Emission Trading Schemes
We should not be involved in emission trading*.
Kyoto based emissions caps have a few issues which bear thinking about.
The most important of which (from my perpective as an enviromentalist) is that they do not work. They do not reduce global carbon emissions, quite the opposite. The intention of ETS is to send a price signal to reduce carbon emissions, but the actual signal is the difference between the carbon prices of various competing carbon trading regimes. It fails by definition, because it is not global.
Second most important problem is that the idea of global Kyoto based emission trading caps are dead in the water, absolutely positively never going to be adopted by the Chinese or Indians or any developing world nation with a backbone. If we've waited this long before adoption, why adopt now when they are mere months from sinking below the surface never to be seen again?
Third most important problem (and this the reason the Chinese & Indians are not buying the BS) is that Kyoto agreements are manifestly exploitative of the third world. They are a tax on industrial growth at a time when the largest economies of the third world are raising almost 1 billion people out of poverty through industrialisation. They are a tax on industrialisation that subsidises reducing industrial capacity at a time when the first world nations(Europe/USA) supporting the measure are (cue fucking amazing surprise) reducing industrial capacity. These same first world pricks do presume to be running a "market" based in the financial centres of Europe and soon to be USA which will clip the ticket of every carbon trade - further penalising the 3rd world. And the best part is that the West recognises this problem and promises to remedy the unfairness by (get this) providing "aid" - the same aid that has been so successful in fulfilling the millenial goals of debt reuction (not), combating maliria (not), assisting with HIV harm reduction (not) and having broken hundreds of other similar aid promises down the line - Third World countries have a deep understanding of the worth of First World aid promises (paper + ink + free buffet at signing ceremony).
We. Should. Not. Make. Any. Commitment. To. An. Emission. Cap. Ever.
* Modification of comment posted in Public Address.
posted by unaha-closp @ 6:45 PM
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