Green Credit for Green Growth

Last night I attended a meeting of the Economic Research Council wher the former chancellor Norman Lamont was talking. His title was “Is Inflation Targeting and Independence of the Bank of England the end of history?”

I was most impressed for he knew about the importance of MONEY (as CASH) and he also knew that ‘narrow money’ ceased to be published. When I gave him a copy of my submission, he said he’d read it.

I shall follow up.

14 MPs are members of this Committee that scrutinises, on behalf of Parliament, all sorts of Governmental institutions. 3 of them are women.

Google makes it interesting and easy to make contact, as well as www.TheyWorkForYou.com.

What a line-up of ‘witnesses’ covering economics, aviation, investment capital and sustainable energy. Details are here.

This group has clearly grown under the chairmanship of Colin Challen MP since I first attended. Kevin Anderson from the Tyndall Centre gave as passionate a presentation as Aubrey Meyer whose presentations of the Contraction & Convergence framework keep changing in sophistication of technology while staying the same in terms of passion and commitment.

Click here for more.

Yesterday I received the excellent 35 Powerpoint slides ‘Solving the Climate-Energy Problem‘ from Prof. HJ Schellnhuber from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research.

Prof. Schellnhuber who advises both the German and the UK Government presented the slides at the Royal Society on October 3, 2006 as part of Brandenburg Meets Britain events. I had been particularly struck by the ‘Tipping Points of the Earth System‘ and feel that everybody should have a look at this picture of our world once a day.

Please click on this pdf file to read the cover letter to our submission to the Treasury Select Committee:

With a view to promoting ‘Green Credit for Green Purposes‘, I took the gist of the document and turned it into 4 A4 pages, i.e. one A3.

It was a ’stellar event’ according to my friend who had a glance at the list of people who filled the audience to the brim. Sir Nicholas talked about

• – the economics of risk
• – the science of probabilities
• – and the collective intellectual capital that we should muster.

The cost of inaction would be > than 5% of GDP while the cost of action would be only 1% of GDP. This is the ‘bottom line’ of his report or in slogan terms: ‘Be Green and Grow!’:

• – economic growth can continue
• – while controlling global warming
• – and providing ‘energy security’.

His recommended actions are:

• 1. attributing a cost to GreenHouse Gases(GHG) - which is taken care of by the EU trading scheme
• 2. doubling public funds - which encouraged me to ask him about it in public
• 3. removing barriers - which means using money as stick or carrot in economic terms.

Maybe he’ll like ‘green credit’ as a ‘green carrot’ then!

Without referring to Contraction & Convergence, he emphasized ‘equity’ as a principle as well as ‘market efficiency’.

Charlie Kronick from Greenpeace pointed out that ludicrous abdication of responsibility of ‘them the institutions’ to ‘us the individuals’. So I pointed out to Sir Nicholas that he and the Chancellor could well more than ‘you and I’ in the audience…

Colin Challen MP asked the first public question and suggested another conference on the economics of climate change. That encouraged me even more to dare to be brave. My German accent was spotted by the ZDF, the Second Channel who asked me questions in English which I answered in German…

The interviewer said she’d call me so that I can tell mum. I keep trying to find proofs that saving me from the bombing of Dresden was ‘worth it’…

Lecture | 15 January 2007 10am to 12.30pm | National
Manifesto Challenge: Moving Towards a Zero Waste Society

Speakers: Sir Nicholas Stern

Location: RSA, 8 John Adam Street, London WC2N 6EZ
Booking Status: Full
The Stern Review is a major review of the economics of climate change commissioned by the Chancellor Gordon Brown, to understand more comprehensively the nature of the economic challenges and how they can be met, in the UK and globally.

Sir Nicholas Stern, author of the review and head of the UK Government Economics Service, will launch his new book The Economics of Climate Change at the RSA on Monday 15 January at 10.30am (with coffee beforehand at 10am).
Sir Nicholas will deliver a keynote address and then further discuss his ideas in conversation with Stephanie Flanders, BBC Newsnight’s Economics Editor, Charlie Kronick, Senior Policy Adviser, Greenpeace and Dr Jon Gibbins, Imperial College. The event will be introduced by Matt Prescott, Director of the RSA’s CarbonLimited project.

The keynote address and discussion will be webcast live over the RSA’s website and can be heard by visiting the audio page.

To open up the discussion the RSA would like to invite you to contribute any questions you may have or issues you wold like to hear discussed. We will incorporate a selection of your responses and present them to the speaker and the panel. To submit your question visit: www.rsacarbonlimited.org

This blog is meant to serve as a record of events relating to my response to an inquiry of the Treasury Select Committee on the economics of climate change.

Having created the programme for over 50 meetings of the FORUM for STABLE CURRENCIES at the House of Lords and the House of Commons, I am now trying to raise awareness in other ways.

The sky is the limit for ideas and actions that may emerge from this wonderful way of sharing information and communications.

May its atmosphere become less and less polluted!