By now we’re probably all familiar with the concept of carbon taxes. The idea is pretty simple: if we want less carbon to go into the atmosphere, we

Sci-fi carbon coins could actually save our planet

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2021-08-07 21:30:05

By now we’re probably all familiar with the concept of carbon taxes. The idea is pretty simple: if we want less carbon to go into the atmosphere, we have to provide economic incentives to change behavior. Most mainstream economic proposals to tackle climate change are essentially ways of attaching a cost to carbon—one that approximates the toll each ton takes on the Earth.

But an idea literally straight out of a science fiction novel—though based on real research—might offer an even better incentive.

In his recent science fiction novel Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson details a piece to the carbon equation that might be missing: a reward for doing the right thing. In the book, the leader of an international agency tasked with meeting the Paris Agreement goals works to persuade officials at central banks to support a new currency called the carbon coin.

The measure ultimately proves to be a pivotal force for moving the globe onto a path of reducing emissions. Each coin, a trackable digital currency, is produced when a ton of carbon is eliminated from the atmosphere—when, for example, oil companies leave their reserves in the ground, forests are re-established, or machines filter carbon from the air.