We are still in the magic of Christmas and I think it’s a good time to reflect on whether Santa will grant the COP 21 wishes. As all children know, there are no guarantees. And that’s the whole point, there is nothing in the COP21 agreement that sets out to try to guarantee anything, we are told that’s because that would be too hard. The climate Santa may come one day, but maybe not.
As George Monbiot notes "By comparison to what it could have been, it’s a miracle. By comparison to what it should have been, it’s a disaster." Why is this so?
Not long ago the discussion around climate negotiations was “enforceability”, how would an agreement, assuming it is reached, be enforceable. The answer is of course simple: trade tariffs on anyone that breaks the agreement, forcing the environmental costs internalized on polluters. i.e. the “polluter pays” (the true actual cost of production) which is the only method that is both common sense and proven to work for harmful pollutants of which there is no practical short term mechanism to simply ban altogether.
