How climate policy commitments influence energy systems and the economy of US States
28 Pages Posted: 4 Aug 2022 Last revised: 26 Jul 2023
Date Written: July 25, 2023
Abstract
In the United States, state governments have been the locus of action for addressing climate change. However, the lack of a holistic measure of state climate policy has prevented a comprehensive assessment of state policies’ effectiveness. Here, we aggregate information from 25 individual policies to develop a holistic index of state climate policies from 2000-2020. The climate policy index highlights variation between states which is difficult to assess in single policy studies. Next, we examine the environmental and economic consequences of state climate policy. A standard-deviation increase in climate policy is associated with a 5% reduction in per-capita electricity-sector CO2 emissions and a 2% reduction in economy-wide CO2 emissions per capita. We do not find evidence that more stringent climate policy harms states’ economies. Our results make clear the benefits of state climate policy, while showing that current state efforts are insufficient to meet the US goal under the Paris Climate Accord.
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