Letter: Gradual approach
To the editor:
Let’s hope we make planetary well-being the measure of global human activity at the Paris Climate Accord. The nations of the world set a goal for themselves in Cancun in 2010 to try to keep the warming of the planet to no more than 3.8 degrees Fahrenheit, or 2 degrees Celsius.
The idea of a carbon budget for each nation has been floated around ever since. But a carbon budget is still unlikely to be addressed in Paris. Why? Because it would throw into focus the global inequities at the heart of the climate crisis. A carbon budget could be likened to a carbon pie. The problem is that two-thirds of the pie has already been eaten by a handful of rich countries, plus China. At current rates, the remaining third will be gone in 30 years or less. Many poor countries are crowding around the table, but the big emitting countries insist on laying claim to most of the rest of the pie.
In lieu of a carbon budget to cure gluttonous carbon consumption, Citizens Climate Lobby asks citizens to encourage elected officials to support a revenue-neutral carbon fee and dividend as a free market approach. A gradually increasing carbon fee (as a cost of goods sold) at the source of all oil or natural gas wells, coal mines and ports of entry. This would gradually increase the price to wean us off these heat trapping gases that threaten to make large parts of the earth unlivable.