Technological, not political, solutions the root of the problem

Authors: Piers Maclaren
Publication: New Zealand Journal of Forestry, Volume N.Z.J.For. 2012, Issue N.Z.J.For. 57(1) 2012, pp 2-3, May 2012
Publisher: New Zealand Institute of Forestry

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Abstract: The price of carbon has nose-dived from last year’s dizzying heights of over $20/tonne to a miserable $8. At such a low figure, no action of any sort will take place: no new tree planting, no moves to end the evil ways of carbon emitters like all of us. All this was entirely predictable. The ETS was never likely to work. The reasons lie in sociology, not in economics let alone climatology. To make a successful emissions scheme of the necessary scale requires that substantial resources throughout the economy be re-allocated. In the inevitable disruption, there will be winners and losers – demanding a considerable degree of consensus among the general public. This we do not have, and it would be suicidal for a political party to actively pursue this agenda.

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