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 would establish the maximum amount of GHGs per unit of material produced that can be emitted in the production of covered industrial products sold in the US. In developing and implementing a CPS, policymakers will be faced with a set of key design choices, which are outlined in this report. Key design elements of a CPS include product coverage, compliance metrics, point of obligation, accounting for imports and exports, use of covered products as intermediate inputs, and flexibility options.