Title: A solution to climate change economics – a carbon swap bank

Authors: Carolyn V. Currie

Addresses: Public Private Sector Partnerships, P.O. Box 238, Mosman, Sydney, NSW, 2088, Australia

Abstract: The original impetus of the Copenhagen Treaty in 2010 to solve the problem of climate change using a carbon emissions trading scheme has hit ground zero. The failure to advance various proposed bills in the USA and Australia has faltered on the role of agriculture, the failure to ensure that high carbon dioxide polluting industries actually alter technologies, the creation of excessive derivatives, the lack of control of the offset market, how permits are allocated, and the distortion of macro and micro gains by imposing effective taxes on some of the most efficient and essential industries in the most advanced economies. This paper proposes a new alternative – a carbon swap bank where direct deposits of sequestered carbon and withdrawals of emission rights can be made, facilitated by direct swap arrangements between a supplier of carbon sequestering technologies and methods, and those of the carbon polluter.

Keywords: carbon emissions trading; carbon sequestration; carbon swaps; carbon neutrality; climate change economics; interdisciplinary environmental analysis; carbon tax; carbon swap banks.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2010.037909

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2010 Vol.11 No.2/3, pp.236 - 247

Published online: 05 Jan 2011 *

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