The carbon economy counts carbon like money.

– It gives the economy its two indicators for making the transition a success: the carbon content of products and the carbon profitability of investments.

– It gives companies and financial institutions the method for producing these indicators and passing them on to their customers.

– All that remains is for the public authorities to promote the organisations that are doing so and to reinforce these two signals.

A free one-hour webinar explains all about it, and an initial overview is given below.

Economic decisions lack the necessary carbon indicators

– It’s impossible to choose between two equivalent products without knowing the greenhouse gas emissions involved in producing each one. The carbon content of the product is rarely available and never comparable.

– It’s impossible to choose between two equivalent investments without knowing the carbon profitability of the investment: the emissions caused divided by the emissions invested, discounted at a rate that takes scientific research into account. We only have a qualitative indicator (green-brown) for some of the investments (even though they all contribute).

– It is impossible to make the right choice between two uses of land and sea surfaces without their carbon impact on natural captures.

The carbon economy provides the right indicators

They double the money indicators, to be able to arbitrate each decision between money and carbon: the carbon content of the product (with its price) and the carbon profitability of the investment with its money profitability.

The carbon economy method is based on scientific inventories of emissions in kg of CO2 equivalent and their standards (IPCC inventories and carbon protocols) and applies economic tools and their standards (accounting and auditing, management, economic and financial calculation) to them*.

Carbon content and profitability trigger a winning transition dynamic

Carbon content optimises purchases and sales based on money AND carbon. It triggers fair carbon competition between products, which reduces their carbon content.

Carbon profitability optimises investments based on money AND carbon. It triggers fair carbon competition between financial products, which increases their carbon profitability.

Carbon content and profitability also provide public authorities with new tools that combine efficiency and fairness to achieve the transition “on time” (in time for the survival of humanity, since time is on the wrong side).

*The principles followed are those of cumulative carbon accounting (Prof. Ulf von Kalckreuth, Bundesbank, United Nations carbon input-output matrices) and the E-Liability standard (Prof. Karthik Ramana and Robert Kaplan) for goods and services, transposed to financing by Carbones sur factures.