We all need to pay for climate mitigation
Author: The Conversation Date Posted:16 June 2014
Changing how we consume energy is the best way to mitigate climate change. Adam Bowie/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SAWhile the latest IPCC report on mitigation doesn’t recommend any particular strategy for reducing carbon emissions, it suggests changing energy consumption is a key mitigation strategy.
According to the summary of the report electricity generation produces the greatest share of carbon emissions (25% in 2010). Within electricity, buildings and industry are the key emitters.
For the best chance to keep global warming under the internationally-agreed 2C guardrail, greenhouse gas concentrations (measured relative to CO2) need to be limited to 450 parts per million by 2100.
In Australia, two mitigation strategies are competing for favour: a carbon price and emissions trading scheme, and Direct Action. The government has vowed to dissolve the carbon price from July, to be replaced with Direct Action. Is Direct Action a better policy for changing our energy consumption? Long-standing ecological and economic theory would suggest not.
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