Richest Nations Urged to Create Green Taxes

Industrialized countries should do away with environmentally damaging tax subsidies and introduce green taxes, says a new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The Paris based group, which represents the world’s richest countries, says the world must “prevent irreversible damage to our environment over the next 20 years.” The call came in a major review of key environmental challenges that may face the world in the year 2020.

Only with widespread use of economic instruments will it be possible to tackle the more complex, interrelated and international environmental problems of the future, says the organization, which includes 30 member countries that produce two-thirds of the world’s goods and services.

A wide range of policies will be necessary, but economic instruments should play the “predominant” role, OECD environment director Joke Waller-Hunter said.

OECD Environmental Outlook identifies the key environmental challenges for industrialized countries over the next two decades using the “traffic light system,” in which environmental pressures and society’s responses are classified as red light, yellow light or green light issues.

The red-light issues are:

•Three-quarters of marine fisheries are fished to their limits or over-fished.

•Tropical deforestation continues at alarming rates. Non-OECD regions will lose another ten percent of their forests by 2020.

•Human-induced climate change already affects weather patterns worldwide. This will worsen as OECD CO² emissions increase by a projected one-third by 2020.

•Urban air quality and associated health problems are deteriorating in many OECD countries.

•Energy use and transportation are already the main contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. Motor-vehicle use in OECD countries is expected to increase by 40 percent by 2020, passenger air kilometers to triple, and energy use to increase by 35 percent.

•Municipal waste generation is expected to increase substantially in OECD countries by 2020. In most OECD countries ground-water is polluted, largely by farm chemicals. By 2020, nitrogen loading of waterways from agriculture will increase in OECD countries by more than one-quarter.

•Persistent and toxic chemicals will be widespread in the environment, seriously affecting human health.

•Overall, environmental damage is responsible for two to six percent of disease in OECD countries.

Lessons must be learned from environmental success stories, such as the virtual elimination of ozone-depleting CFC emissions, the removal of lead from gasoline, the expansion of protected natural areas, and significant increases in the efficiency of resource and energy use.

But in many cases, efficiency improvements have failed to counter total increases in the environmental pressures caused by rising consumption and production levels, the OECD report says. “More stringent policies are needed to ensure that environmental degradation is de-coupled from economic growth.”

Computer simulations conducted for this report showed that applying a tax on the carbon content of fuels and taxing all chemicals could lead to 15 percent lower OECD carbon dioxide emissions by 2020. The tax would also lower other emissions, including nitrogen from agricultural chemicals and methane.

The economic costs of implementing this package of policies would be almost negligible, less than one percent lower than under a business-as-usual scenario.

The OECD Environmental Outlook is available online at: www.oecd.org/env/outlook/outlook.htm. The OECD member countries are listed at: www.oecd.org/about/general/member-countries.htm

Peoples’ Climate Summit in DC

A coalition of community leaders representing more than 100 million Americans and over $300 billion in annual revenues gathered at a recent Citizens Summit on Climate Change to urge lawmakers to slow global warming.

About 40 business executives, religious leaders, economists and scientists from 12 key states attended the three-day event that included workshops, an interfaith service, and meetings with congressional representatives. Among the groups represented were the US Catholic Conference, the National Council of Churches of Christ, Enron, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Maytag, York International, and scientists conducting research on climate change.

“We come from different backgrounds and perspectives, but we all agree that global warming is one of the century’s most pressing environmental, economic and ethical concerns,” said Howard Ris, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “All segments of society have a responsibility to act, and our government, including both the Congress and the Bush administration, should lead the way.”

“To be faithful stewards of the Earth, we must curb global warming,” said Paul Gorman, executive director of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment. “The US is disproportionately responsible for... global warming. As a result, our nation has a moral obligation to lead the response.”

Twelve state petitions signed by more than 800 scientists were sent to Capitol Hill calling for stronger Congressional leadership on the issue. The scientists are convinced that enough is known about global warming to warrant bold action to prevent the worst consequences of a warming climate.

“Businesses across the country have demonstrated that reducing carbon emissions will not threaten economic growth,” said Michael Marvin, president of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy. “In fact, clean energy technologies could substantially slow climate change while cleaning the air and creating more jobs.”

Average Yank Emits 20 Times More Carbon

The US is the world’s most significant polluter and should take action on climate change before asking developing countries to do so, concludes a new study released Tuesday by the World Resources Institute (WRI).

According to the report, in 1999 the average US citizen emitted about 5.6 tons of carbon per year: about 20 times the amount emitted by the average citizen of India and more than ten times the amount emitted by the average Chinese.

In the last 100 years, industrialized countries, with 20 percent of the world’s population, have been responsible for 60 percent of the net carbon emissions that are driving global warming, according to the report, “The US, Developing Countries, and Climate Protection: Leadership or Stalemate?”

The US topped the list of carbon emitters from fossil fuels, accounting for 30 percent of the total from 1900-99, while China contributed only seven percent and India, two percent.

Despite increasing amounts of carbon dioxide emissions from developing countries, the US will continue to dominate the production of this heat trapping gas 10 years from now, increasing its emission by about 300 million tons of carbon by 2010. In contrast, India and China’s combined emissions will be only four-fifths those of the US total by 2010, despite the fact that these two countries represent 40 percent of the world’s population.

“The US should attend to curbing its own prodigious output of greenhouse gases before asking developing countries to do more,” said Kevin Baumert, one of the study’s authors.

The study said that despite the lack of legal commitments from developing countries to curb their carbon emissions, they have taken action, unlike most developed countries, which promised but have not done so. China, for example, reduced its emissions by 17 percent between 1997 to 1999.