Dateline: Seoul, Republic of South Korea. Earthday 2010.

Former Vice President Al Gore told an audience of global business executives today at the UN Business for Environment summit that climate legislation will be introduced in the U.S. Senate on Monday and it has “a real chance” of passing. This was welcome news to the group, most of whom were advocating putting a “price” on carbon to drive significant action on climate change. Gore also mentioned to us that Smart Grids are a one of the small number of key technologies that can make a real difference. In my talk later, I informed the group that smart meters could reduce emissions by the same amount as converting half of the globe’s 800 million vehicle fleet to electric power.

The numbers look something like this: electricity and natural gas heating account for 41 percent of global carbon emissions according to the International Energy Agency. The Smart Grid is expected to slow consumption growth to the tune of 20 percent by 2030 – that’s a bit over 8 percent of total emissions reduced. Applying that to vehicles, and accounting for electric vehicles still producing some emissions (indirectly), leads to an equivalent of removing 50 percent of all vehicles from the roads.

And the price of carbon? California’s Public Utility Commission ordered California utilities in the past to do economic assessments modeling a price between $8 and $25 per ton. However, the figure of $4 per ton came up in my conversation with President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana. He described the business case his country performed on the value of not razing their forests to convert the land to crops and other economic uses. I.e., the value to his people is $4 per ton. That seems quite the bargain compared to the California number; it looks like both parties would win in striking a deal – not to mention the planet.

Gore didn’t mention how carbon would be priced in the upcoming legislation.