Some countries like Germany are setting their own Climate Change agenda, high electricity prices, high tax on petrol, subsidy's for solar energy, and a good public transport network. Now they have to tackle the coal burning power station companies.
Just suppose for example. Jamaica reduced it's CO2 emissions. Insulating their houses, more public transport., then subsidised the installation of solar panels and painted all roof tops white. There is enough sun in Jamaica to dramatically reduce other forms of electricity generation. This costs money. So how to fund it?
This is where the WTO (World Trade Organisation) IMF (International Monetary Fund) and rating agencies like Mood's, Standard & Poors come in. Each country is rated for it's current CO2 emissions and then on a sliding scale, the IMF offers low cost loans for each CO2 reduction step. The rating agencies increase the county's credit rating, and the WTO sets low global tariffs for all exports.
Every country can do their own thing, in their own way, in their own time. But after a date to be set, these organisations start to change the ratings and rates charged. So would something like this work? Politicians are in the end just politicians, most are not leaders and certainly not risk takers. The world will only agree at some point in the future when it is already to late.
So what do you think? would it work?
Managing Climate Change, is a little bit like having life or home insurance, you hope you never need it, but if you do, then you are thankful you paid the premiums.
Additional Thought
Using current satellite technology, it would be very easy to view areas of the world that are using "slash and burn" to clear the Rainforest. Could this not be another way to make countries pay higher rates of interest on borrowed money?
See the video
sounds like a good idea. it's a shame that copenhagen didn't setup a framework for countries to start doing their bit in whatever way they can. the focus seems to be on badly-designed cap-and-trade schemes with dodgy offsets which will do bugger-all (or worse as it gives everyone a false sense of security)
ReplyDeletecheck out the awesome story of stuff animation/vid:
http://www.storyofstuff.org/cap-and-trade
oops, the address should be:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.storyofstuff.org/capandtrade
Like flavour of yours, but believe, as does Alistair MacIntosh in "Soil and Soul" that reason the monster Mammon keeps knawing ever deeper into Earth's entrails is that we are virtually all under the hypnosis of its amoral agents - advertising agencies, corporate PR, political party spin doctors - whose only aim is to keep the machine churning . . . We need to de-hypnotise ourselves, claim our independence and have nothing more to do with the platetary destruction. It's more an inner journey, to start with at least. All that Transition Towns movement (www.transitiontowns.org) supports appears to be toward this sort of end. Try checking your idea out with your local Transition group. You can find them via the map(s) on the site. Emissionary 009. They aim to provide a local forum for us to engage with like minded others in addressing these issues around how come we keep screwing up, even if we endanger the futures of our loved ones in doing so. Formulaic answers seem unlikely, more exploration and action like digging, planting, celebrating together.
ReplyDeleteNo, not every country can do their own thing in their own time. That will be too late. We all need to do as much as possible now. Why did you pick on Jamaica? - all roofs everywhere across The World can be painted white now !
ReplyDeleteManaging Climate Change, is nothing like having life or home insurance, we do need to do something about it, but it's too late to manage it or pay premiums. Only real action now can hope to ameliorate its unavoidable catastophic effects slightly. You are being arrogant to talk about being too late at some point in the future. That time has already passed.
Kind Regards, Neal Pearson