Dieter Helm
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300186598
- eISBN:
- 9780300188646
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300186598.001.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
This book explains the causes of climate change and who is responsible for it. It shows that the emissions keep going up, and that nothing of substance has yet been achieved after more than two ...
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This book explains the causes of climate change and who is responsible for it. It shows that the emissions keep going up, and that nothing of substance has yet been achieved after more than two decades of effort. It is claimed that the energy sector can be converted from an overwhelmingly carbon-based one to almost zero carbon in the space of half a century, all at just a small cost, or even a profit, based on simplistic assumptions about economic growth and a new industrial revolution. The current industrial structures of all developed and most developing economies are overwhelmingly carbon-based. Decarbonizing requires the coordinated replacement of almost all of the capital stock of the world. Tackling climate change does mean lowering standard of living from its current unsustainable levels, even after the economic crisis. A border carbon tax has one other great virtue: it provides a bottom-up way of getting global action, and avoids the tortuous Kyoto-style top-down negotiations. Applying border adjustments is bound to take time and cause transitional difficulties. Carbon pricing is necessary, but it is not sufficient. By considering climate change mitigation in the context of a limited ability to pay, a very different strategy emerges. For the amounts currently spent, carbon emissions could be cut by much more in the short run, and the possibility of a series of breakthroughs could be husbanded through a major international R&D programme.Less
This book explains the causes of climate change and who is responsible for it. It shows that the emissions keep going up, and that nothing of substance has yet been achieved after more than two decades of effort. It is claimed that the energy sector can be converted from an overwhelmingly carbon-based one to almost zero carbon in the space of half a century, all at just a small cost, or even a profit, based on simplistic assumptions about economic growth and a new industrial revolution. The current industrial structures of all developed and most developing economies are overwhelmingly carbon-based. Decarbonizing requires the coordinated replacement of almost all of the capital stock of the world. Tackling climate change does mean lowering standard of living from its current unsustainable levels, even after the economic crisis. A border carbon tax has one other great virtue: it provides a bottom-up way of getting global action, and avoids the tortuous Kyoto-style top-down negotiations. Applying border adjustments is bound to take time and cause transitional difficulties. Carbon pricing is necessary, but it is not sufficient. By considering climate change mitigation in the context of a limited ability to pay, a very different strategy emerges. For the amounts currently spent, carbon emissions could be cut by much more in the short run, and the possibility of a series of breakthroughs could be husbanded through a major international R&D programme.
Shaun Spiers
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781447339991
- eISBN:
- 9781447346661
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447339991.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
This afterword argues that if ministers really want to get houses built, they have the power to make it happen. However, obsessing about numbers alone is a bad mistake. The country will not get the ...
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This afterword argues that if ministers really want to get houses built, they have the power to make it happen. However, obsessing about numbers alone is a bad mistake. The country will not get the new houses it needs by privileging numbers over everything else. Indeed, another argument in this book is that the countryside matters. As well as a housing crisis, the country has a host of related rural and environmental woes. The country needs to think hard about the location of new homes and build them in ways that foster nature and help address climate change. A serious push to ensure that all new homes are zero carbon and energy efficient will have significant social, economic, and environmental benefits.Less
This afterword argues that if ministers really want to get houses built, they have the power to make it happen. However, obsessing about numbers alone is a bad mistake. The country will not get the new houses it needs by privileging numbers over everything else. Indeed, another argument in this book is that the countryside matters. As well as a housing crisis, the country has a host of related rural and environmental woes. The country needs to think hard about the location of new homes and build them in ways that foster nature and help address climate change. A serious push to ensure that all new homes are zero carbon and energy efficient will have significant social, economic, and environmental benefits.
Janis Sarra
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- December 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198852308
- eISBN:
- 9780191886775
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198852308.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Environmental and Energy Law
Chapter 1 introduces the need for effective climate governance in businesses and financial institutions. A variety of concurrent strategies are required to tackle global warming through mitigation ...
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Chapter 1 introduces the need for effective climate governance in businesses and financial institutions. A variety of concurrent strategies are required to tackle global warming through mitigation and adaptation internationally and domestically. The chapter introduces how the best of current scholarly and business literature on effective governance can guide this transition and offer a coherent normative and practical framework for moving forward. It offers some essential definitions so that readers understand how the terms are used throughout the book, including the Anthropocene, global warming and climate change, greenhouse gas emissions and carbon intensity, systemic risk, climate mitigation and adaptation, net zero carbon emissions, climate resilience, and the circular economy. It provides an overview of the book’s structure and objectives.Less
Chapter 1 introduces the need for effective climate governance in businesses and financial institutions. A variety of concurrent strategies are required to tackle global warming through mitigation and adaptation internationally and domestically. The chapter introduces how the best of current scholarly and business literature on effective governance can guide this transition and offer a coherent normative and practical framework for moving forward. It offers some essential definitions so that readers understand how the terms are used throughout the book, including the Anthropocene, global warming and climate change, greenhouse gas emissions and carbon intensity, systemic risk, climate mitigation and adaptation, net zero carbon emissions, climate resilience, and the circular economy. It provides an overview of the book’s structure and objectives.
Janis Sarra
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- December 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198852308
- eISBN:
- 9780191886775
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198852308.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Environmental and Energy Law
Climate change represents an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies, economies, and the planet. Yet despite clear signals, we are slow to act in a meaningful way, despite the ...
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Climate change represents an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies, economies, and the planet. Yet despite clear signals, we are slow to act in a meaningful way, despite the fact that we have the legal, political, and technological tools to transition our economies to net zero carbon. While some businesses are reluctant to take significant steps to reduce their carbon footprint, many companies are well-intentioned but feel somewhat paralysed in the face of overwhelming data that portend a financially and environmentally devastating future. Yet we can still reverse the trajectory of climate change, but it requires bold and informed action to reduce our carbon footprint in a manner that embeds fairness in the transition. This book offers a guide for companies, pension funds, asset managers, and other institutional investors to commence the legal, governance, and financial strategies needed for effective climate mitigation and adaptation, and to help distribute the economic benefits of these actions to their stakeholders. It takes the reader from ideas to action, from first steps to a more meaningful contribution to the move towards a ‘climate positive’ circular economy. It can also serve as a helpful guide to everyone implicated in a corporation’s activities—employees, pensioners, consumers, banks and other lenders, policy-makers, and community members. It offers insights into what we should be expecting, and asking, of these individuals who have taken responsibility for effectively managing our savings, our retirement funds, our investments, and our tax dollars.Less
Climate change represents an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies, economies, and the planet. Yet despite clear signals, we are slow to act in a meaningful way, despite the fact that we have the legal, political, and technological tools to transition our economies to net zero carbon. While some businesses are reluctant to take significant steps to reduce their carbon footprint, many companies are well-intentioned but feel somewhat paralysed in the face of overwhelming data that portend a financially and environmentally devastating future. Yet we can still reverse the trajectory of climate change, but it requires bold and informed action to reduce our carbon footprint in a manner that embeds fairness in the transition. This book offers a guide for companies, pension funds, asset managers, and other institutional investors to commence the legal, governance, and financial strategies needed for effective climate mitigation and adaptation, and to help distribute the economic benefits of these actions to their stakeholders. It takes the reader from ideas to action, from first steps to a more meaningful contribution to the move towards a ‘climate positive’ circular economy. It can also serve as a helpful guide to everyone implicated in a corporation’s activities—employees, pensioners, consumers, banks and other lenders, policy-makers, and community members. It offers insights into what we should be expecting, and asking, of these individuals who have taken responsibility for effectively managing our savings, our retirement funds, our investments, and our tax dollars.