Bono's Top 10 for 2010 – #3 – An Equal Right to Pollute (and the Polluter-Pays Principle)

Here is an excerpt from the Saturday January 3rd issue of the New York Time article written by contributing guest columnist, musical artist and world renowned philanthropist

Image from NY Times / Peter Arkle

Bono. The global hero discusses his Top Ten ideas to propel us into a much better future and prosperous 2010. His #3 follows the recent climate conference in Copenhagen where the globe met to discuss world economic growth coupled with the prospect of sustainability. Click Here to read the full Bono Top Ten.

Excerpt From the NY Times:

In the recent climate talks in Copenhagen, it was no surprise that developing countries objected to taking their feet off the pedal of their own carbon-paced growth; after all, they played little part in building the congested eight-lane highway of a problem that the world faces now.

One smart suggestion I’ve heard, sort of a riff on cap-and-trade, is that each person has an equal right to pollute and that there might somehow be a way to monetize this. By this accounting, your average Ethiopian can sell her underpolluting ways (people in Ethiopia emit about 0.1 ton of carbon a year) to the average American (about 20 tons a year) and use the proceeds to deal with the effects of climate change (like drought), educate her kids and send them to university. (Trust in capitalism — we’ll find a way.) As a mild green, I like the idea, though it’s controversial in militant, khaki-green quarters. And yes, real economists would prefer to tax carbon at the source, but so far the political will is not there. If it were me, I’d close the deal before the rising nations want it backdated.

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