• by Hazel Henderson
• Monday, May 23, 2011
• Inter Press Service

The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Its global focus on CO2 emissions and trading schemes based in London and other financial centres has grown suspect, writes Hazel Henderson, author, president of Ethical Markets Media, and co-author of "Qualitative Growth"(2009).

In this article, the author writes that emission-trading schemes were devised to bridge divides between North and South, using "neutral" market mechanisms. These markets for carbon in the Kyoto Protocols included a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to compensate developing countries for shifting to low-carbon technologies and development. Traders in Wall Street and London's big banks hailed these "financial innovations" and set up trading desks and exchanges.

But large polluting industries in Europe's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) quickly gamed the Kyoto Protocol. Thus "cap and trade" turned out to be less efficient then direct taxing and regulation. Trading was opposed by many developing countries, environmentalists, academics, climate scientists as well as some brave economists who argued for taxes. Green tax shifting is still the best solution, where taxes on incomes and payrolls are cut and shifted to all forms of pollution (not just CO2), extraction of virgin resources, and waste while remaining revenue neutral.

(*)Hazel Henderson, author, president of Ethical Markets Media (USA and Brazil), co-developed with the Calvert Group the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators ( www.calvert-henderson.com) and co-authored "Qualitative Growth" (2009), Institute for Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (www.icaew.com ).

// NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, AND THE UNITED STATES //

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

Where next?

Advertisement