The Copenhagen Treaty – NAMAs that are necessary, and a Tobin Tax to pay for them…
The current draft of the Copenhagen Treaty has two things that caught my eye. The first is the plan to adopt “Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions” [NAMAs]” in developing countries. With the current scheme in Ireland to bail out the banks through our own NAMA (National Assets Management Agency) – a scheme mortgaging our future to pay for a bankrupt past – this acronym has a certain resonance. It is nice to see that some people are focusing are the issues that matter – a scheme so those that have caused the most damage to the climate (industrialised countries) help those that will feel the effects of climate change first (the developing world).
The treaty acknowledges that the richer, industrialised countries will have to help pay for developing countries pay for their adaptation to climate change. Page 39 has the following clause:
“33. By 2020 the scale of financial flows to support adaptation in developing countries must be [at least USD 67 billion] [in the range of USD 70–140 billion] per year. [Sources of new and additional financial support for adaptation [must meet the full agreed incremental costs of adaptation and initially be within a minimum range of USD 50–86 billion per annum and regularly updated in the light of new emerging science, financial estimates and the degree of emission reductions achieved.]“
And to pay for this? Several options are explored, but the one that caught my eye is the following on page 135 of the treaty:
“A [global] levy of 2 per cent on international financial market [monetary] transactions to Annex I Parties”
‘Annex 1′ are industrialised countries, and a levy like this is called a ‘Tobin Tax‘. It is an idea first mooted in the 1970′s, by an economist called James Tobin. There is an excellent piece in this weeks Irish Times covering the reasons this is a great idea, and possibly one who’s time has now come.
The current draft text of the Copenhagen Treaty is available here.
