
Resource Congress

Proposed Clean Energy for America Act (S. 1288)

Introduced in May 2019, S.1288 would amend the Internal Revenue Code to replace the 44 existing energy tax credits with three technology neutral tax provisions that would incentivize the use of low an...
Example Local Governments

Portland ME bag fee

In 2014, Portland passed a 5 cent fee on paper and plastic bags.
Example States and State Governments

Maryland’s Proposed Climate Superfund Bill

Maryland’s proposed RENEW Act of 2024 — Responding to Emergency Needs from Extreme Weather — seeks to levy penalties on the 40 biggest emitters of greenhouse gases in Maryland over the past two decade...
Example Congress

Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program

The federal government has operated an Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program for several decades under the 1990 Pollution Prevention Act, which focuses federal procurement programs on clean te...
Example States and State Governments

New York rules for energy sales to adjacent properties

New York permits qualified renewable energy and cogeneration facilities to sell to customers located “at or near the project site.” Public Service Commission decisions have interpreted this grant to e...
Resource Congress

RFF Carbon Pricing Bill Tracker

Resources for the Future has launched a Carbon Pricing Bill Tracker comparing all of the carbon pricing bills introduced in the 116th Congress to see where there is and is not agreement on the array o...
Resource Executive Branch

Report, Statutory Authority for Sustainability in the Dietary Guidelines of Americans

Simon’s 2015 report provides a legal analysis of statutory authority for sustainability in the dietary guidelines of Americans. It argues that the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Ac...
Resource Local Governments

Model Municipal Ordinance on Advancing Community Composting

The Environmental Law Institute (ELI), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) developed a model municipal ordinance to advance community composting....
Example Private Entities

Marin Energy Authority’s establishing documents

In furtherance of establishing community choice aggregation, the Marin Energy Authority executed a Joint Powers Agreement among a number of localities. The full text is available as a model. It has al...
Example Foreign

Act on Promoting Green Purchasing

Japan’s Law 100 of 2000, the Act on Promoting Green Purchasing, requires government agencies develop green purchasing policies. The government has accordingly promulgated a basic policy on promoting g...
Resource Congress

TPC report, How to Use Carbon Tax Revenues

The Tax Policy Center’s 2016 report, How to Use Carbon Tax Revenues, identifies tradeoffs among tax revenue options and makes several recommendations for policy design. It recommends that governments ...
Resource Foreign

UNEP report, Global Waste Management Outlook

The UN Environment Programme’s 2015 report, Global Solid Waste Management, is a comprehensive assessment of global waste management. The six chapters inform the reader about trends, provide an analysi...
Example States and State Governments

Hawaii HB 1464

In addition to benchmarking requirements, Hawaii’s HB 1464 requires retrocommissioning on public buildings at least every five years.
Example Congress

Proposed Foreign Pollution Fee Act

Introduced in November, 2023, the proposed Foreign Pollution Fee Act marks a rare Republican proposal to price carbon pollution — from foreign imports. The new bill would impose a fee on certain indus...
Resource Congress

Proposed Distributed Energy Demonstration Act of 2017

The proposed Distributed Energy Demonstration Act of 2017 would have required the DOE to establish demonstration grant programs for Smart Grid technologies.
Example Local Governments

Orlando Benchmarking Ordinance

Orlando’s Code of Ordinances (2016) requires benchmarking and, in some cases, audits and retrocommissioning. All covered properties, City-owned properties exceeding 10,000 sf and non-city owned proper...
Resource Foreign

MacArthur Foundation Report, Growth Within: A Circular Economy Vision for a Competitive Europe

The MacArthur Foundation’s 2015 report, Growth Within: A Circular Economy Vision for a Competitive Europe, looks into three key European sectors – food, mobility, and the built environment – examining...
Resource Congress

Report, Fossil Fuel Subsidies: A Closer Look at Tax Breaks and Societal Costs

EESI’s 2019 report, Fossil Fuel Subsidies: A Closer Look at Tax Breaks and Societal Costs, identifies eight different active direct and indirect fossil fuel subsidies in the tax code, as well as recen...
Resource Congress

Proposed National Climate Bank Legislation of 2019-20

Senator Ed Markey introduced legislation calling for a National Climate Bank (S. 2057), a nonprofit institution independent of government, designed to reduce energy costs and leave consumers and busin...
Resource States and State Governments

Report, Bans and Beyond: Designing and Implementing Organic Waste Bans and Mandatory Organics Recycling Laws

This 2019 report from Harvard’s Food Law and Policy Clinic analyzes the structure and implementation of organic waste bans and presents examples from states and cities with existing or proposed waste ...
Example Local Governments

Montgomery County, MD Green Bank

The Montgomery County Council unanimously passed Bill 18-15 in 2015, which called for the creation of an independent non-profit to serve as the County’s Green Bank. The Montgomery County Green Bank wa...
Example States and State Governments

California Community Choice Aggregation

Established by 2002’s AB 117, California’s community choice aggregation program allows for communities to join together to purchase electricity on behalf of their community members. Community choice p...
Resource Congress

Report, Changing Climate for Carbon Taxes: Who’s afraid of the WTO?

The German Marshall Fund’s 2013 paper, Changing Climate for Carbon Taxes: Who’s afraid of the WTO?, explores the basic architecture of a carbon border tax adjustment, as well as complications includin...
Example Congress

Federal nuclear research grants

In 2017, DOE announced nearly $67 millionin grants awarded towards advanced nuclear energy research from a series of funding programs, including $37 million to support university-led nuclear energy re...
Resource Public Utilities

Report: The Short-Run and Long-Run Effects of Behavioral Interventions

The 2014 American Economic Review paper, The Short-Run and Long-Run Effects of Behavioral Interventions, surveyed the Opower program, in which social comparison-based home energy reports were repeated...
Resource Private Entities

Vanderbilt report, Employee Energy Benefits

Vanderbilt’s 2017 report, Employee Energy Benefits: What Are They and What Effects Do They Have on Employees?, reports on an exploratory study to address why firms are offering these benefits, includi...
Resource Private Entities

Individual Behavior, the Social Sciences, and Climate Change

Vandenbergh and Sovacool’s 2016 article analyzed the complex influences on individual behavior and the challenges of designing and implementing large scale, effective interventions for reducing energy...
Resource Congress

Proposed Vehicle Innovation Act of 2017

The proposed Vehicle Innovation Act of 2017 would have strengthened the DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office, authorizing R&D grants starting at $313.6 million for fiscal year 2018, with a 4% increase ea...
Example Local Governments

Westchester Power

Westchester Power is a CCA program initiated and implemented by Sustainable Westchester Inc. on behalf of member municipalities that have chosen to participate in the program (including 41 of 44 munic...
Example Foreign

Auto Recycling Netherland

Auto Recycling Netherland, established by the Dutch automobile industry, collects all scrap cars and oversees their dismantling and recycling, without cost to the last owner. Financing for this system...
Example Public Utilities

Report, California Aims to Incentivize Utilities to Adopt Third-Party Energy Resources

The Lexington Institute’s 2017 report, California Aims to Incentivize Utilities to Adopt Third-Party Energy Resources, surveys California’s pilot program to incentivize utilities to incorporate cost-e...
Resource Private Entities

Coalition for Community Solar Access

The Coalition for Community Solar Access is a national coalition of businesses and non-profits working to expand community solar. They work with customers, utilities, local stakeholders, and policymak...
Resource Congress

Report, The Role of Patent Law in Incentivizing Green Technology

The Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property published a 2013 article, The Role of Patent Law in Incentivizing Green Technology, which surveys the incentive that the patent system ...
Example States and State Governments

NYSERDA Smart Grid Funding

Throughout 2019, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has put forward funding opportunities for advancing smart grid development in waves, including a $15 million Future Grid C...
Resource Congress

ICAP Emissions Trading Worldwide Status Report

The International Carbon Action Partnership’s 2019 Emissions Trading Worldwide Status Report summarizes global progress in implementing carbon cap and tax schemes. The ICAP website lists regularly upd...
Resource Private Entities

Windustry and Midwest Wind Energy Center

Windustry is a nonprofit organization working to advance community wind projects across the Midwest, developing information and tools for evaluating wind energy easement contracts, landowner options, ...
Resource Congress

Report, Greenprint

Chapter 5 of the Center for Global Development’s 2012 paper, Greenprint, models the impacts of four different carbon border adjustment policy scenarios.
Example Foreign

EU Circular Economy policy

The EU undertook an Action Plan for the Circular Economy in 2015, creating common EU targets for recycling municipal waste and reducing landfill waste. The revised legislative framework on waste enter...
Example Local Governments

NRDC’s Food Matters Pilot

The Food Matters project at NRDC partners with cities to achieve meaningful reductions in food waste through comprehensive policies and programs. The project is currently partnering with city agencies...
Resource Private Entities

NREL report, The Potential of Securitization in Solar PV Finance

A 2013 National Renewable Energy Labs report, The Potential of Securitization in Solar PV Finance, offers a high-level analysis of the immediate potential that securitization and access to the capital...
Example Foreign

Iceland carbon tax

Iceland’s Tax on Carbon of Fossil Fuel Origin was originally a temporary carbon tax on liquid fossil fuels with a tax rate indexed to 50% of the EU ETS price. The tax was set to expire at the end of 2...
Resource Foreign

OECD report, The Role of Public Procurement in Low-carbon Innovation

The OECD’s 2016 report, The Role of Public Procurement in Low-carbon Innovation, argues that a number of practical solutions can make green procurement more effective for low-carbon innovation, includ...
Model Law States and State Governments

LPDD Model Law: Green Commercial Lease Legislation

This model state legislation is intended to assist commercial landlords, tenants and other parties-in-interest in drafting green lease provisions that comply with state green building code requirement...
Example States and State Governments

New Hampshire’s Community Aggregation Law

Authorizes municipalities to procure power on their own, using the collective buying power of all of their residents and businesses to secure competitive prices.
Example Local Governments

Hennepin County MN’s Commercial Organics Recycling Ordinance

Hennepin County’s commercial organics recycling ordinance requires certain businesses to divert food scraps for beneficial use, including donation for human consumption and diversion of food scraps fo...
Resource Congress

Proposed BEST Act of 2019

The proposed BEST Act of 2019 would amend the Energy Storage Competitiveness Act of 2007 to create a research, development, and demonstration program for grid-scale energy storage systems.
Example Private Entities

Florida’s Solar and Energy Loan Fund

Florida’s Solar and Energy Loan Fund (SELF) is a certified Community Development Financial Institution and a national non-profit, 501(c) (3) corporation. SELF provides microloans for residents who oth...
Resource Foreign

IISD report, Procurement, Innovation, and Growth

The International Institute for Sustainable Development’s 2012 report, Procurement, Innovation, and Growth, contends that public procurement serves as a key policy tool for governments to act as a mar...
Resource Executive Branch

Report: Markets, Externalities, and the Federal Power Act

NYU’s Environmental Law Journal published a 2019 article on FERC’s authority to price carbon dioxide emissions.
Example States and State Governments

Massachusetts’ Community Choice Aggregation

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 164 §134 contains provisions for community choice aggregation in the state, adopting language from the enabling Utility Restructuring Act of 1997. The Department of Energy Resource...
Resource Congress

Report, Artificial Intelligence for Climate Change Mitigation Roadmap

This 2023 roadmap asks whether AI can help cut emissions of greenhouse gases, and explores how. The report explores six areas in which AI is helping respond to climate change already, including emissi...
Example Executive Branch

FERC Order 841

FERC Order 841 (2018) directed regional grid operators to remove barriers to the participation of electric storage in wholesale markets. By directing the regional grid operators to establish rules tha...
Resource Private Entities

Grid Alternatives

Grid Alternatives is a nonprofit organization that brings together community partners, volunteers, and job-trainees to install solar power and energy efficiency improvements for low income families. T...
Resource Congress

Report, Energy Efficient Technology Diffusion Factors

A 2012 report, Energy Efficient Technology Diffusion Factors: A Systemic Review, shows that expected improvement in energy consumption has not been achieved in spite of the innovation and improvement ...
Resource Local Governments

Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance Innovation Fund

The Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance Innovation Fund was created in 2015 to invest in high-potential, city-led projects that develop, test, implement and amplify deep decarbonization strategies and prac...
Model Law Local Governments

LPDD Model Resolution: Local Resolution in Support of a Circular Economy

A circular economy is an economic system that minimizes resource extraction and reduces resource use and waste by ensuring that all resources cycle indefinitely. In a circular economy, products and se...
Resource Private Entities

Environment and Climate Change: Key Lessons for Implementing the Behavioral Wedge

Carrico’s 2011 paper seeks to provide an accessible, brief summary for policymakers of the key findings of behavioral and social science studies on household energy behavior.
Resource Congress

NASEM report, The Power of Change

A 2016 NASEM report, The Power of Change: Innovation for Development and Deployment of Increasingly Clean Electric Power Technologies, provides an assessment of current technologies and policies for a...
Example Foreign

Tokyo’s Emissions Trading Scheme

The Tokyo ETS was launched in 2010 as Japan’s first mandatory ETS. Under the ETS, large offices and factories are required to reduce emissions by 15% or 17% in its second period (FY2015-FY2019). The t...
Example States and State Governments

Minnesota’s Community Solar Garden program

Minnesota’s Community Solar Garden program (2014) allows multiple customers to engage with a common, utility- or non-utility owned solar system up to 1 MW. Crediting is based on a Value of Solar analy...
Resource States and State Governments

Report, Extended Producer Liability in the United States

The Harvard Kennedy School’s 2013 report, Extended Producer Liability in the United States, describes the evolution of EPR policies in the United States, focusing on the role of states. In notes that ...
Resource Foreign

UNEP report, Measuring Fossil Fuel Subsidies in the Context of Sustainable Development Goals

A 2019 UNEP report, Measuring Fossil Fuel Subsidies in the Context of Sustainable Development Goals, details an internationally accepted methodology that will help countries make their fossil fuel sub...
Example States and State Governments

Montana C-PACE Legislation

This bill authorizes local governments to adopt commercial property-assessed capital enhancement (C-PACE) programs to promote energy conservation measures or renewable energy systems on the customer’s...
Resource Local Governments

Report, Promoting the Practice of Deconstruction

This document highlights 12 existing US municipalities’ deconstruction efforts and summarizes important considerations when shaping how a municipality will promote deconstruction.
Resource Congress

Report, Framework Proposal for a US Upstream Greenhouse Gas Tax with WTO-Compliant Border Adjustments

Resources for the Future’s 2018 paper, Framework Proposal for a US Upstream Greenhouse Gas Tax with WTO-Compliant Border Adjustments, proposes a framework for a US climate policy with border adjustmen...
Resource Executive Branch

Report, The Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases: An Overview

In December 2023, EPA finalized updated values for the social cost of greenhouse gases (SC-GHG), following public comment and expert peer review. The agency derived these estimates using the best avai...
Example Executive Branch

DOE’s Innovation Energy Loan Guarantee Program

DOE’s Innovation Energy Loan Guarantee Program has nearly $22 billion available for loan guarantees to accelerate the commercial deployment of innovative energy technology. The U.S. Department of Ener...
Example Local Governments

Alameda County Bag Ban

The Alameda County Waste Management Authority adopted its ordinance banning plastic bags and placing a 10 cent price requirement on paper and reusable bags in January of 2012. It has been expanded in ...
Resource Local Governments

Annapolis, MD Clean Energy Loan Program

The Annapolis Clean Energy Program finances and encourages energy efficiency projects and renewable energy projects with an electric generating capacity of not more than one hundred kilowatts. On the ...
Example States and State Governments

California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program

Under California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program, electricity customers are awarded up to $5 million per project for generating electricity behind the meter using qualifying new or emerging distri...
Resource Executive Branch

FTC Ecolabeling Green Guides

The Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guides are intended to help ensure that marketing claims regarding the environmental attributes of products are truthful and substantiated. These guides largely ad...
Example States and State Governments

California’s Mandatory Commercial Recycling Law

AB 1826 was signed in Sept. 2014. It requires businesses that produce specified amounts of organic waste to do at least one of the following: • Source-separate organic waste and subscribe to an organi...
Example States and State Governments

NY Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling Law

In 2019, NYS passed the Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling law. Effective January 1, 2022, large generators of food scraps (defined as generating an annual average of two tons per week or more) m...
Example States and State Governments

Massachusetts’ Proposed S. 2477 (2020)

Massachusetts’ proposed S. 2477 (2020) creates a carbon price that leaves program design to future gubernatorial administrations to decide. They would be free to choose among a variety of market-based...
Example States and State Governments

Connecticut Green Bank

Connecticut was the first state to establish a green bank pursuant to SB 1243, Pub. Act No. 11-80 (2011). Since its inception, the Connecticut Green Bank and its private investment partners have deplo...
Resource Executive Branch

EIA carbon tax modeling

The Energy Information Administration, in its Annual Energy Outlook 2014 report, modeled a carbon price of $25 per metric ton, increasing 5% per year. The model showed a very small change in retail en...
Resource States and State Governments

Product Stewardship Institute

The Product Stewardship Institute is a public-private partnership researching, designing, implementing, evaluating, and promoting producer responsibility laws and voluntary programs that solve recycli...
Resource Local Governments

NRDC Report, Tackling Food Waste in Cities

NRDC’s 2019 report, Tackling Food Waste in Cities: A Policy and Program Toolkit, is aimed at city policymakers and agency staff nationwide that are seeking to start a program or implement policies to ...
Resource Congress

Report, Eliminating Fossil Fuel Subsidies

The Hamilton Project’s 2013 report, Eliminating Fossil Fuel Subsidies, identifies twelve provisions in the tax code that subsidize activities associated with the production of fossil fuels that impose...
Example Public Utilities

ISO-NE demand response

ISO-NE, a Regional Transmission Organization serving the New England states, outlined their plans to achieve full implementation of demand response in a 2017 FERC filing, Revisions to Implement Full I...
Example States and State Governments

Hawaii’s Community-Based Renewable Energy Program

Act 100 (2015) established the Hawaii community-based renewable energy (CBRE) program, which generally envisioned electric utility customers participating with qualified projects in exchange for bill ...
Resource Congress

Proposed CLEAN Future Act (2020)

The proposed Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s (CLEAN) Future Act (2020) is a large, economy-wide climate bill released by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Among ...
Resource Foreign

WTO 2013 Decision on Certain Measures Affecting the Renewable Generation Sector and Relating to the Feed-In Tariff Program

The WTO’s 2013 decision against Ontario invalidated a renewable energy feed-in tariff for having discriminatory local content rules. The decision contours certain attributes to avoid in designing loca...
Example Local Governments

Columbus Community Aggregation Ballot Measure

In November 2020, Columbus, Ohio voted on the ballot measure Issue 1, which would start a citywide community choice aggregation program, giving officials the right to purchase energy in bulk from loca...
Example Public Utilities

Con Edison’s Commercial Battery Storage Project

In New York, Con Edison’s Commercial Battery Storage Project seeks a new ownership model whereby the utility sites batteries at customer sites which it is free to draw on during peak periods, but whic...
Resource Private Entities

Model Climate Clause for Title Reports

Standard Title Reports for the acquisition of property do not include statements relating to the future risks of climate change that may affect the property. The Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative...
Resource Private Entities

Model Environmental Business Charter for Law Firms

The Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative effort of UK lawyers to develop new contracts and model laws to help fight climate change, has published a model environmental business charter for law firms...
Example States and State Governments

Connecticut’s Green Liberty Bonds

In July 2020, the Connecticut Green Bank brought to market about $16 million in Green Liberty Bonds. The bonds will have a $1,000 face value, an uncommonly low denomination that is intended to make th...
Example States and State Governments

Massachusetts’ Climate Tech Legislation

In November, 2024, Massachusetts enacted an economic development bill that includes a $400 million investment in climate tech initiatives and creates a new tax incentive program to support climate tec...
Resource Executive Branch

EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager tool

EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager tool is designed to measure and track energy and water consumption, as well as greenhouse gas emissions, for either one or a whole portfolio of buildings. This leve...
Resource Local Governments

Californians Against Waste

Californians Against Waste is a non-profit environmental research and advocacy organization that identifies, develops, promotes and monitors policy solutions to pollution and conservation problems. Th...
Resource Congress

Proposed LEADING Act of 2019

The proposed LEADING Act of 2019 would require DOE to establish a program to develop cost-effective carbon capture technologies that can be used at natural gas-generating power facilities. The bill wo...
Example Foreign

Model Law on Corporate Environment Officers and Reporting

The Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative effort of UK lawyers to develop new contracts and model laws to help fight climate change, has published a model law that would amend existing UK law to requ...
Resource Executive Branch

Report, A Path Forward for FERC

The Institute for Policy Integrity’s 2020 report, A Path Forward for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, advises that FERC should take an active role in better aligning regulatory practices with...
Resource Congress

Report, Opportunities and Limits of CO2 Recycling in a Circular Carbon Economy

This report, part of the Carbon Management Research Initiative at Columbia University’s Center on Global Policy, examines 19 CO2 recycling pathways to understand the opportunities and the technical an...
Example States and State Governments

Vermont’s Universal Recycling Law

Act 148 of 2012, Vermont’s Universal Recycling Law, bans food waste, including from households, from disposal in trash and landfills on July 1, 2020. Act 148 provides incentives to divert materials by...
Resource Local Governments

DOE Best Practice Guidelines for Residential PACE Financing

DOE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Residential PACE Financing covers programmatic choices including program scope and eligibility, consumer and lender protections, public recording and disclosure, inc...
Example Public Utilities

New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision proceeding

The Reforming the Energy Vision proceeding in New York is a comprehensive effort to change how utilities perform system planning, what financial incentives they face, how they make use of distributed ...
Example Public Utilities

Vermont’s Group Net Metering program

Vermont’s Group Net Metering program (2009) allows multiple customers to engage with a common, non-utility owned DG system up to 500 kW, using solar, wind, or certain other renewables defined by law. ...
Example States and State Governments

California Bag Ban

In 2016, California voters approved Proposition 67, the statewide Single-Use Carryout Bag Ban. As a result, SB 270 is in effect and most grocery stores, retail stores with a pharmacy, convenience stor...
Resource Congress

Proposed Bipartisan Climate Roadmap

Proposed Roadmap supported by prominent corporations and NGOs calls for a rising carbon fee, carbon dividends for all Americans, deregulation in certain cases, and a border carbon adjustment.
Resource Congress

Report, Eyes on a Climate Prize

The Harvard Environmental Law Review’s 2008 article, Eyes on a Climate Prize: Rewarding Innovation to Achieve Climate Stabilization, outlines the theory and history of the use of inducement prizes to ...
Example Public Utilities

California Integrated Distributed Energy Resources proceeding

California’s Integrated Distributed Energy Resources proceeding included a competitive solicitation incentive pilot and a utility regulatory incentive mechanism pilot which will facilitate the deploym...
Resource Public Utilities

ACEEE report: Behavior Change Programs

ACEEE’s 2016 report, Behavior Change Programs: Status and Impact, surveyed different types of behavior change programs, including community-based challenges with public dashboards that display the com...
Example Local Governments

Salt Lake City Comprehensive Energy Management Executive Order

In addition to benchmarking requirements, the Comprehensive Energy Management of Salt Lake City Facilities Executive Order (2015) requires further energy audits, retrocommissioning, building operator ...
Example States and State Governments

Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank

The Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank was created in 2015 through bipartisan legislation. The legislation expanded the authority of the existing Clean Water Finance Authority to include the energy sect...
Example Local Governments

Boulder Building and Performance Ordinance

The Boulder Building and Performance Ordinance (2015) requires owners of commercial and industrial buildings to: annually rate and report the energy use of their buildings; perform periodic energy ass...
Resource Executive Branch

OMB Guidance to Federal Agencies on Use of Prizes

In 2010, OMB issued guidance to federal agencies on the use of challenges and prizes to spur technological innovation. It explained that many federal agencies have sufficient statutory authority to cr...
Resource Public Utilities

ACEEE Field Guide to Utility-Run Behavior Programs

The ACEEE Field Guide to Utility-Run Behavior Programs offers a comparative analysis of utility-run behavior programs, laying the groundwork for further program development by developing a classificat...
Example States and State Governments

New York Green Bank

New York’s Green Bank was established in 2013 pursuant to a Public Service Commission order. Its product offerings include warehousing and aggregation credit facilities, term loans and investments, cr...
Resource Congress

Report, Exploring the Role of Advancing Nuclear in Future Energy Markets

EPRI’s 2018 report, Exploring the Role of Advanced Nuclear in Future Energy Markets, developed a modeling study to inform nuclear R&D, future modeling research, and technology developers’ priorities a...
Example States and State Governments

New Jersey’s A2371 (2020)

New Jersey’s A2371 (2020) amends the state RPS’s definition of “Class I renewable energy” to include methane gas from a biomass facility (provided that the biomass is cultivated and harvested in a sus...
Resource Foreign

Model Law on Corporate Duties to Society and Environment

The Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative effort of UK lawyers to develop new contracts and model laws to help fight climate change, has published a model law amending UK corporate law to expand a co...
Resource States and State Governments

Washington’s defeated Initiative 1631

Washington’s ballot initiative 1631 was defeated in 2018 by a margin of 57% to 43%. It would have enacted a carbon emissions fee of $15 per metric ton of carbon beginning on January 1, 2020, and incre...
Example States and State Governments

California’s Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing Program

The SOMAH program will provide up to $100 million in rebates annually for the next decade to put solar on multifamily affordable housing in California, while allowing tenants to access the benefits. E...
Example Local Governments

DC’s MEDSIS proceeding

The District commenced a Modernizing the Energy Delivery System for Increased Sustainability (MEDSIS) in 2015, which, in Phase 2, considered separate tracks related to data and information access and ...
Resource Congress

Proposed PACE Act of 2017

The proposed Pace Act of 2017 would have amended the Truth in Lending Act to extend that Act’s requirements to real property retrofit loans. A “real property retrofit loan” is a loan that is: (1) secu...
Resource States and State Governments

US Composting Council Regulations Database and Model Rule

The US Composting Council catalogs composting regulations across a variety of states and large cities, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, NYC, Austin, and San Francisco. The ...
Resource Local Governments

Model Compost Procurement Policy

Composting is an effective way to reduce food waste in cities, by turning food scraps into a natural soil amendment that can be used in city gardens and landscaping and improve soil health and water r...
Example Foreign

Law for Promotion of Sorted Collection and Recycling of Containers and Packaging

The 1995 Law for Promotion of Sorted Collection and Recycling of Containers and Packaging regulates the life-cycle management of products such as containers and packaging. It created a national recycl...
Resource Congress

Report, Clean Products Standard: A New Approach to Industrial Decarbonization

This 2020 report proposes a novel market-based standard for manufacturing, a clean products standard (CPS), which could reduce emissions from the manufacture of these GHG-intensive products. A CPS wou...
Resource Local Governments

IMT Green Leasing Resource Library

The Institute for Market Transformation’s resource library contains a variety of think pieces and green leasing case studies from across the United States.
Example Local Governments

NYC Commercial Waste Zones Act (2019)

NYC’s Commercial Waste Zones Act (2019) will establish one designated waste hauler per city zone, which should incentivize private waste haulers and commercial businesses to sharply reduce the amount ...
Example Local Governments

NYC’s Benchmarking, Auditing, and Retrocommissioning Requirements

NYC Local Laws 133 (2016), 33 (2018), and 87 (2009) establish benchmarking, auditing, and retrocommissioning requirements for buildings in the city. NYC’s Local Law 133 (2016) requires owners of large...
Resource Executive Branch

USDA report, Scientific Report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee

The Dietary Guidelines Committee at USDA and HHS recommended that guidelines incorporate sustainability in their dietary recommendations. It noted that the Healthy U.S.-style Pattern, the Healthy Medi...
Example Congress

Proposed Financing Our Energy Future Act of 2019

The proposed Financing Our Energy Future Act of 2019 concerns Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs). An MLP is taxed as a partnership but ownership interests are traded like corporate stock on a market. ...
Example Congress

Advanced Technologies Vehicle Manufacturing Program

The Advanced Technologies Vehicle Manufacturing Program provides direct loans to automotive or component manufacturers for reequipping, expanding, or establishing manufacturing facilities in the U.S. ...
Example States and State Governments

Massachusetts’ Neighborhood Net Metering and Community Shared Solar programs

Massachusetts’ Neighborhood Net Metering and Community Shared Solar programs (originally passed as part of An Act Relating to Green Communities, 2009) allows multiple customers to engage with a common...
Resource Private Entities

Coalition for Green Capital

The Coalition for Green Capital is a 501c3 non-profit, and a leading expert and implementer of Green Banks, with a decade of work around the world that has led to over $2 billion of clean energy inves...
Example States and State Governments

Michigan Smart Thermostat Giveaway

Consumers Energy, a Michigan-based utility, Google and Uplight will provide Google Nest thermostats to up to 100,000 households, while automatically enrolling these customers in a demand response prog...
Example Local Governments

Climate Action Fund Ballot Measures

In November 2020, Denver as well as three California cities—Berkeley, Long Beach, and Albany — all considered ballot measures to create climate action funds. These funds would allocate the funding tow...
Example Public Utilities

NYISO carbon pricing proposal

The New York Independent System Operator has released a Carbon Pricing Straw Proposal, which would reflect the cost of carbon emissions in wholesale energy market offers via a “carbon charge.” The Pro...
Resource Congress

EU report on Waste Management and Recycling in Japan

The EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation prepared a 2015 report analyzing the legal regime for waste management in Japan broadly, outlining technical processes and responsible entities, providin...
Example States and State Governments

New York’s Climate Superfund Act

New York’s 2024 Climate Change Superfund Act establishes a climate change adaptation cost recovery program to require companies that have contributed significantly to the buildup of climate-warming gr...
Example Executive Branch

EO 13693

In 2015, Executive Order 13693 put in place specific sustainability and energy efficiency goals in federal purchasing decisions. It was revoked in 2018 by EO 13834.
Example Executive Branch

Clean Air Act §115

Clean Air Act §115 allows EPA to regulate any air pollutant on which there have been studies from an duly constituted international agency; for which US emissions endanger public health or welfare in ...
Resource Executive Branch

Systematic Review of Dietary Patterns and Sustainability in the United States

Reinhardt et al.’s 2020 report contends that the healthy diet recommended by the USDA/HHS _Dietary Guidelines_may actually result in similar or increased heat-trapping emissions, energy use, and water...
Model Law States and State Governments

LPDD Model Law: State Law to Divert Food Waste from Landfills

This model state legislation lays out a framework by which states can divert food waste from landfills to eligible processing facilities (including industrial-scale composters) or onsite composters. T...
Resource Congress

Report, Lessons From the Past for Assessing Energy Technologies for the Future

Albert Lin’s 2014 article in the UCLA Law Review, Lessons From the Past for Assessing Energy Technologies for the Future, considers the novel and uncertain hazards of new energy technologies. It prese...
Resource Congress

Report, Making Border Carbon Adjustments Work in Law and Practice

The Tax Policy Center’s 2018 paper, Making Border Carbon Adjustments Work in Law and Practice, addresses issues relating to the creation of border carbon adjustments as part of a carbon tax, including...
Resource Foreign

EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism

After several years of development, in April 2023, the European Parliament approved a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). In essence, the CBAM will tax the import of products that would be subj...
Example States and State Governments

New Jersey Community Choice Aggregation

NJ Stat. Ann. §48:3-92 through §48:3-95 establishes the rules for government energy aggregation programs. Community Choice in the Garden State came into being in 1999 as part of the electricity deregu...
Example Foreign

EU Emissions Trading System

The European Union’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) applies to more than 11,000 emitters in 28 EU countries responsible for about 2 gigatons of CO2-eq emissions. Early implementation issues include...
Resource Local Governments

PACE Nation

PACE Nation is national non-profit organization that works to expand access to Property Assessed Clean Energy financing. They maintain a national database of PACE programs around the country.
Resource Foreign

WTO 2019 Decision on Certain Measures Relating to the Renewable Energy Sector

The WTO’s 2019 decision against the United States invalidated renewable energy policies in Washington, California, Connecticut, Minnesota, Montana, Massachusetts, Michigan and Delaware for having disc...
Model Law Local Governments

LPDD Model Law: Green Bank State and Local Legislation

Green banks are independent nonprofit, public, or quasi-public financial institutions that leverage public or philanthropic dollars – and government backing – to attract private capital to zero and lo...
Example States and State Governments

Maine PACE program

Maine signed PACE legislation into law in April 2010, authorizing municipalities to establish a loan program to provide financing for clean energy improvements to property owners via local ordinance. ...
Resource Local Governments

Model Construction and Demolition Code

King County, Washington, developed construction and demolition code templates, available for adoption by local permitting jurisdictions, and related forms, in coordination with the Regional Code Colla...
Example Foreign

China’s Circular Economy Promotion Law

China’s Circular Economy Promotion Law (2008) requires local and provincial planners to consider circular economy issues in any planning effort. The Law calls for the state to set resource reduction g...
Example States and State Governments

California’s Single-Use Plastics Ban

In June 2022, California adopted a law requiring all plastic packaging to be recyclable or compostable by 2032. Among its other tenets, the law requires by 2032 plastic producers must reduce the amoun...
Example States and State Governments

Rhode Island’s Power Sector Transformation proceeding

In 2017, Rhode Island’s governor requested the PUC embark on a Power Sector Transformation proceeding. The PUC responded with a Phase One report later that year identifying work to be done developing ...
Example Local Governments

Boulder’s Climate Tax

In November 2022, voters in Boulder Colorado approved a new Climate Tax on electric and natural gas bills to fund climate mitigation and resilience efforts. The new tax replaces and expands an existin...
Resource Local Governments

Model Ordinance Establishing a Pay-As-You-Throw Program for Residential Municipal Solid Waste

Cities striving to meet zero-waste, climate, and other sustainability goals are increasingly realizing that waste reduction can be a key strategy to achieving their targets—in particular, reducing foo...
Resource Private Entities

Opportunities and Insights for Reducing Fossil Fuel Consumption by Households and Organizations

Stern’s 2016 article discusses opportunities for change in households and organizations, and identifies opportunities that have been underused in much of energy policy. The paper suggests design princ...
Example Local Governments

Melrose MA CCA Case Study

Greater Boston’s MAPC published a 2017 community choice aggregation case study on the city of Melrose, which added the equivalent of a one-megawatt wind turbine while saving local customers $200,000 o...
Resource Private Entities

The Solar Access to Public Capital’s Mock Securitization Project

The Solar Access to Public Capital’s Mock Securitization Project sought to model how rating agencies would need to evaluate a proposed asset-backed security transaction. The process provided valuable ...
Example States and State Governments

California rules for energy sales to adjacent properties

California permits sales from a customer-generator to a customer on an adjacent property so long as the wires do not cross a public road.
Resource Congress

Proposed Green Bank Act of 2017

HR 2995 of 2017 would have established a U.S. Green Bank that provides financial support to assist regional, state, and local institutions finance clean energy or energy efficiency. It would have rece...
Example States and State Governments

Oregon’s SB 1547

Oregon’s SB 1547 boosted the state’s renewable energy mandate to 50 percent renewables by 2040. Section 28 of SB 1547 requires the Oregon Public Utility Commission to establish a program for the procu...