Another Inconvenient Truth

As Al Gore's global warming call to action flickers on the screens of America's multiplexes, we must face another inconvenient truth.

We need to confront the really bad climate change news behind China's economic boom built on dirty coal.
 
And we also need to grasp the available market based solution to the global warming and sustainability crisis, one that can curb China's and our own poisonous habits.

In the last two years, China has put on line a phenomenal 90,000 megawatts of carbon dioxide belching coal fired electric plants. That's equal to the total British installed electric capacity.

China now burns more coal than the U.S. (2.73 to 2.10 billion tons /year), and by 2025, if the breaks aren't applied, Chinese coal consumption will be 40% of the world's total.

The U.S. position as global carbon dioxide king will soon be threatened by Chinese dirty coal powered industrialization. The U.S.  will nevertheless remain  safely in the lead as oil consumer  and carbon emitter to power our ever-expanding  motor vehicle fleet --unless we change.

While the West talks about clean coal technologies to make low carbon gaseous and liquid fuels, the Chinese plants are smoke and sulfur belchers using second hand equipment and obsolete technology.

The Kyoto treaty thoughtfully exempted China and the rest of the developing world from greenhouse gas reductions in the name of pollution equity.

Unless Chinese (and American) conduct is fundamentally changed, we likely have no chance of stabilizing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels at 500 parts per million (ppm) or less  by mid century  (370 ppm today and rising ). And, of course, 500 ppm may already be way too high an amount of carbon for our likingÅ 

So what's a concerned movie goer and citizen to do?

Technologically we have the means, if not the will or the proper price signals, to vastly improve energy efficiency, cover the plains and the coasts with wind turbines, the deserts and our roofs with solar cells, drive ultra light hybrids fueled with ethanol and biodiesel, use clean coal technologies, bubble power plant carbon dioxide through enormous biodiesel algae pondsÅ  

The solution to global warming is not simply to appeal to Chinese (or our
own) long term best interests to stop pollution before it's too late. As long as pollution is  "free", the price for sustainability remains too expensive.

The key is to make what's polluting, depleting, and ecologically damaging more expensive than sustainable alternatives. The means replacing income taxes with ecological consumption taxes and enlisting the market price mechanism and business acumen in service to sustainability.

We can swiftly help domesticate the Chinese dragon by getting our own house in order through ecological consumption taxes, in particular, an ecological value add tax, or VAT, a kind of smart sales tax on all goods and services.
The more polluting, the higher the ecological VAT rates.
What's more polluting will cost more. What's sustainable will cost less. Buy cheap, save the planet can be the new watchword.
 
And, most importantly, these ecological consumption taxes are consistent with World Trades Organization  (WTO) rules. They can be levied on all imports--Chinese imports for instance --to level the economic playing field.
If the industrial world led by the U.S., the biggest consumer, adopts ecological taxes, the Chinese and the other exporting Asian Tigers will be forced to follow and substantially clean up their act or be forced from our markets.

The market and ecological taxation is an available and potent means to transform our own, and Chinese conduct, from the path of ecological self-destruction to that of sustainability and prosperity. It's time.
______________________
Roy Morrison is an energy consultant (www.rmaenergy.net) and writer. His latest book is Eco Civilization 2140.

Fact check:
Chinese coal,  new 90,000 megawatts:
Financial Times May 30, 2006 Special Report: Energy Kevin Morrison, Coal: Reliability Fires Technology", page 3.

Chinese  coal consumption/emissions:
New York Times June 11, 2006 Page 1.
Keith Bradsher and David Barboza, "Clouds Frm chinese Coal Cast a Long Shadow," page 1, 14-15.

500 ppm carbon target:
"Meeting the EU 2 C climate target: global and regional emission implications - group of 2 "
MGJ den Elzen, M Meinshausen - RIVM report, 2005 - gci.org.uk http://www.gci.org.uk/briefings/rivm.pdf
______________________
"Are the Economic costs of Stabilizing the Atmosphere Prohibitive?"
http://iis-db.stanford.edu/pubs/20076/shseconomic.pdf

___________________________________

"Climate change impacts are sensitive to the concentration stabilization path - group of 5 "
BC O'Neill, M Oppenheimer - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
2004 - pnas.org
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/102/44/15728
_________________________
"Beyond Kyoto". John Browne
From Foreign Affairs, July/August 2004
Beyond Kyoto John Browne
From Foreign Affairs, July/August 2004

Summary:  Global warming is real and needs to be addressed now. Rather than bash or mourn the defunct Kyoto Protocol, we should start taking the small steps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions today that can make a big difference down the road. The private sector already understands this, and its efforts will be crucial in improving fossil fuel efficiency and developing alternative sources of energy. To harness business potential, however, governments in the developed world must create incentives, improve scientific research, and forge international partnerships.
Lord Browne of Madingley is Group Chief Executive of BP plc.

"Since the middle of the nineteenth century, the average concentration of carbon dioxide -- a so-called greenhouse gas -- in the world's atmosphere has risen from some 280 parts per million (ppm) to around 370 ppm. Burning fossil fuels account for about three-quarters of human emissions, with deforestation and changes in land use (mainly in the tropics) accounting for the restÅ  if no precautionary action is taken, carbon dioxide concentrations will rise by 2050 to between 450 and 550 ppm and will continue to increase throughout the twenty-first century.

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20040701faessay83404/john-browne/beyond-kyoto.
html
____________________

Ecological Taxation
Roy Morrison ,Eco Civilization 2140, Amazon.com Roy Morrison, Tax pollution, Not Income, www.essentialbooks.com _____________________ WTO Rules  : VAT  levied on imports/credited  against exports

"Implementing the Kyoto Protocol Without the United States - group of  8"
F Biermann, R Brohm - Global Governance, 2003 - glogov.org http://www.glogov.org/upload/public%20files/pdf/publications/working%20paper
s/workingpaper5.pdf