Carbon markets at the end of 2016 – what can we expect in the future?

Sadhbh O'Neill, who attended the COP-22 climate summit in Marrakesh, provides some thoughts on the limitations of carbon trading; not only does trading completely fail to address the ethics of climate change, but it fails in terms of climate policy too. Among her conclusions: "we need a whole-society, whole-industry mobilisation of effort (the kind of effort that reduces emissions rather than increasing them) and probably rationing of scarce non-renewable energy resources."

Questioning The Free Trade Mantra

Graham Barnes presents three reasons for challenging the narrative that restrictions on trade are never justifiable, and goes on to argue that the potential rebalancing of an economy - away from over-financialisation towards productive activity and especially stuff of life end product like food and energy - could create its own success story/ case study and encourage others. Changing our money system would help to achieve this.

The Climate Crisis and Economic Policy Choices

Brian Davey, in Credo, argues that carbon emissions will never fall at a sufficient rate in a growth economy. Unfortunately, the EU operates a climate policy framework, the EU Emissions Trading System, that was designed by BP and it doesn’t work. Policies that might work were the political will there are described. However, the fossil fuel industry still has a stranglehold on policy.

Prejudice, Ignorance and Granfalloons – Society in the Trump Era

Energetic and ecological limits are mostly unknown because they are taboos. It would be great if people found out more about these limits because responding to them seems to me to be the most pressing of all agendas for society. What is more likely however is that the bulk of the population will now pre-occupy themselves with granfalloons instead – and plenty of very educated people will help them. By Brian Davey.