What is needed internationally?

Our Green Party MEP, Molly Scott Cato,  commissioned a short report, ‘Controlling Carbon’ by Professor Victor Anderson. In the Preface she wrote: ‘As a Green economist, I believe that what we need most urgently is a lever that can be used to exert pressure on the global economy to move beyond the era of fossil fuels’. While we are not all supporters of the Green Party, we in the GlosCAN Steering Group thoroughly agree with her diagnosis.
Professor Anderson’s report summarises and explores the merits of various possible economic ‘levers’, namely:

  •   The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (known as a ‘cap and trade’ scheme);
  •   The ‘international Stern Report’ approach;
  •   Carbon Tax;
  •   The ‘Hansen proposal’ (known as ‘Fee and Dividend’), advocated by the US-based Citizens’ Climate Lobby
  •   The ‘Feasta proposal’ (known as ‘Cap and Share’ or ‘Cap and Dividend’), advocated by the CapGlobalCarbon initiative.
  • The ‘Carbon Quotas’ proposal (also known as personal carbon rationing), and the related ‘Tradeable Emissions Quotas’ proposal.We in the GlosCAN Steering Group want our Supporters to be aware that there are more tools in the international ‘toolbox’ for tackling climate change that have not yet been properly evaluated or tried.
    CapGlobalCarbon have produced some lively resources for promoting their ideas, which we think at least deserve serious consideration, even though they only deal with fossil fuels and not other sources of greenhouse gases. See animation.

(2016)

The UK Picture