14 år sedan
Global Challenge in Financial Times: "Climate strategy to satisfy Keynes and Schumpeter"
Sir, The present deadlock over a global, legally binding treaty on climate change has caused uncertainty among investors on the future climate regime and on energy investments. The expectations for the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) in Cancún are low and the same holds for the COP17 in South Africa for 2011. The Group of 20 meeting in Seoul did not change the uncertainty. It will take years before the main actors are prepared to sign a global, legally binding agreement.
Global warming, however, does not wait for all 192 UN members to agree. Therefore, the deadlock needs to be broken. Several think-tanks in Europe and the US have floated ideas on how. We represent a Stockholm-based think-tank, Global Challenge, and have launched one such idea in the report “An International Climate Investment Community”, a complementary process to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change-negotiations (available on www.globalutmaning.c3177.cloudnet.cloud). We build on the most recent reports from the International Energy Agency, the World Bank, European Commission and others, and suggest a shift from sharing burdens to sharing opportunities by focusing on technology and investment.
The key element in our initiative is a technology neutral carbon-dioxide price – a price high enough to make all necessary technologies economically viable and making fossil technologies unprofitable. This price will have to be at least €40 a ton, compared with the present CO2 price in the emissions trading scheme at about €15 a ton. The technology-neutral CO2 price should be reached no later than 2020 and should be established through a combination of a reformed ETS and national CO2 taxes and other measures. The revenues could be used for lowering other taxes within existing taxation systems. Several countries have already successfully reduced taxes on labour.
The European Union should take the initiative to build an International Climate Investment Community. This community should invite other countries outside the EU to join and would thus be able to grow step by step, much as the EU enlargement. Other regions could then build their own communities. One could be built in North America and another in China. The key requirement is the political will to converge towards a technology neutral CO2 price, the key to low carbon investment and a modernisation of our energy systems. Nations that participate in such a community will give their industries a strong signal to shift investment from fossil technology to low-carbon technology and efficiency, offering predictability for energy investment and new business opportunities.
Turning the climate strategy into a creative investment and employment strategy would satisfy both Schumpeter and Keynes!
Allan Larsson, Former Finance Minister of Sweden
Anders Wijkman, Former MEP
Staffan Laestadius, Professor, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
Catharina Nystedt Ringborg, Energy Adviser
Global Challenge, Stockholm, Sweden
Click here här to read the article on Financial Time’s web page.
