Rethinking climate protection: moving away from a purely economic approach

Yes, of course we are making some progress. But climate protection on a voluntary basis is progressing far too slowly. Certainly, a lot is already happening in the expansion of renewables - both from the government and the private sector. More and more private individuals are also installing solar panels on their roofs. All well and good, but the pace is far too slow - both nationally and internationally. Unfortunately, many people are not even aware of the dimensions of the necessary reduction in emotions. The core of the problem: 

Investments in renewables are largely viewed purely from an economic perspective.

 

This is in no way to be understood as an accusation. Nobody should feel offended. After all, we all behave according to the rules of our economic system - of necessity! However, this makes it more difficult for us to approach the issue from the necessary existential-ecological perspective, which is why we are not moving at a pace commensurate with the crisis. Although investments in renewables are certainly economical in the medium term, in the short term they mean high investments, which unfortunately are often shied away from. We should therefore decouple the issue of climate protection from the monetary system and create a completely different, more effective and fairer incentive system.

 

"We should provide people with an ecological basic income

by means of a complementary climate currency, with which they can now pay the ecological price of their consumption in addition to the economic price."

 

From now on, we consumers could proactively opt for the more climate-friendly option, because this new ecological price of every product would create the necessary transparency. Our changed purchasing behaviour would then automatically create the necessary transformation pressure on the economy to decarbonize much faster - without the need to enact, implement and monitor often unpopular political measures. Personal tradable emissions budgets using a complementary climate currency would also redistribute wealth from the top to the bottom and thus help to reduce the wealth gap. We consumers would finally be able to choose from a much wider range of ecological consumption options instead of having to make our contribution to climate protection through restrictions and sacrifices. Not least for this reason, a much greater acceptance of the population could be expected. 

 

Find out more at: www.saveclimate.earth