A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute

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Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only. www.brucenixon.com “Contraction” and “convergence” (C&C) is a way of bringing about the reductions in consumption and emissions. First, to avoid too abrupt and painful a shift, emission rights would be allocated based on the current pattern of world output so that rich countries would have higher entitlements than poorer ones. Then, through a process of convergence, emission rights would move progressively towards an equal distribution on a per capita basis. How to allocate these rights within a country would be left to each nation to determine. “Cap & share” (C&S) is another method. Under this system, emission entitlements are not decided by national governments. Instead each person would receive an annual entitlement which they could use as they saw fit. Trading would be part of the scheme. Individuals who wanted to consume more would have to buy from individuals willing to sell. Energy companies would have to buy emission entitlements to function. This would lead to a massive redistribution of wealth from richer to poorer individuals and countries. Such redistribution would make a big contribution to bringing about global economic and social justice and eradicating poverty. Fee and Dividend James Hansen, reflects on the UN Copenhagen Summit in his article Copenhagen has given us the chance to face climate change with honesty- A carbon-use dividend for everybody must replace the old, ineffectual 'cap-and-trade' scheme, Observer, 27 – 12- 2009, describes the outcomes as minimalist. He sees this as an opportunity for more honest and effective action. Like many others, he sees “Cap-and - trade” beloved of big corporations and governments as ineffectual, a “modern indulgences scheme”, a way of avoiding responsibility for radical action to reduce fossil fuel use. Agreements to cap have not had sufficient effect, nor are they likely to do so. Goals for future emissions reductions are unlikely to be effective, whether legally binding or not. People will continue using fossil fuels whilst they are the cheapest form of energy. Oil prices externalise and do not include the social cost – the damage fossil fuels do to human health, to the planet, our children and future generations. Governments have to face down the energy companies and tax fossil fuels at source, making them more expensive than green energy. The tax would be applied at mine, wellhead or port of entry, creating a dividend that can be used to fund green energy, making it cheaper, and research and development. 50% of the dividend could, he suggests, be distributed to the public directly through their bank accounts depending on their carbon footprint, thus encouraging efficiency in use. “Cap-and –trade”, he argues, is in effect a tax but it creates no dividend. Not only could this measure be effectively enforced; it would help conserve a precious resource and provide the funds for the great the transition societies will have to make. Part 3 - A Green New Deal The Green New Deal Group proposals got into minds all over the world and are said to have inspired UNEP’s Global Green New Deal and influenced President Obama’s Green Economy Initiative outlined below. The UN Environment Program (UNEP)’s "Global Green New Deal" proposes that world leaders invest the equivalent of one percent of the global gross domestic product to revive world economy and put a brake on global warming. According to UNEP, investments of one percent of global gross domestic product, about $750 billion, could finance a "Global Green New Deal". Five environmental sectors should be the goals of immense investments. These: energy efficient buildings, renewable energies, better transport, improved 122
Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only. www.brucenixon.com agriculture and measures to safeguard nature. This call for action was sounded by UNEP, the UN Environment Program, when leaders of the world's biggest economies, G20, met in London on April 2, 2009. "The opportunity must not be lost" Achim Steiner, head of the UN Environment Program (UNEP). A Green Economy Initiative is also proposed by US President Barack Obama as part of his American Recovery and Investment Plan. Key features: Double the production of alternative energy in the next three years. Modernise more than 75% of federal buildings and improve the energy efficiency of two million American homes, saving consumers and taxpayers billions on energy bills. Help to create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next 10 years to catalyse private efforts to build a clean energy future. Within 10 years save more oil than currently imported from the Middle East and Venezuela combined. Ensure 10% of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25% by 2025. Put one million Plug-In Hybrid cars – cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon – on the road by 2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America. Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade programme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050. Gordon Brown, to his credit, sought to influence European Leaders with similar proposals. A Green New Deal. The Green New Deal Group proposals call for comprehensive, joined-up action by politicians to tackle ‘triple crunch’ of credit, oil price and climate crises. The following is an edited version of these proposals. The full version is available from the New Economics Foundation. Seventy five years after President Roosevelt launched a New Deal to rescue the US from financial crisis, a new group of experts in finance, energy and the environment have come together to propose a ‘Green New Deal’ for the UK. As the Green New Deal Group launched their proposals, new analysis suggested that from the end of July 2008 there were only 100 months, or less, to stabilise concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere before we hit a potential point of no return. This is the moment when the likelihood of irreversible changes in the climate becomes unacceptably high. The Green New Deal is a response to the ‘triple crunch’: a combination of a credit-fuelled financial crisis, accelerating climate change and soaring energy prices underpinned by encroaching peak oil, and to the lack of comprehensive, joined-up action from politicians. It is increasingly clear that these three overlapping events threaten to develop into a perfect storm, not been seen since the Great Depression, with potentially devastating consequences. Green New Deal Proposals 123
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