Political Climate

Posted by Matthew Lockwood In the second of two posts, Political Climate takes a critical look at an example of the new anti-growth literature, Growth Isn’t Possible: Why we need a new economic direction by Andrew Simms and Victoria Johnson at the New Economics Foundation.  Growth isn’t possible (GiP) does raise profoundly serious issues about the [...]

Posted by Matthew Lockwood Environmentalists have always had a problem with economic growth. In the crisis ridden 1970s, the narrative was about the Limits to Growth set by natural resources. In 1980, ecologist Paul Ehrlich made (and lost) a bet with economist Julian Simon that supplies of a number of different metals used in industry [...]

As if responding to yesterday’s post here on Political Climate, chief negotiator Su Wei (pictured) has confirmed that China will not accept emissions caps in the foreseeable future. He restated China’s commitment to its pre-Copenhagen pledge to reduce emissions intensity. It really doesn’t matter whether you support or are critical of China’s position. You may [...]

There will not be a global climate deal this year, there may, however be US climate legislation. A bet on the first rather than on the second of these statements would be more likely to trouble the cashier at William Hill. However, neither is going to have the bookmakers quaking in their boots. In a [...]

WRI has just put together this useful table of the fast start finance commitments made so far by developed countries. It tells a familiar tale, with much of what seemed fresh in the glare of Copenhagen, now appearing old and rehashed. What can we take away from these intractable discussions on international financing of climate [...]

Yvo de Boer has announced that he is to step down as head of the UNFCCC’s secretariat. One quick thought: Appoint a successor from a developing country! Just as the WTO’s secretariat has always been seen as close to the European Commission, so the UNFCCC is increasingly perceived as a Eurocentric administration, not least because [...]

On Friday 12 February, the UN’s Secretary General announced the formation of a high-level advisory group on climate financing. It will be co-chaired by Gordon Brown – although for how long who knows – and Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia. The assumption is that this is the same high-level group mentioned in paragraph 9 of the [...]

This is the substance of the reply I’ve posted on Duncan Green’s blog, From Poverty to Power: Let’s start with my original post. I didn’t actually say that an increase in taxes on wealth would be “more progressive and transparent” than an FTT. I said that it keyed more directly into a deeper logic. You [...]

Oxfam’s Duncan Green has responded to Matthew’s Tobin tax posts of yesterday and also to Owen Barder’s post, which raised concerns about whether financial transactions taxes might have a regressive impact. Duncan’s argument is that a narrow window of opportunity for a Robin Hood Tax on financial transactions has been opened by the financial crisis [...]

My Tobin Tax post yesterday about a wealth tax for adaptation has attracted quite a lot of discussion, which is great. Much of it is along the lines of “interesting idea in theory, but it will never work in practice, unlike the Tobin tax”. The view seems to be that campaigners have been working on the Tobin [...]