Another way of subsidising the rich

Environmental policy now seems focused almost exclusively on greenhouse gas emissions. Almost anything that might reduce the net emissions of those gases that are currently thought to be the instigators of global warming is lauded and, indeed, subsidised, regardless of its impact on land use, water quality, child labour, and the viability of public transport.

And inequality. Take Norway, which is...

...constantly being hailed as a frontrunner in the promotion of electric cars. It is true that there has been a real boom of BEV [battery electric vehicle] sales in the country – due to generous government subsidies. However, the overall picture is not so rosy - one might even consider it tragic. Namely, in 2010, there were 2,308,000 cars, while by 2022 this number jumped to 3,105,000 – in a country with a population of 5.4 million. During this period, the number of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars did not decrease at all. ... Many [Norwegians] think that it would have been more useful to invest more in public transport and encourage cycling and walking. Subsidies for electric cars have also increased social inequalities by primarily benefiting the wealthier individuals who usually bought one or more additional cars to the already existing one(s). Electric cars are a dead end, András Lukács Aydan Gurbanova, 'The Ecologist', 16 April

There's something really cynical about this. If we are serious about wanting to reduce our impact on the climate, then we need to enact policies that reduce our impact on the climate. We need also to take into account the negative externalities of our policies, not only on distribution (of income or wealth), but also on the environment more generally. 

My suggestion is that we focus on the outcomes that we want to achieve, rather than the supposed means of achieving them. The fundamental question is whether we want to change the climate, or to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change. We could, for example, aim for a range of social, physical, biological and financial indicators (insurance claims for instance); all of which must fall within an approved range for a sustained period in order for our climate goal to be deemed achieved. The tunnel vision focus on greenhouse gas emissions won't do anything to bring about such a broad range of goals. In fact, despite vast expenditure of bureaucratic energy, technical advances, coercion and subsidies it's even failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: 

'Climate activism became a big public cause about halfway along this graph. Notice any effect?' From Riding the Climate Toboggan, John Michael Greer, 6 September

Our scientific knowledge about the impacts of, and optimal solutions to, climate change is constantly expanding, and we need policies that allow for that. My suggestion is that we reward those who achieve an array of meaningful climate-related targets by backing and issuing Climate Stability Bonds. These would stimulate research into, and implementation of the diverse, adaptive approaches that will be necessary to bring about an efficient solution to the climate change problem.