Book Project

Available in German bookstores and as a free e-book

Exit Strategy climate currency ECO

reaching our climate target with personal emissions budgets

In order to make the climate concept Cap, Personalize and Trade public and comprehensible to as many people as possible, we have summarized the contents in a book. It conveys in an understandable way the enormous dimension of the necessary greenhouse gas savings that are needed to even come close to meeting the climate target. It also describes the many systemic and personal reasons for our inadequate action in the face of the climate collapse that has already begun, and how our economy and our society could be transformed socio-ecologically through the introduction of the climate currency ECO.

Jens and Angela Hanson, founders and board members of the climate protection NGO SaveClimate.Earth

and authors of the book about the climate curreny ECO

In one sentence

The book describes how the climate currency ECO makes it possible to meet climate targets. As the only CO2 pricing system, the ECO is able to record all CO2 emissions along the entire value chain without gaps, to map them transparently and to account for them fairly. This system makes every individual part of the solution to the climate problem. This is because it harnesses the power of consumers and puts the control potential for climate protection in the hands of all consumers.

Target audience

Readers seeking new approaches to sustainable change and interested in environmental protection, climate change, systems change, equity, society, and social change.

A brief summary

The likelihood of meeting the Paris climate targets is receding into the unattainable distance. Climate activists criticize that the CO2 price is far too low and should be raised many times over. However, lower-income households are already feeling the additional burden. Politicians are trying to counteract this by making offers of financial relief, such as a reduction in value-added tax for energy and fuels or the abolition of the EEG levy. But such compensatory measures counteract the actual purpose of reducing CO2 consumption by making it more expensive. Scientists therefore warn that the consumption of fossil fuels will not be reduced to a sufficient extent. Using the protagonists Lisa and Erwin as examples, the authors describe how their lives and consumer behavior are being changed toward greater sustainability by the climate currency ECO. They explain how the ECO enables a more responsible use of nature and its resources, and why this seems less conceivable with the usual tools of politics. To this end, they analyze how different CO2 pricing and accounting systems work and show what conceptual disadvantages they have compared to the climate currency ECO. In the further course, Lisa and Erwin experience how the range of goods changes and how they consciously buy more climate-friendly products. This is because the ECO makes the ecological footprint of each item visible. It shows the sum of all CO2 emissions that occurred during the entire value-added process. This allows them to compare the climate-harmfulness of goods and make a conscious decision in favor of the more climate-friendly alternative. In their book, the authors reinforce the sobering realization that additional voluntary individual sacrifice is not enough to reduce personal CO2 consumption to a level that is compatible with the atmosphere. The analysis is shocking: Germans consume an average of almost 10 tons of CO2 per capita per year. In order to comply with climate targets, this figure must be reduced to less than 2 metric tons. This corresponds to a reduction of around 80%. It is obvious that this cannot be achieved by cutting back and doing without. The authors prove that this is only possible if the manufacturing processes of our consumption generally become greener and more climate-friendly. Why only the ECO can exert the necessary pressure on industry to act to achieve this is a central theme described in this book. Only the exceptional design of the ECO can ensure that the fossil manufacturing processes for our goods are replaced by green technologies and that this is prompted by industry itself. The reason for this is in the well thought out system design of this climate currency. The ECO is not just an additional emissions price tag, but is to be provided free of charge to all citizens* in the same amount every month as a basic ecological income. People then use this personal emissions budget to pay for their individual CO2 consumption. In addition to the justice aspect, the ECO thus allows maximum freedom of choice in the use of one's own emissions quota, albeit within very clearly set limits for everyone. The book conveys in an exciting way how our economy and our society could be socio-ecologically transformed by the introduction of the ECO.

Reviews

This model defines the necessary ecological guard rail, allowing every citizen to decide autonomously what to consume. It is an instrument of freedom within clearly defined limits for all people.

Professor Ernst von Weizsäcker

Environmental scientist, politician, honorary president

of the Club of Rome and the World Future Council

»This concept of personal, tradable emission quotas brings about the necessary transformational pressure for more sustainable manufacturing processes in the economy through the changed purchasing behavior of the large mass of consumers. Everything that is necessary to comply with the climate target results automatically and open-endedly, according to market mechanisms - in the way that makes the most sense from a particular economic point of view. The most (energy)efficient measures that can be implemented in the best and most sensible way in each case are automatically applied. Climate-friendly consumption alternatives emerge because industry produces what it can sell. The climate currency ECO thus places the control potential and responsibility for climate protection completely in the hands of all consumers. This model defines the necessary, ecological guard rails within which every citizen can autonomously decide on his or her consumption. It is an instrument of freedom, within clearly defined limits for all. The "Alternative Climate Concept" causes each of us not only to be part of the problem, but also to become a crucial part of the solution. Achieving the climate goal will be thus within reach.«

Prof. Dr. Dr. Stefan Brunnhuber

Sociologist, politician, Club of Rome, World Academy of Sciences

»The Cap, Personalize and Trade principle is a CO2 accounting model that works reliably and fairly, and takes into account the limits of the planet. Tradable, personal emissions budgets can cause our demand to shift toward greener products quite automatically, as our consumption receives its realistic and transparent climate price. This model finally leads to climate and consumption fairness and a more equitable distribution.«

Fritz Lietsch

Journalist, publisher and editor-in-chief of Forum Nachhaltig Wirtschaften and ECO World

»The ECO as an "Alternative Climate Concept" can trigger an ecological and socially just revolution! This smart, thoughtful and rousing book leads from the current obstacles in politics, economy and society to a radical, novel climate concept. A climate concept that ensures global equity, prices CO2 emissions along the entire value chain, and automatically incentivizes climate-responsive behavior. This book is a masterpiece of out-of-the-box thinking that comes at just the right time and, in its practical implementation, could finally bring our climate goals within reach! «

Johanna Jaurich

Director, Author & Producer fechnerMEDIA GmbH

»An interesting way of thinking, its climate currency ECO aims to empower consumers to reward climate-friendly products through targeted consumption and greater transparency.«

Katharina Schickling

Journalist, documentary filmmaker, non-fiction author

»If we want to preserve the world as we know it, we don't have much time left. The ecological costs of our consumption must be factored into the equation so that we no longer live beyond our means. In their book, Jens and Angela Hanson make a useful, market-oriented proposal on how this can be done without complicated government intervention. The special thing about it is that no one can buy their way out of their responsibility to the planet. A book that is a must read, especially for policy makers.«

Hannelore Wiedemann

Editor Wiesbadener Kurier

»The emissions trading system already in place at the EU level is too incomplete and full of holes to achieve the necessary greenhouse gas emission savings. The ECO proposes a qualitatively different system, attributable to personal carbon trading, which avoids disadvantages of previous approaches. It deserves closer scrutiny, in my view, as the climate crisis worsens, causing more and more suffering. This unfortunate pressure must remove the apparently high political hurdles to introducing the ECO.«

Prof. Dr. Daniel Gembris

Scientists4Future

»With the text at hand here, I had to keep calling myself to order because I was captivated by its message. What an idea to limit the CO2-per-capita consumption worldwide and to determine as a measurand the amount that just prevents further global warming! What an idea to create with the ECO a kind of second currency, which is available to all people in the same amount and thus also provides for more distributive justice! That would be the egg of Columbus! The way the calculations are laid out, the true, not subsidized or artificially increased price of the products comes to bear and provides for fairness. «

Dr. phil. Uta Sändig

Lect. for many years Uni Potsdam, Member of the Akadem. Senate,

former City Councillor Brandenburg a. d. Havel