Mitigation is the primary focus, as adaptation to climate change is only appropriate where it is essential, particularly as engineering solutions are likely to bring major problems in other areas in the future. A tax at the source is preferred to an ETS, which has intractable problems of verifiability.
Notes
Climate change is now having a major effect on the Amazon, which will be a trigger point if mega fires start. Systems are being developed to pay farmers to preserve the forest.
Australia needs a national plan for climate change. Victoria’s total carbon stocktake is one element but definitions are a problem. www.greenvehicleguide.gov.au, www.greenpower.gov.au, www.energyrating.gov.au and www.energy.sa.gov.au address specific areas. National security organisations in the US are concerned about climate change as a threat to US security.
Hal Harvey, the CEO of a new $1 billion foundation ClimateWorks, lists 5 policies for avoiding climate change. Obama is being lobbied to legislate on power plants and automobiles, while China Far Outpaces U.S. in Building Cleaner Coal-Fired Plants. The world’s first coal-fired power plant to capture and bury carbon dioxide is being commissioned in the US. It is increasingly likely that nations that do not take adequate measures will face sanctions, probably as taxes. The Danes have imposed a series of taxes on carbon and developed one of the most competitve clean-power industries in the world.
Concrete is a major contributor to greenhouse gases but alternatives are now available. Old houses can also be made energy-efficient.
Carbon trading may not gain international acceptance and also appears to be open to widespread fraud. A carbon tax is an alternative, or we could simply target problem areas. e.g. through a focus on emissions consumption.
Whatever happens, rules must be established if major corporations are to change. Should we not waste time cutting emissions (ref Bjorn Lomborg), but develop alternatives in renewables instead? What exactly is the meaning of “renewable”? Billions of dollars depend on the answer.
But even simply cutting gas leaks would result in major reductions in greenhouse gases and this would pay for itself.
Health effects are raised by doctors at Doctors for the Environment Australia.
