TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Clay, Karen
AU  - Jha, Akshaya
AU  - Lewis, Joshua
AU  - Severnini, Edson
        TI  - Carbon Rollercoaster: A Historical Analysis of Decarbonization in the United States
        PY  - 2025/Jul/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18008
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18008
        AB  - This paper documents the evolution of US carbon emissions and discusses the main factors that contributed to the historical carbon emissions rollercoaster. We divide the discussion into four periods – up to 1920, 1920-1960, 1960-2005 and after 2005. For each period, we discuss the main drivers of national carbon emissions. We then discuss trends in carbon emissions in the electricity sector. Electricity sector emissions were initially very small, but would become the largest source of US carbon emissions over the period 1980-2015, and the largest contributor to decarbonization since 2007. In the final section, we distill lessons from the U.S. experience that may inform decarbonization strategies in developing economies.
        KW  - environmental regulation
KW  - electricity sector
KW  - energy transition
KW  - decarbonization
KW  - carbon emissions
KW  - clean air act
KW  - climate policy
        ER  -