And the second point is that we have such a screwed up public finance system that there are massive numbers of projects that are long-term investments in economic growth that we could just do them, except we deficit finance pure government consumption and have written the rules to tie our hands for deficit financing real investment.
So diverting some, eg, Carbon Fees to financing investment in reducing carbon emissions is a very appealing prospect.
However, provided we adopt a sufficiently progressive revenue redistribution, one dividing line would be "neutral or progressive on 80% of the population", allowing those at in the top 20%, who are disproportional beneficiaries of past free rides on the ecosystem and fellow citizens, to be the source of net investment in CO2 emission reduction investments.
Obviously a very net progressive redistribution is a simple Social Dividend, an equal amount of the redistribution pool to each citizen. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
Then a carbon levy may be applied to all carbon energy (fuel) transactions which would create a fund of fiat currency which is denominated in energy. This fund would then be available - through interest-free 'Energy Loans' denominated in energy - for investment in renewable energy (Mega Watts) and energy savings (Nega Watts).
It is then possible to pay an Energy Dividend in Units which are redeemable against energy supplied, but will also have a value in exchange for anything else eg accommodation, food, electric cars from Norway and so on.
This presentation to the Energy Institute's Scottish branch went down really well last week.
For me, the most interesting thing about the Unitisation approach is the way that it can be used by producer nations to reduce profligate use of energy. This is achievable by increasing prices to global market levels, and then avoiding bloody revolution by compensating the population with Units. While they could still use these in payment for profligate energy use, they would be more and more likely - as energy increases in value globally over time - to conserve Units and exchange them for other value. "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
