Green Apollo and carbon pay t'ing

Sir Martin Rees, president of Britain's leading scientific institute, the Royal Society, has called for a research drive into green energy "to rival the Apollo moon project". Prof Rees makes the valid point that a single-minded, well-funded international research effort is necessary to develop green energy sources to the point where they can replace fossil fuels. Rees also refers, with some justification, to "a worrisome lack of determination" among G8 leaders to push the development of alternative energy sources. At the World Bionergy conference and expo I attended in Jonkoeping, Sweden at the end of May, there was huge interest in taking biomass-based energy (both solid and liquid fuels) mainstream. But in the countries where bioenergy has made the greatest strides (Brazil and Sweden), government intervention has played a key role. Interestingly, China's leaders are starting to wake up to the environmental problems caused by the country's industrial growth and have included targets for bioenergy generation in the latest (11th) five-year plan.
Prof Rees proposes a carbon tax on companies to fund his 'Green Apollo' programme. Carbon taxation of one form or another is certainly in the minds of policy-makers, and at the individual, as well as the corporate level: The UK's environment minister, David Miliband recently floated the idea that all British citizens could be given an annual carbon allowance and a swipe card to monitor usage. Such a scheme would be a hard sell politically, and also difficult to enforce, particularly if not replicated by governments elsewhere. If it went ahead Miliband's scheme would also pave the way for carbon trading among individuals, a strange thing to ponder.