When I started looking into the details of paying for emissions I ended up somewhat biased against Emissions Trading. The financial crisis did not help either, as I somehow tried to justify to myself that it was itself overwhelming evidence of what would happened to an Emissions Trading Scheme. Because of its similarity to an options market, I conjured up a situation where carbon traders would invent derivatives (no different from the credit default swaps), which will ultimately bring the whole system to its knees, just like what we observed with the current financial crisis. I flirted with the idea of a carbon tax for a while, because it was obviously easy to understand. However, what I hadn’t factored in my thought process was that tax systems are man-made and, therefore not perfect, needing re-jigging from time to time to suit the situation at hand. There isn’t a single country in the world that has got its tax system in perfect order, as governments, year after year, continue to tinker their tax systems.
Fast Tube by Casper
As I started to move away from trying to find or justify what I thought would be the best delivery mechanism of achieving low emissions, and rather looking more into the impacts of climate change and a desire to mitigate it, I found out something about myself. I realized that no matter which system or systems the world will adopt, the hard issue I was not willing to face was, CHANGE … i.e. moving away from “business-as-usual” and start doing things different. Like leaving the car at home and commuting on public transport, or cycle, or walk. This is such a hard thing to do and somehow I entertained the idea that with clean energy I could still maintain my affluent ways or similar levels of energy spending. It is not hard to see that if all or most of us maintain our current affluent levels, even with new clean energy, at some point, demand will outstrip diminishing supply.
So, I had been thinking all along that the whole emissions reductions notion is about making the right choice between Emissions Trading and Carbon Tax, and ultimately arresting climate change. In actual fact it is all about which system will cause less pain (for me) and will mean less change of my old habits. Because of this discovery (of myself), I am starting to think that it really doesn’t matter whether its Emissions Trading or Carbon Tax, as long as it is sufficient to cause us to change our ways of affluent living and become more conservative in energy consumption (or energy efficient). We have to bite the bullet, at some point, and do what’s right for the future generation. Arresting Climate Change will have to start with a mind change.
