STWR - Share The World's Resources

As 11,000 delegates from nearly 200 countries wrap up the climate discussions in Poznan, Poland, a coordinated response to the combined climate and financial crisis is far from negotiated. The question remaining is: can an effective global deal still be reached in Copenhagen that addresses the core drivers of the climate crisis beyond the prioritisation of economic growth and the continued overexploitation of world resources?

Conventional cost-benefit models cannot inform our decisions about how to address the threat of global warming. An economics that complements the science of climate change and endorses active, large-scale climate protection is the only answer, argues Frank Ackerman.

Government efforts to tackle climate change through carbon trading remain inadequate due to the driving motive of market led growth. But what are the ramifications of this policy and who will pay the price? By Daphne Wysham.

As world nations meet in Poznan, Poland, to continue negotiations on a new climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, serious questions are being raised about the possibility of slashing global carbon emissions by the necessary minimum of 50% by 2050. 

For twenty years the green climate agenda has embraced orthodoxies rooted in market fundamentalism, resulting in political failure and skyrocketing emissions. It is time to focus solutions on public investment and making clean energy affordable, argues Ted Nordhaus and Michael Schellenberger.

The financial crisis demonstrates the need for strong government to protect the public good. In a resource-constrained world, policymakers must concede that economic growth has met its nemesis in climate change, and they should not be seduced by the market’s quick fixes, writes Chandran Nair.

Green activists are seeing the global economic crisis as an opportunity for transformative change, but the truth remains: high economic growth cannot be reconciled with limited natural resources, says Mark Lynas.