PATHWAY TO PARIS: A GLOBAL STRATEGY TO PRICE CARBON
elusive. Without mitigation, we will face a complex and compounding, unpredictable array of mortal threats to human wellbeing and even to the order of civilization itself.
! 30. Immediate action is more affordable... !
A functioning future economy and secure political environment are far more costly to achieve, if we don't act. Acting now costs far less than waiting. We know from economic studies published over the last year that pricing carbon now will build value, while failing to do so will "bake in" degrading future costs we cannot afford to cope with. The International Energy Agency found that inaction between 2012 and 2014 added $8 trillion globally to the cost of transitioning to a climate-safe economy. URL: http://www.iea.org/newsroomandevents/ pressreleases/2014/may/name,51005,en.html
! 31. Small Island Developing States... !
In Note 10, above, we note the catastrophic impact of extreme weather on the small island nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. There is also a more severe risk to many small island nations, which is the possibility that their entire population may need to evacuate, as sea level rise and related threats to human habitation escalate.
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As early as 2001, the leaders of the low-lying Pacific island nation of Tuvalu initiated a plan to evacuate their entire population to another country’s territory, in the event that sea level rise could not be stopped in time to save their homeland. URL: http://www.earth-policy.org/ plan_b_updates/2001/update2
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Tuvalu and other Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have developed far-reaching climate impact adaptation strategies, which include measures as comprehensive, costly and final as emergency relocation of their entire populations: http://www.undp-alm.org/resources/napsleast-developed-countries-ldcs/tuvalu-national-adaptation-programme-action-napa
! 32. Economic efficiency... !
Carbon pricing is inherently efficient, because it eliminates vast inefficiencies flowing from the burning of carbon-based fuels. Direct, transparent carbon pricing, with revenue recycling, is still more efficient, because it ensures that while leverage-depleting activities are reduced over time, leverage also accrues to consumers, requiring the market to compete for new income by getting more efficient.
! 33. Strategic and geocollaborative efficiency... !
Climate disruption is a major threat to geopolitical peace and security. Severe, nonlinear and escalating impacts from climate disruption add significant costs to the work of maintaining the
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