emissions

A New Age of Risk

Jim Hansen’s latest power point can be loaded directly from this URL (pdf document, 2.4 MB). It provides useful evidence that sea level rise is accelerating; net flux of heat into the sea; the arctic and Antarctic losing mass etc. His proposed programme for cutting carbon emissions, ‘fee and dividend’, has many similarities to the Feasta climate group’s Cap and Share programme. He advocates adopting a carbon tax rather than quotas, however.…

Policy packages (from Sharing for Survival)

We need to cut carbon emissions, and soon. But Nick Bardsley reminds us that any mechanism that we introduce in order to cut them - such as Cap and Share - will have to be accompanied by a number of other measures or it will prove counterproductive. Topics covered in his paper include a proposed substitute for the much-criticised Clean Development Mechanism, the current displacement of food production by biofuels, the relationship between food and energy use, the required shift away from debt-based money and the need for a land value tax.

Preface to Sharing for Survival

Brian Davey's preface to our new book Sharing for Survival: Restoring the Climate, the Commons and Society describes climate change as a 'wicked problem', with no single, clear solution. The book therefore presents a patchwork-quilt-style diversity of responses to climate mitigation. Although the authors may differ in the specifics of what they suggest, they are united by their concern for effectiveness and equity.

Cap & Share: simple is beautiful

In this week's article from Fleeing Vesuvius, Laurence Matthews discusses Cap & Share: a fair, effective, cheap, empowering and simple way to reduce emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. It could form the basis of a wider global climate framework but how realistic is it to call for its introduction?