Green Taxes?

Sir Nicholas Stern, author of last October's report on the economics of climate change, was said to call for higher green taxes to deter environmental damage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

He also called the failure to pay for the environmental damage that we cause "the biggest market failure ever seen". Market failure it most certainly is, the colossal 'tragedy of the commons' that is our environment. It also raises an important question over whether we can effectively address environmental damage through the market, which is fundamentally what emission trading schemes are all about. I return here to my fuzzy recollection of basic economics - taxes are hated by economic conservatives because they seemingly distort the marketplace. But we don't live in a market-uber-alles world, and what is the global public commons matters and needs to be protected. The market can only ever be a means to a social ends - so how far can the market serve ecological and human protection and a sustainable future?

But while the high and mighty pullers of the world's economic and political levers meet in Davos, don't forget that in Nairobi, Kenya, those whose voices are heard far less but whom matter no less , have been meeting for the 7th World Social Forum, whose rallying cry is 'another world is possible.' At the WSF, activists, coalitions and social movements of all stripes - from anti-war protestors to trade unionists under siege, minorities at the margins of survival and independent media organisations converge every other year to share ideas, synthesize and build hope.