Carbon Coin

from Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

Page 294: They [a consortium of all the big central banks, with open access for more central banks to join] would issue together a single new currency, coordinated through the BIS [Bank for International Settlements]: one coin per ton of carbon-dioxide-equivalent sequestered from the atmosphere, either by not burning what would have been burned in the ordinary course of things, or by pulling it back out of the air. They promised to establish a floor in the value of this carbon coin, which exposed them to great danger from speculators trying to scare money out of the plan; and they foretold a rise in the value of the currency over the coming decades. By doing these things they made this investment a sure thing, assuming civilization itself survived.

Page 295: In fact, at the end of the agreement they all lent some fiat money of the ordinary kind, pooled into a fund administered through the BIS, which would be enough to pay for this new bureaucracy of verification that would have to be created to certify that carbon was rally being sequestered. This was a bureaucracy so vast no single bank could afford it, nor of course the ministry, not even close. It was almost a full employment plan all by itself.

Here are some programs that exist now which point in that direction:
Global Carbon Reward (https://globalcarbonreward.org/) is looking for a central bank to trade and manage a “carbon currency,” their “Global Carbon Rewards,” for a demonstration project.  “The central bank will need permission from their regulators to establish a temporary swap line for buying the carbon currency during the demonstrations…”

Regrow (https://www.regrow.ag/mrv) does “Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV)… to ensure data is transparent and reliable” in terms of carbon sequestration, among other things.

There are other models at other scales and I believe Ralph Borsodi’s “Constant,” an inflation proof local currency, could be adapted to carbon:
https://themonetaryfuture.blogspot.com/2009/03/borsodi-constant-inflation-free.html

Many more alternative currencies, even carbon coin possibilities, in Barbara Brandt’s Whole Life Economics (1996, New Society Publishers).

The Carbon Coin According to The Ministry for the Future (more quotes):
https://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-carbon-coin-according-to-ministry.html

Previously:  How Do You Pay for the Green New Deal:  The Cost of Fuel
http://solarray.blogspot.com/2019/07/how-do-you-pay-for-green-new-deal-cost.html

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