Climate Change nil, Global Governance nil (half-time score)

So the Copenhagen meeting failed to deliver due to poor teamwork by those on the attack against reactionary, but stubborn, defence.
For many, the star players are in the civil society groups who campaigned tirelessly and whose stamina will need to remain at a high level as the fight continues. The poor performers were the politicans unable to accept national responsibility for getting the pitch into such a mess in the first place.
However, by setting the standard of play at a level consistent with the needs for success - in fact the very survival of the game and the players, there is all to play for in the second half. A good manager now will be urging all concerned to make sure that players and spectators around the world are made fully aware of the statistics involved, so there can be no fudging of the issues or debate about the basis on which the game has to be played. Once the data is absolutely clearcut (a requirement here for the scientists of the game to sort out), then pressure needs to be maintained to get the underperforming players in the political part of the team to deliver. We are at the halfway point in terms of time to get a result and their is everything to play for. In fact we cannot afford to lose.
We need urgently to build the global governance team to beat the climate change challenge so they can then start to address an even bigger challenge - to beat the threat posed by global resource depletion and the need to reduce global poverty and improve the quality of life without economic growth! Now that will really will be a game to watch!

Do we want growth at any price?

On the same day that the Climate Change conference opens in Copenhagen, the British government has announced that it will prevent bankers from receiving vast bonuses and even senior public sector staff from receiving very high salaries.

Just one bank, RBS, has apparently set aside a sum of UK£1.5 billion, (US$2.25 billion) for staff bonuses, even though the bank is 84% owned by the British taxpayer and is therefore actually a public sector entity. Such bonuses are not a reward for success, since the banks would have collapsed due to irresponsible speculation without public funding. The sum compares with US$18.4 billion bonuses awarded to the staff of Goldman Sachs not long after receiving a massive US$10 billion bailout from the US taxpayer. Nice work, if you can get it. However, these bonuses were at a time when unemployment resulting from bank profligacy and inadequate government regulation has combined to increase unemployment throughout the world.

Responsible? Hardly, not just for those receiving the vast sums, but for the expectations it creates among everyone else about what constitutes success and, dare one way it, happiness. For the global economy to continue on this path of unrelenting economic growth and income inflation will simply bring us up against the buffers of the planet’s resource limits even sooner. Yet, the US Congress is unlikely to accept any climate agreement that limits economic growth, despite an historically unprecedented level of GDP. We are consuming as if there is no tomorrow. The simple fact is that the combination of economic growth, income inflation, increased consumption and energy consumption will ensure that there will be no tomorrow.

Isn’t it about time that we asked ourselves how much we need to enjoy a rich quality of life? Once we have a reasonable degree of financial security, surely it’s more important to ask how we want to spend our time and energy in ways that make us more appreciative of the things money cannot buy – friendships, meaningful experiences, adventure and fun, none of which are necessarily dependent on vast incomes. Should we not learn to pity those whose only definition of success or happiness is the size of yacht or the number of houses that they own, or the instant gratification they gain from a chemical high or TV exposure?

Like most of their generation starting a family during the Second World War, my parents struggled financially, but lived lives far richer than many millionaires today. They looked after each other, their neighbours and friends and never needed drugs to be happy. Similarly, Warren Buffet, the richest or second richest man in the world, still lives in the same modest house he bought in the1950s and drives the same car, yet says he is so happy that he tap dances to work.

It’s about time we realised that the price we are exacting for continued growth and consumption will be paid not just by our children and other, innocent, species, but also by ourselves.

Since free market capitalism had to be rescued by old fashioned socialism in the shape of public ownership, it’s time to redirect social and economic policies to encourage more responsible and sustainable ways of living which are not dependent on consumption. In fact, we need to learn to be able to do more with less and reduce consumption. If Gordon Brown is really serious about curbing excessive pay and bonuses, there is an extremely simple way of achieving it that is within the government’s power to impose – progressive taxation on incomes and bonuses. Maybe it’s time for an old fashioned incomes policy which taxes high incomes and bonuses to the point that there is no point in earning them. Then we can start to adopt more sustainable values and lifestyles.

Of course, if the UK goes it alone (or with new-found partner France), those like Fred Goodwin who are bent on financial gain at any price, may relocate to places where the regulatory regime is more indulgent. The real challenge is therefore how to strengthen global governance to protect our common future.