Change the Money System to combat climate change
15 November 2011
The New Economics Party candidate for Wellington Central, Laurence Boomert, said that along with other policies,
redesigning the money system would be a powerful way of combating climate change.
Reacting to a recent International Energy Agency report which said ‘on planned policies, rising fossil energy use will
lead to irreversible and potentially catastrophic climate change’, he said that all international climate change
conferences had broken up because governments were scared economic growth would falter.
“So we need an economic system which doesn’t require incessant growth on a finite planet. It is time we asked the right
question. The force that requires us to gobble up more and more of the planet and turn it into goods is a structurally
unsound money system and it needs to change”, he said.
“We design our money as interest bearing debt money. This type of money requires economic growth or the whole house of
cards will collapse, as it is doing in Europe right now”, he said.
The IEA report said emissions globally jumped 5.3% in 2010 he said and on current path we are all committing mass
suicide.
He said the New Economics Party would introduce a carbon tax on coal, oil and gas at source and not wait till it is
burnt into the atmosphere. “The potential buyers of Solid Energy would have to be frightened if our party was in power.”
“We would limit expansion of airports, impose an aviation fuel tax, and reduce our oil country’s imports by 4-6% a year.
Motorway building would cease overnight and we would only focus on improving our current roads and the coal would remain
in the hole.”
New Economics Party
Let's build a new economic system which works for all Life!
"If you go all the way back to what's caused the global financial crisis you can apportion an enormous amount of the
blame at the foot steps of Wall street" – John Key on Breakfast 9 November, 2011
ENDS