Are there any other ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the national level?
You could have a cap with no trade, but that would leave no options for companies that lag behind. In other words, they would not be allowed to buy emissions credits from companies that are below their cap. This could kill some businesses that are too slow to adapt to the new limitations on carbon. You can also cap and trade carbon emissions based on levels of intensity – a made in Canada idea. Intensity targets do not set absolute caps on greenhouse gas emissions. They encourage corporations to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions per barrel of oil or litre of gas used. That means that a company that is growing quickly could increase its overall greenhouse gas emissions while reducing the amount produced by each barrel of fuel used. In other words, a company might produce less greenhouse gases per barrel of fuel it uses while actually increasing the overall amount of greenhouse gases it produces. The tar sands are a great example of this as expansion far overrides any modest
