How to Fix Global Warming

[drplokta]

All these attempts to micro-manage carbon emissions are futile, and in fact probably counter-productive by associating environmentalism with a new puritanism. If international agreement can be reached, the fix is relatively simple.

1. Determine the actual marginal environmental cost of an extra tonne of CO₂ emissions -- current estimates are between US$10 and US$80.

2. Tax fossil fuels at this level at the point of extraction -- it's a lot easier to tax a few hundred mining and oil companies than it is to tax a few billion consumers. Also tax deforestation and other activities likely to put more CO₂ into the atmosphere. Guarantee the tax level for at least 15 years (possibly with an inflation adjustment) so that people and companies can make long term investments based on it.

3. Rebate the tax to any user of fossil fuels who can demonstrate that their use will keep the CO₂ out of the atmosphere for at least 500 years. Give a similar rebate to anyone who demonstrably removes CO₂ from the atmosphere for at least 500 years.

4. Keep 10% of the funds raised for UN programmes to help countries who are especially affected by climate change. Pay the remainder to national governments in proportion to their population as at 1 January 2009. Permanent migrants get their share transferred from their old country to their new one, so you need to recalculate the shares every ten years or so. It's up to the governments if they use the money for subsidising fuel for poor people, climate change mitigation, or fancy new presidential palaces.

5. Do nothing else -- leave it to the market to decide how much to insulate homes, what kind of light bulbs to use, how many airports to build, whether or not to use patio heaters, etc.

A one-way flight to the US from the UK produces about 1.25 tonnes of CO₂ per passenger, so the fuel for such a flight would be taxed at between US$12.50 and US$100. Air Passenger Duty for such a flight is currently £40, and will be £150 from November 2010, so it's currently about right, and the increase is not necessary.

A litre of petrol gives off about 0.0025 tonnes of CO₂ (2.5kg), and so should be taxed between 2.5 cents and 20 cents -- UK fuel duties are a lot more than this, so drivers are more than covering their climate change costs.

Comments

[drplokta]

In order to allocate resources sensibly, you have to quantitatively compare the costs and benefits of different possible allocations. I assert that, flawed as it is, money is the only metric available for making such comparisons. Therefore, if we refuse to reduce everything to financial terms, we are refusing to make any sensible decisions at all about resource allocation.

If you have an alternative metric for quantitative comparisons of costs and benefit, I'm open to hearing about it.

[andrewducker]

I assert that, flawed as it is, money is the only metric available for making such comparisons.

I disagree. It's certainly a major one, but (for instance) - we don't place a value on human life and decide that the fine for murder must be greater than that amount in order to dissuade people. People litter - and the cost of the fine is set high enough to encourage them not to, not the cost of tidying up after them. Sometimes we merely decide that we want to achieve a certain goal for reasons other than the financial - and once we've done so finding the cheapest way to do so is a perfectly reasonable aim, but deciding on the goal in the first place is not done in a numerical/mechanical manner.

[drplokta]

We do place a value on human life, we just don't talk about it much. If we took the view that it was worth preventing murders at all costs, then a quarter of the adult population would be police officers.

The Department of Transport certainly puts a quantified value on human life when assessing cost/benefit ratios for road safety measures.

[andrewducker]

It's not the only thing they base their decisions on, however - and nor should it be. One can have a moral opinion on something without having to justify it in cost terms, or indeed, it costing anyone anything.