Poverty and Climate Change - 22 July 2010
When I was in school (yes, it was some time ago), I remember learning that Australia was an example of a Mixed Economy. While most of the economy was in private hands, there were key bits of it - health, education, the Commonwealth Bank, the national airline and the telephone system – that were run by the government. This, the teacher told us, was a nice middle ground between the extremes of entirely public (communist) ownership on one hand and entirely private (capitalist) ownership on the other. Then along came economic rationalism. The market was now considered to be superior to the public sector in just about every sphere of life, and waves of privatisation began. The global financial crisis gave a momentary pause for thought, but once governments around the world stepped in to avert a real melt-down, the idea quickly returned that the market was the only way to fly.
When it comes to climate change, can the market help us move us from a fossil-fuel based economy to a low-emissions economy? Rudd's emissions trading scheme, now languishing in the government's "think about this later" drawer, said yes. The idea behind cap and trade schemes is that you set an allowable level of emissions, equivalent to a set number of permits. If you emit less than the cap, you can sell your "spare" permits to those who wish to emit more than the cap. The market, so the theory goes, quickly adjusts to the system, helping to drive down emissions.
Then there are those who say the market is the wrong instrument for sorting out something as crucial as the future of the planet. With its expansionist drive to get us to use more and more stuff, it caused the problem in the first place. Some point to the special economies of the first and second world wars as examples of the level of government intervention that may be required to swing the ship around to sustainability.
You may like to continue this discussion at Café Kai at 133 George Street on Friday at 6.30pm, where the guest speaker will be visiting Scottish housing campaigner Cathy McCormack, an expert on the connections between climate change and poverty. To book a place, call Patrick on 0429 941 339.