I'm watching Dr. Shiva's recent video and for the first time I'm actually starting to grab the whole Paris-Accords/Carbon Credits scheme. At a certain point he explains that anyone who joined the Paris Accords would essentially be buying a "membership" to an elite group who would benefit by getting these "Carbon Credits" which are bought and sold on the commodities market.
I'm still working on wrapping my head around all this stuff, but am I drawing a correct (or partially correct) parallel between "Climate Credits" and Bitcoin? I know Bitcoin is an agreed upon, consensual system of exchange not based on actual material. It has real value, can be traded, bought and sold, but it "doesn't exist" (not based upon any real resources like say, gold, oil...)
The Carbon credit system as Dr. Shiva is describing it sounds similar in many ways. "Carbon credits" can be bought sold and traded and nations will need them to "compensate" the world for the carbon footprint that they use.
The difference that I immediately see is that Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are intended to be universal - anyone can own, accumulate, spend and trade - just like any currency, just without the paper or metal or what have you. The IPCC's "Carbon Credits" sound like it's only for countries, giant corporations and the wealthiest of the wealthiest. So in this case, it's really just a group who uses this system to shuffle money and power amongst themselves under the guise of "Globally responsible caretaking of the environment.
Do I have this right? And if not, please share any education you can. Any light shed is good light. Thanks!
Europe has been using these "climate credits" for a very long time, hint they doesn't work. Anyway, there are a few ways to store and transact them. Which way doesn't really matter. They all have pros and cons and the end result will be the same. e.g: polluting factories moves to China, remove their filters and start to pollute more than ever before:
Now to the generic problem, while only countries buy them in theory, regular people buy these certificates too, in order to prevent local factories from polluting more. Companies in the west are to scared to pollute just slightly more than they're allowed to and choose to outsource their factory to China or India instead, countries that doesn't care about these "climate credit".
So basically, this is nothing new, and you shouldn't be worried about the fact that they build these systems on blockchains. What should worry you is the fact that they do build a "climate credit" system, and will enforce it with violence. But not in China and other third world countries. It's basically a scheme to transfer wealth and job opportunities.
And while "certificates" are transacted to pollution, the real money behind won't just be left behind in a bank account, waiting for someone to exchange back, like it works with Bitcoin for instance. That pile of money will build up and someone will take it and put it in their own pockets.