Carbon Pollution Does Have a Price (feat. Maria Fujihara)

There is a price for pollution, and companies are heavily involved in pricing carbon to meet environmental regulations. Today, a cap-and-trade system exists, where the government sets an overall ceiling on emissions from key industries.

The idea here is that instead of using regulations to force companies to curb their emissions, polluters can be made to pay for every ton of CO₂ they emit, providing them with an incentive to lower emissions on their own.

Companies, however, in order to meet these strict caps, look to buy credits. This has resulted in a secondary market of buying and selling these precious carbon credits between companies.

For example, automakers such as GM & Fiat paid Tesla a record $354 Million Last Quarter! Imagine giving millions to your biggest competitor & a disruptor in your industry to meet environmental regulations. This high cost has forced many businesses to formulate strategies and products that are less carbon intensive.

We ask Maria Fujihara, Founder & CEO of SINAI Technologies, a Y-Combinator backed company that aims to help companies price carbon more effectively! The first step to combating climate change for businesses is for them to understand their contributions to it & SINAI are leading the efforts on carbon finance.

Links:
Carbon Pricing Dashboard