The Climate Plan by Sam Carana


The Climate Plan by Sam Carana calls for implementation of sets of feebates, with fees imposed on sales of polluting products and with the revenues from those fees used to fund rebates on cleaner alternatives. Sets of feebates are best implemented ASAP, separately and preferably locally, with disputes handled by Local People's Courts where randomly-chosen local residents deliver verdicts on whether policies confirm the weight of best-available science. Where needed, a Climate Emergency Declaration can support progress.

Communities seeking to make progress with climate action can best decide what works best locally, provided the community does indeed take sufficient action to achieve the necessary reductions in each type of pollution.

Examples of implementation of some of these lines of action are depicted in the image below, showing examples of how progress can be achieved through sets of local feebates in sectors such as energy, transport, food, construction and waste management. 


Where progress is lacking, swift escalation is recommended as follows:

1. Where a local community fails to make progress, state (or provincial) fees are imposed in that locality.

2. Where a state fails to make progress, national fees are imposed in the state.

3. Where a nation fails to make progress, other nations impose fees on imports from and export to that nation with revenues used to fund clean development in the other nations.

Politicians should be kept as much as possible out of the climate picture. We, the people, should support communities seeking effective climate action. Below is a flowchart showing how climate action can be achieved without politicians.

[ from earlier post ]

The danger of climate change is real and this reality can and must compel any government, whatever its ideological background, to look for and adopt policies that are in line with best available science, which constitutes a necessity that, where there appears to be confusion, must tip the scale.

The Climate Plan is best implemented in support of decision-making at local level. Local areas can best develop sets of local feebates and institute Local People's Courts in which randomly-chosen local residents deliver verdicts to ensure that policies are indeed in line with best available science. Where needed, progress with climate action should be supported by a Climate Emergency Declaration.

Residents should participate in decisions regarding their own lives and environment by supporting Local People's Courts that administer local feebates. Examples of such feebates are fees that are added to the sales price of polluting products and to rates on degraded land, while the revenue of these fees are used to fund support for improvements, such as through rebates on cleaner products sold locally or rebates on local rates on improved land. Local People's Courts can best ensure that choices regarding percentages and eligibility of fees and rebates are science-based, while feebates leave the choice as to what to buy or sell to individuals.

The image below shows differences between the Climate Plan and the Status Quo.

[ from earlier post ]

The Climate Plan and a Climate Emergency Declaration

In 2025, UN secretary-general António Guterres called for “a credible global response plan to get us on track” regarding the international goal of limiting the global temperature rise. “The science demands action, the law commands it,” Guterres said, in reference to an international court of justice ruling. “The economics compel it and people are calling for it.”

The Climate Plan is ready to be implemented at short notice, and due to its local preference, this can be done without delay and without need for political negotiations or international agreements. What could be added is that the situation is dire and unacceptably dangerous, and the precautionary principle necessitates rapid, comprehensive and effective action to reduce the damage and to improve the outlook, where needed in combination with and supported by a Climate Emergency Declaration.

[ image from Climate Emergency Declaration ]

If we accept that crimes against humanity include climate crimes, then politicians who inadequately act on the unfolding climate catastrophe are committing crimes against humanity and they should be brought before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands.

[ from earlier post ]

The Biochar Economy

Instead of adding chemical nitrogen fertilizers made with natural gas to monoculture farms that grow seasonal crops, it makes more sense for land to have a diversity of vegetation including a variety of perennial fruit trees and legumes such as beans and peas that can naturally add nitrogen to the soil.

Furthermore, pyrolyzing biowaste can avoid emissions and reduces fire hazards by producing biochar that can be added to soil to sequester carbon and nutrients, which can also increase the capacity of the soil to retain nutrients and moisture, thus reducing erosion and fire hazards and avoiding greenhouse gas emissions, while increasing vegetation growth resulting in additional drawdown of carbon from the atmosphere.

For most biowaste (including kitchen and garden waste, and sewage), it makes sense to turn it into biochar that is added to the soil. Some biowaste can also be used to construct buildings, e.g. instead of cutting down the largest and most healthy trees to do so, which now all too often happens, it makes more sense to instead remove only dead trees and biowaste from the forest floor, which could provide funding for such waste removal.

A carbon-based currency could be created locally, by imposing fees added to rates for land where carbon content decreases, due to grazing, logging or other forms of vegetation removal. The revenues of these fees could fund local rebates on rates for land where carbon content increases locally, due to vegetation planting such as perennial fruit trees and legumes such as peas and beans, and due to adding soil supplements such as biochar and olivine sand.

Similarly, fees could be imposed on sales of livestock products and nitrogen fertilizers made with fossil fuel, with revenues used to fund rebates on local purchases of vegan-organic food, biochar kilns, rock crushing machinery, etc. The currency could be expressed in volume or weight of locally-produced biochar, in recognition of the importance of the Biochar Economy.


Links

• Transforming Society

• Endangerment Finding in danger?

• Climate Plan