The London Accord

The Inconvenient Math - The Implications Of Costed Carbon

  table of contents


Authors

Dan Eggers
Samantha Dennison
Justin Speer
Kevin Cole

Research organisation

Credit Suisse

Download the report

The Inconvenient Math - Implications of Costed Carbon (2mb)

Report date

November 2007

Release date

September 2008

Document summary

In this Farsight Award winning report, Credit Suisse explores the implications of costed carbon and highlight asymmetric market pricing. The report includes the surprising observation that, without new capacity additions, the USA Utility sector cannot achieve more than a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions (all coal would be displaced). The Farsight Award judges were particularly pleased with Credit Suisse’s report as they felt it challenged some of the basic numerical assumptions investors might make. Other challenging observations for the USA include - carbon will need to price above $40/ton to achieve a 30% reduction; there may not be enough natural gas; and to reach an 80% CO2 reduction (as proposed) would require: a 95% retirement of existing coal plants, 165GW of new nuclear capacity, 90 million lbs of uranium fuel annually, and $400+ BN of capex.