Gobal warming can be reduced if we act now.

[watervole]

The key is carbon pricing.  If we make carvon emissions expensive, then the move to low-carbon technology will follow.

I'm not concerned about news items about loss of grants for solar panels - that was a silly idea from the start.  One of those ideas with very little effectiveness (the CO2 cost of making the panels is high and they are too expensive to pay for themselves in sensible periods of time) that has been adopted because it looks glamorous - solar powered hot water heating would be far more sensible thing to subsidise, but it isn't as new and shiny.

Carbon pricing will let the market find the cost-effective options for itself.  However, the price must be set high enough to have an impact.

"The greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, whose emissions growth is causing the atmosphere to warm, can be brought under control, said the economists of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - but only if governments act decisively.

Existing and emergent technologies, ranging from renewable energy and nuclear power to carbon capture and storage, will be adequate to make the reductions in emissions essential if the world is to avoid catastrophic rises in global temperature, they asserted in a new study. And this can be done at comparatively low cost - provided the right incentives are put in place.

The key incentive, they stressed, is a mechanism no one had heard of 20 years ago - the price of carbon, as determined by markets such as that of the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme. If it is high enough, moving to a low-carbon economy will be a cost-effective measure around the world, and thus likely to happen much faster."

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I could also be convinced by a carbon ration for every person on the planet, but I don't see the rich being willing to give the poor an equal ration per head.

Comments

[the-mendicant.livejournal.com]

I prefer the regime in the Kingdom of Bhutan, which is 100% green focussed and societal progress isn't measured by GNP but by GNH (Gross National Happiness) - no I'm not kidding you! The King has decreed that by looking after the environment he people will ultimately feel happier about their position in the world and life in general.

[melodyclark.livejournal.com]

Well, Bhutan is about half the size of one of our mid-sized states over here in the States so perhaps he'll have some hope of reaching that aim. Good luck to him. In a governmental body the size of Europe or the US, it's a far more complex matter.