Sustainable Energy and Economy Network

"Daphne Wysham, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies think tank, is part of a growing coalition that supports the idea of a carbon tax. With cap and trade legislation a dead duck in the new Republican-dominated House of Representatives, Wysham figures that campaigners in the US have two years to start educating the public about the benefits of "tax and rebate" before the political complexion of Congress shifts again. In the meantime she's bullish about the potential for US action. 'We may exceed the targets that the US has put on the table through a switch to natural gas from coal and a ramping up of wind energy; in addition, there's a major pushback from the grassroots against existing and proposed coal-fired electricity plants based on their mercury and other emissions.' But however the political climate changes, and despite the shifting sands of globalisation, (climate scientist James) Hansen will be using his expertise to try and avert a toxic timebomb for our descendants and their planet."

"Daphne Wysham, a fellow at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies who studies energy issues, said in an interview that she understands the appeal of a carbon tax.

“'We do have an interesting array of organizations from the left and the right saying a carbon tax is much better than cap and trade,' Wysham says. 'I think a payroll tax shift is one possible approach that could work. In this current economic climate, it may stimulate employers to hire more people. And if a dividend was being returned to people, it would be even more palatable.'”

"Janet Redman from the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies supports the coalition against REDD, saying that carbon markets will not improve local development.

"'It doesn't deliver; it's not additional,' said Redman. 'It's been used for some incredibly harmful projects for communities who live in the local area. So to put the last remaining forests on the market seems to me an incredibly irresponsible thing to do.'"

"Last April, Mr. Morales played host to the People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, which issued a manifesto calling on rich countries to finance the 'decolonization of the atmosphere.' The Cochabamba Accord was endorsed by activist groups throughout the developed world.

"'There is both a legal and a moral obligation to deal with climate debt,' says Janet Redman, a co-director of the [Sustainable Energy and Economy project at the] Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, who helped to draft the document. Among the speakers at Cochabamba was Canadian activist Naomi Klein, a vocal advocate of the need for reparations.

"Recent loans for coal-fired power plants is evidence to the fact that the World Bank is still in the business of loaning money for massive construction projects with the most favorable cost-benefit ratio -- with benefits measured almost entirely in terms of economic benefits.

"'[The World Bank] is constantly stalling on one very important policy: calculating the greenhouse-gas emissions produced by its own projects,' said Janet Redman , co-director of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network at the Institute for Policy Studies. 'In its actions, the World Bank has deviated from its rhetoric,' Redman said."

Just as poor management of the local water utility hurt everyone in Bar Harbor, everyone on the planet will be affected by the way our leaders respond to climate change. Thus, everyone has the right and responsibility to be represented at the table.

Nueve años después, el Banco administraba una cartera de inversiones del carbono rápidamente expansible, “que enriquece a la industria sucia y poco hace por ayudar a los 1.600 millones de personas que viven en la pobreza”, explica la codirectora de la Red de Energía y Economía sostenible del Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) Janet Redman.

Nine years later, the Bank is brokering a rapidly expanding carbon trading portfolio, "that enriches dirty industry and does little to help the1.6 billion people living in energy poverty."

"'In its actions, the World Bank has deviated from its rhetoric,' said Janet Redman, co-director of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington. 'It has not done clean energy when it could. It has not prioritized clean energy sources over traditional fossil -fuel sources. And it is constantly stalling on one very important policy: calculating the greenhouse-gas emissions produced by its own projects.'"