The most ideal “false solutions” to Climate Change?

Last night I attended an interesting panel discussion on Climate Change. The organizations represented were Global Anti-Incineration Alliance, International Rivers, International Forum on Globalization and Rainforest Action Network. The panelists were reporting back from attending the first round of international negotiations that took place last December in Poznan, Poland.

Below are some key points that were discussed:

- Who should pay for it?
o Developing countries, led by India and China, are stressing the need for developed economies like the U.S. and Europe to provide the capital needed to invest in green technologies in the developing world. The argument that the U.S., and Europe created the climate crisis we are living in today through their hundreds of years of industrialization. While the developing world is growing fast and catching up in their level of emissions, they simply do not have the capital nor the responsibility (as the argument implies) to abandon fast, cheap and polluting methods of growth to remedy a situation they did not create.

- False solutions:
o Carbon offsets allow polluters in the industrial world to take advantage of loopholes by claiming offsets based on sustainable projects that would have taken place anyway.
o Cap & Trade is a false solution because it does not involve forcing polluters to cease known bad practices like the use of coal, or clean coal and biofuel, etc.

- Grassroots actions:
o A slideshow was presented with images from grassroots protests that took place during these negotiations. They demonstrated how grassroots protest could help sway climate negotiations toward adopting more real and sustainable solutions.

These panelists brought up important points about the flaws of the various solutions to Climate Change that have been put forward in various negotiations and resulting treaties. What I personally found interesting was the fact that I am currently reading an article in the Mother Jones about how “cap and trade” is our one chance to establish a solution that could be agreed upon by different parties, including industry groups and that the system has been proven successful as a model similar to the one based on the “Clean Air Act”.

I am inclined to think no solutions are perfect and without negative repercussions. Climate Change is such a global issue involving so many players/countries with different sets of challenges, we have to be aware that whatever solutions we are putting forward will likely go through a very intense and grueling process of international debates and consensus-reaching. I think we are better off building on best practices than to imagine an ideal world based on ideal solutions.