4/4
During the Putler-caused #energy crisis, Minister #Habeck told SmallMediumBusiness leaders at a conference, 'price signals hurt but are better than a government saying which company gets resources and which won't.'
Speech May 2022:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0p2C_TByVg&t=1223s

So better go broke? Lay off truck drivers, keep food shelves empty?
Polluter pays, the market reacts, real people suffer?

Such callous, thoughtless idiocy is the very foundation of "polluter pays".

How's that better than an elected government organizing it so that important stuff still gets produced, no matter how high the pollution – while closing down car and yacht production lines, ending construction of single family homes, new roads, mere investment objects like office towers.
All the while keeping all people housed, fed and clothed. Like Churchill 1939-1956.

We do need to pollute for essentials for a bit longer, & continue ecocide for essentials.
But to keep in budget & in #PlanetaryBoundaries, we need governments to prioritize which goods are essentials and which aren't. Our high-risk project needs triage.

#CO2price

3/x
Why do real scientists keep calling for this botched idea of "polluter pays", when what they hope for is keeping a FIX budget on sustainable ecocide and resource use?

Polluter pays can't deliver our high-risk project. The thought concept is fundamentally incompatible with #PlanetaryBoundaries.

The budgets are tiny for getting back into planetary boundaries and for keeping a manageable climate change.
So tiny that, if you allow rich polluters to just pay more for keeping addicted,
for not overstepping the fix budget, you must deprive poor polluters of living essentials.
That tiny!

It postpones the cultural acknowledgment of fix boundaries and fix budgets.
It implies ample wriggle room. It implies it won't matter if the budget is breeched – because we can simply pay a fine and all's well, can't we. 😁
Our high-risk project has no time for such idiocy.

Don't tout the eConomists' dearest toy.
Call for rationing. Rationing via $$ is only 1 way among several, but least compatible with the deadlines in our high-risk project.

This has worked 1939-1956:
https://rapidtransition.org/stories/when-everything-changed-the-us-uk-economies-in-world-war-ii/
#CO2Price

Even a poor drug addict facing soaring prices won't quit. He and his dealer will try all tricks to sustain his addiction. See picture 1 about the government project "SmokeFree New Zealand" and how both, the addicts and their dealers tried every trick in order to keep the addiction.
This is only a unhealthy addiction, not one where people must invest thousands of dollars up front to escape future price hikes. Must invest. Up front. It sounds logical to do it. But humans aren't household CEO. And malign media, malign politicians and malign industry are going to do everything in their power to profit from the inevitable public disgruntlement.

Real CEO also try all tricks to keep profiteering: the trade news outlet Handelsblatt applauds German #coal major #RWE for her stash of #ETS certs, allowing her to pollute beyond 2030 for free, with certs to spare to sell to the highest bidder, see picture 2.

That's how CEO addicts and the fossil lobby tricked politics into setting up EU ETS
#CO2price

2/x