A New Deal for Local Economies

The widespread imposition of water rationing is strong evidence that a growing population means a shrinking share of natural wealth per person – and this implies a lower quality of life. Many seek a deliberate end to population growth to avoid further impact upon natural resources, especially water and desirable land.

For this common sense intuition to be proved wrong, a radical restructuring of our physical economy would be required – a transition to an economic system which aims for 100% recycling and zero waste, provides equitable access to scarce natural resources and maintains a plentiful supply of renewable energy.

To enable such a giant shift in resource efficiency, the “software” of our economic system will have to be re-engineered first.  By software, I mean the laws, rules, structures and dynamics which shape the thinking and decisions made by everybody from national treasurers, finance ministers and industrial magnates, to ordinary consumers and shoppers on fixed incomes.

(This is the third of a three-article series. Follow these links for Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.)

In opposing "an emissions trading scheme", do you mean ALL emissions trading schemes or just the CPRS ETS in particular?

There are fundamental problems with the trading mechanism for determining the price of emissions. These relate particularly to price volatility and the long time delay between a price signal sufficient to stimulate private sector investment and large scale clean energy becoming readily available on the grid.