Joseph wrote: > Cap and trade is the quintessential market-based measure, and it > consists of creating an artificial market in carbon certificates.
I fully agree that cap and trade is a bogus solution which has to be fought tooth and nail. The difference between cap and trade and taxes is that cap and trade generates a new type of asset, it privatizes the sky. This makes a big difference, because ownership of assets allows the capitalists to exploit the workers, therefore in capitalism every asset draws interest. Lots of economists think that cap and trade with full auctioning is equivalent to taxes. I think this is wrong, because it only looks at flows and not at stocks. Since cap and trade is evil, you seem to assume that nothing can be done as long as we have markets. This is where I disagree. Lots can be done even while there are markets, and if we want to overcome markets we first have to exhaust the possibilities of markets. Most policy makers agree that a market signal limiting the release of carbon is needed. Some say this by itself can do the heavy lifting. I disagree. Market signals can only make a difference if alternatives are available. To get these alternatives, investment is needed, private investment and investment by the state. I think the market signal is necessary but not sufficient. Both taxes and cap and trade are flawed. Many well-meaning climate activists don't get it how much worse cap and trade is than taxes. I think the best way to resolve this is to promote carbon rationing. It limits the use of carbon without distorting prices, it allows international trading of carbon quota, by poor nations selling their unused carbon quota to rich nations, yet it does not create a new asset which corporations can hope to use for profit making. All this is not set in stone, all this has to be fought for, and we need activists at the table who see the class implications of the policies. > Carbon offsets also created an artificial market according > to non-market critera. The advantage of the Durban framework, with its goal of binding constraints on every nation, is that the Clean Development Mechanism is no longer possible. There will be no carbon offsets in the Durban framework (I hope, all these are things we have to fight for), instead there will be international linkages between the national carbon reduction programs or perhaps even a global carbon reduction program. This is a very good thing. This is my last message under this thread. Hans _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
