Carbon trading is a stupid idea

by Peter de Waal RAM activist 22 August 2008 Carbon trading is a stupid idea and will never work for the simple reason that you can not expect the same "free-market" which created the greenhouse gas problem in the first place is going to be capable of reducing the world's emissions. Added to this, such schemes will only transfer more costs onto ordinary people as the business corporations will push up prices to pay for this nonsense. The only people to benefit from carbon trading will be the business corporations, the banks, the stock market parasites and their lawyers. The Greens need a much better policy centred around the ideas of using new carbon taxes to urgently build a new low- emission infrastructure here in New Zealand, which will also have the beneficial effect of helping keep society running as peak oil begins to bite hard and the 'normal' way of life becomes a distant memory. The Green Party also needs to clearly explain to the public the reasons why this infrastructural investment and extra taxation is necessary, particularly at a time when most families are struggling to survive. If the Greens persist with this free-market carbon tax trading strategy without it being directly tied to local low-emmission infrastructure investment such as free public transport, then the Greens can expect to get a real pasting in the elections this year. The Greens need to leave Parliament with it's jet-set lifestyle at 35,000 feet and put their feet back on the ground and listen to ordinary people who are struggling to buy food, pay bills etc. Green and left voters don't want a bar of this corporate carbon-trading nonsense. The question is: has the Green Party got what it takes to stand up to the business corporations and the Labour Party on this question or have they become captured and sold out to the free-market? Sent to Green Party ets@greens.org.nz (22 August 2008)