Fair shares in 2015
Oil peaked in 2007 but the international response to the shortage of oil was immediate. Governments realised that, without an international agreement to share out the limited amount of oil and gas on a non-market basis, over-high oil prices would threaten both oil-producing and oil-consuming countries with depression and financial ruin.
A system called Cap and Share was put in place. (For more details see http://www.capandshare.org) This held that everyone on the planet had an equal claim to be able to use the atmosphere as a dump for his or her greenhouse gas emissions. Accordingly, an international organisation was set up to ration the use of the atmosphere. It now issues a smaller and smaller amount of permits each year to everyone on earth individually so that the total amount of fossil fuel we use before the emission rate has fallen to the level of the earth’s capacity to absorb it is consistent with reaching a greenhouse gas concentration target which, we hope, will limit the average global temperature to less than 2 degrees C. This annual issue is a massive job and one carried out in the teeth of fierce opposition from some governments who would like to have cornered the permits for themselves. However, it does give everyone an income which compensates them, in part in energy-intensive countries like Ireland, and often over-fully in poorer countries, for the extra cost of everything they buy due to the higher energy prices. Everyone sells their permits as soon as they get them and uses the money for their ordinary living. It has created huge markets around the world for lots of simple products.
In addition, the high energy prices have given a huge boost not only to the switch to renewable energy but also to ways of living which use little energy. We, in Ireland, are poorer than we were because a lot of our money goes overseas to buy emissions permits. We can no longer buy lots of things which we neglect or throw away when it becomes fashionable. We are always looking for things which are easily repairable and will last. I never buy stuff not made in the EU because I need to be sure that the spares will be available when I need them. Lots of local authorities are relieved that they did not invest in incinerators because there’s so little that’s burnable that’s being thrown away.
The demand from the poorer countries has created plenty of jobs in both manufacturing and in the farm sector, so there’s plenty of work, even if the money doesn’t go very far. I don’t have a car these days but I do have an electric bicycle which I charge up every night. There's very little house building going on - the costs are high because of the embodied energy, in spite of the use of timber-frame. In any case, lots more houses than were needed were built around the turn of the century so we spend what money we can adapting them for our needs and getting them up to a decent energy standard. Houses with garages sell well because people use the space for a workshop.
