Cashing in on carbon reduction

In November last year, as part of the University of New South Wales’s Grand Challenge on Inequality, we launched the Australian Carbon Dividend Plan, which was designed to tackle the twin problems of climate change and energy affordability. The idea is simple: put a $50 per tonne tax on all carbon at the point where it enters the economy, and return the proceeds to all voting-age citizens on an equal basis. Australians will have an incentive to reduce their emissions but will be compensated for price increases stemming from the tax.

The dividend plan provides incentives for lower-carbon energy. 

We estimate that the average Australian household would be $585 a year better off under the plan, with the lowest-earning fifth of households $1300 a year better off. And that’s before any change in their behaviour. Households that cut their energy consumption as a result of the plan would be even better off.

It’s a market-based approach to dealing with climate change that provides incentives for more efficient and lower-carbon energy, and compensates households directly in a progressive manner.

Read the Inside Story by Richard Holden and Rosalind Dixon - “Cashing in on carbon reduction.”

Addressing the Systemic Challenge at the Heart of Escalating Inequality and Environmental Destruction

Ted Howard’s remarks to the Environmental Funders Network in Cambridge, England, on February 2nd, 2018.

( prepared remarks have been lightly edited for publication)

I want to begin by thanking the conference organizers for extending an invitation to address you during your important annual deliberations.

I come before you today not as an expert on environmental matters, but as someone who has devoted his professional life to social justice concerns, in particular addressing economic and social inequality in the United States and in the Global South.

While much good work has been done on the inequality issue, the very bitter truth is that despite our best efforts, inequality is growing dramatically in nations around the world, including here in the United Kingdom and in most of Europe.

Read the Next System Project story by Ted Howard - “Addressing the Systemic Challenge at the Heart of Escalating Inequality and Environmental Destruction.”

Cities are on the front-line of climate change. They must adapt or die

Cities are the anchors of human civilization. By 2050, roughly three quarters of humanity will live in one. While offering extraordinary opportunities for prosperity, creativity and wellbeing, cities of tomorrow will also confront monumental challenges associated with poverty, inequality and fragility. Decisions made by urban leaders in the next decade will determine the livability – even the survival – of cities across the planet.

One factor uniting cities is that all of them will suffer the effects of climate change. Most will experience rising levels of flood exposure, water shortages, storms and heat stress. The severity of risk will be mediated by their location – whether on the littoral or inland – but also the extent of their preparedness. Governments, businesses and civil society groups have an opportunity now to design-in resilience to our cities, but no city is immune to the coming storm.

In fact, most cities are already on the front-line of climate change. At least 70% of them are currently dealing with sudden onset disasters and long-term environmental stress. They are confronting a host of related challenges ranging from health pandemics to population displacement. The massive concentration of people in cities over the coming decades – especially in Africa and Asia – will almost certainly exacerbate traffic congestion, worsen air quality and increase amounts of waste.

Read the World Economic Forum story - “Cities are on the front-line of climate change.They must adapt or die.”

Energy transformation leads to economic equality

Our lifestyle is inextricably linked to fossil fuels. We pay the industry to heat our homes and power our cars. Though driving might be optional where public transit is available, heat is not during harsh winters. We know about the effects on the climate of burning oil, gas, and coal for energy, but we don’t know what turning our backs on them will do to our economy. Some worry that closing our oil refineries and shutting down our mines would throw the market into a dangerous vortex.

That doesn’t need to be the case. A successful energy transition could actually benefit the economy and reduce inequality.

Read the Yes! story - “What Keeping Oil in the Ground Can Do for Economic Inequality.”

15 Years to achieve eight lofty (idealistic?) goals

F

acing a growing rift between developed and developing countries, the United Nations' 189 member states did something a bit drastic at the turn of the 21st century: They adopted a set of eight lofty (perhaps idealistic) goals to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, reduce child mortality, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and improve healthcare—all in the next 15 years.

Read a Q&A with John McArthur of the UN Foundation on the renewed global effort to fight poverty, inequality and climate change - “Lessons Learned From Trying to Save the Developing World”.

'Shorthand' confuses Australia Prime Minister

Tony Abbott is confused about many things, among them what growth is really “shorthand” for.

According to Australia’s PM, “…. economic growth is really just economists' shorthand for more jobs, higher pay, new industries, and the better life that only greater wealth can provide."

It’s not. It’s actually shorthand for a worsening of what he has called “darkening times”.

Economic growth, despite his optimism, is simply about inequality and the strengthening of a social malaise that favours less than one per cent of the world’s population and, critically, further disrupts the world’s deteriorating climate.

In today’s Mark Kenny story in The Age, Mr Abbott said, "Our G20 goal is to boost output by an extra 2 per cent over the next five years to create millions of jobs and to generate trillions in wealth right around the world.”

"Likewise the post-2015 Development Agenda should focus on economic growth because growth makes every other social goal, even tackling climate change, easier to accomplish,” he said.