Green Options

Cap-and-trade calamity? Au contraire. While the US flounders on regulating carbon, France’s Nicholas Sarkozy is pushing forward with new carbon tax legislation that will only add to France’s edge in the emerging green economy.

Suddenly, “green business” is a little low on green and high on business. Companies that were built to take on Big Oil are now sharpening their elbows in the lobbying fight to make sure that the bottom line does not fall victim to grid enhancements that are built out by someone else.

Just when you thought no more ink could be spilled about the merits or political viability of a carbon tax versus a cap and trade, it has.

“Worldwide, less than 8% of folks are responsible for 50% of emissions”, according to Professor Stephen Pacala of Princeton, co-author of Stabilization Wedges.

This group has a higher annual income than even the average American. But the US has the highest per-capita energy consumption rate of any nation, out-consuming the five most populated nations combined. Quite recent studies have confirmed what many already knew: that more affluent people consume more energy, and generate more green house gas (ghg) emissions. Thus, making significant cuts in ghg (to slow warming trends and mitigate climate change) without big cuts in this group’s ghg emissions is a major challenge.

The impact of greenhouse gases on global warming in the short term, and the possibility of severe climate change in the medium to long term, promise to create significant and lasting hardships for everyone. But these hardships will fall hardest on the world’s poorest, who are the ones least responsible for ghg-induced climate change.

The United States must take the opportunity of this economic downturn to invest aggressively in renewable energy projects and reduce its dependence on foreign supplies of fuel.

What advice would Ray Anderson of Interface give to Barack Obama about creating a legacy in sustainability?

With no consensus on a global carbon tax, the world leaders must try to negotiate a global carbon labelling law as it would make countries around the world responsible for their share of emissions, hopefully making them take bold measures to control them.

With other countries failing to show any commitment to either contribute to the climate fund or reduce carbon emissions, the European Union has backed out from its plan to release billions for the climate fund.

United States is looking to levy tax on imported goods while China is holding the high demand from developed nations responsible for a major portion of its carbon emissions.

Amid increasing calls for a global carbon tax to check carbon emissions, a new bill proposing a nation-wide carbon tax has been introduced in the US Congress.

EU wants to include a $200 billion climate tax on developed nations in the next climate treaty but is it the right step forward given the global economic conditions. It’s time to include countries like India and China in a long-term climate solution and ask them to shoulder greater responsibilities in the fight against Climate Change.