Oil production is forecast to peak in about 2010 and natural gas production by about 2030. Coal (even the “clean” variety) produces greenhouse gasses far in excess of that permissable without contributing to massively damaging climate change - or what economists call disbenefits.

The future lies with countries, organisations and individuals who recognise that the 250 year old Industrial Revolution - Phase 1 (fossil fuel based) is coming to an end and that the Industrial Revolution - Phase 2 (renewable energy with some nuclear power) is beginning.

Amazingly the people who started the first industial revolution have done just this! Two weeks ago the British Parliament passed a bill committing to a legislated 80% reduction in greenhouse gasses by 2050 (based on 1990 emissions). In addition, five year reduction targets will be set and enforced by legislation.

Clinging to fossil fuels when Australia has probably the best environment in the world for renewable energy is simply denying ourselves new business opportunities that in a very short time will far outweigh “Phase 1” of industrialisation.

It’s great when these commentators are called to account with facts and reality.

I’ve just moved to Helsinki a couple of months ago (from Melbourne) and I can’t see much evidence of this claim. Compared to Oz, Finns use huge amounts of power (mostly to cope with the cold and the dark). They import a lot of power from Russia, but they are building another nuclear power station to cope with the increasing demand.

The Finns have done well economically in the last few years though, that’s for sure, and their 37yo finance minister Jyrki Katainen just won the Financial Times gong for European Finance Minister Of The Year.

==> When asked what measures came to his mind which had an effect on the strength of the Finnish economy, Katainen replied: “First of all our banking system is on solid grounds. Secondly we repaid our loans when times were good, and thirdly we resisted increasing costs and spending, although there was political pressure to do so.” < ==

http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/htimes/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4170:finnish-finance-minister-tops-ft-ranking-&catid=36:business&Itemid=202

No mention of Deep Green.

The Finns had their banking crisis 15 years ago and learnt their lesson.

All his propositions are speculative - not supported at all. “the economically and environmentally sensible thing” - Who says?

The assumption as Hamilton points out is that “With a given amount of investment each year investors go looking for the most profitable opportunities”. The banks are the biggest suppliers of investment money and they look for security of funds over all else. They do not look for the most profitable opportunities. In other words you cannot get investment dollars unless you already have assets against which the loan is secured. It also turns out that the most financially profitable enterprises are enterprises that feed off asset bubbles and other financial manipulation. It is no accident that real estate (easily made into bubbles) and financial institutions are the places where a great deal of investment ends up.

The problem is not with money that already exists and is backed by assets. It should continue to use the existing system.

The problem is with new money. Banks create new money out of thin air by lending money they do not have. They are allowed to do this because of the above assumption. The banks should only loan money that is already on deposit. New money that does not yet have an asset backing should be distributed throughout society as zero interest non repayable loans by the controller of the currency on the condition it must be invested in new productive assets that is deemed by society (the government to be an appropriate under resourced area). A good starting point would be to distribute a few billions that must be spent on renewable energy infrastructure. Renewable Energy Infrastructure costs are 90% financial and only 10% operating. This will make renewables immediately profitable and we can easily have zero emissions in whatever time frame we want - simply by distributing enough billions until the problem is solved.