Questions of social and economic class must be at the centre of our response to the climate crisis, to address the huge inequalities between the carbon footprints of the rich and poor and prevent a backlash against climate policies, the economist Thomas Piketty has said.
Regulations will be needed to outlaw goods and services that have unnecessarily high greenhouse gas emissions, such as private jets, outsized vehicles, and flights over short distances, he said in an interview with the Guardian.
Rich countries must also put in place progressive carbon taxes that take into account people’s incomes and how well they are able to reduce their emissions, as current policies usually fail to adjust for people’s real needs.
Ah yes, better outsource steel to China such that CO2 is the least of the environmental issue to think about.
Is there anything other than plants where we can actually reduce emissions now?
Converting steel production to use H2 increases CO2 emissions as long as that H2 is not coming from renewable sources, which it currently does not. Also, there are lower hanging fruit than switching to H2, which directly use the renewable energy without the inefficient conversion to and from H2.