Carbon Coin?
News
Here we present articles, podcasts and blog posts that cover this proposal for a Carbon Currency. We also comment on the “carbon coin” solution that features in Kim Stanley Robinson’s acclaimed sci-fi novel, “The Ministry for the Future”. Please contact us if you would like a new article or discussion to be added to the list.
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SEC
15 June 2022
(Letter)
Tim Malloch writes to the Securities and Exchange Commission in response to consultation on the proposed rules for climate-related standard disclosures for investors. He proposes that central banks should move from their current positions as observers and intervene to introduce a carbon coin.
Planet Forward
17 May 2023
(Article)
Cate Twining-Ward, at Columbia University, writes about the carbon currency. She begins her article by recognising that we are in a planetary emergency and that high income countries are massively overshooting planetary boundaries and restraining the prospects of lower income countries…
The Michigan Daily
31 October 2023
(Article)
Ethan Bittner discusses the opportunity to introduce an official carbon coin to finance climate mitigation. He links the novel by K.S. Robinson to the Global Carbon Reward policy, and he also makes the reasonable interpretation that humanity will needed unprecedented levels of cooperation to resolve the problem.
Extinction Rebellion
12 March 2024
(YouTube)
Clare Farrell and Delton Chen explore Delton’s work on the global carbon reward, an economic concept which could provide a carrot and not just a stick in the field of international economic interventions.
Better Worlds
11 April 2022
(YouTube)
Dr Delton Chen joins host Vivi Lin (Shanghai, China) in a frank discussion about Web3, the limits of decentralized finance, carbon markets, and the Global Carbon Reward; a policy based upon Central Bank Digital Currencies to reduce and remove carbon at the speed and scale needed to stabilize the climate.
Better Worlds
24 April 2022
(YouTube)
What role can Blockchain and DeFi/ReFi play in global carbon sequestration?
Aldyen Donnelly, Co-Founder and Director of Carbon Economics, Nori LLC;
Christian Shearer, Chief Investment Officer, Regen Network;
Dr. Delton Chen, Project Director & Founder, Global Carbon Reward;
Democracy School
7 June 2022
(YouTube)
Nico Andreas Heller interviews Delton Chen about the Global Carbon Reward Initiative (GCR). The economic tool of the GCR is called a “carbon currency”, and this tool is featured in a science-fiction novel about climate change, called The Ministry for the Future. Delton Chen is the founder of GCR and will reflect on his journey thus far.
Gates Notes
6 June 2022
(Website)
Bill Gates writes about The Ministry for the Future. He gives a concise critique of the novel, in which he mentions tradeoffs. He talks about a ‘zero sum game’ problem that might arise when resources are switched from useful production to climate mitigation efforts. He implies that some low-carbon technologies are better than others because the smarter technologies will be more profitable and will not require a trade-off (a zero sum game). Gates’s interpretation of the “carbon coin” is not yet informed by the GCR policy for the carbon currency. The GCR policy will be managed to create as many co-benefits as possible so that the result is not a zero-sum game.
UN Climate Change
7 November 2021
(YouTube)
The third session of Countdown at COP26 features Kim Stanley Robinson, Author of “The Ministry for the Future”.
Harvard
3 February 2022
(Podcast)
Annelisa Kingsbury Lee interviews Dr. Delton Chen. They discuss the idea of a “carbon reward” and the carbon coin in “The Ministry for the Future”. Dr. Chen argues that we need a whole new type of carbon pricing: a currency that rewards carbon mitigation.
ImpactAlpha
9 February 2022
(YouTube)
With a ton of carbon fetching nearly $100 in Europe and prices rising in markets around the world, carbon is suddenly driving fund strategies, conservation financing, corporate accounting and crypto speculation. ImpactAlpha explores the leveraging of carbon finance for climate action.
Wall Street Journal
8 March 2022
(Article)
Scott Patterson takes a look at why a carbon coin could transform the economy. He talks with Australian civil engineer Delton Chen, to review the carbon currency that is portrayed in Kim Stanley Robinson’s climate-catastrophe novel.
Alternative site: TechiLive
Chatham House
1 October 2021
(Article)
Roxanne Escobales interviews Kim Stanley Robinson about “The Ministry For the Future”. They cover the role of science fiction in politics, the role of an international accord, global finance, eco-terrorism, science in science-fiction, and Robinson’s planned speech at COP26.
Climate Finance
7 October 2021
(Podcast)
Jonas Tobiassen interviews Delton Chen about the Global Carbon Reward (GCR) and carbon quantitative easing (CQE). The conversation covers modern monetary theory (MMT), ‘The Ministry for the Future’ by K.S. Robinson, quantitative easing and central bank mandates that are slowly moving towards climate change. Other topics include the carbon currency, governance and implementation.
GreenBiz
13 October 2021
(Article)
Adam Aston, senior writer at GreenBiz, explores the feasibility of a new global currency—notionally called a “carbon coin”—for resolving the climate crisis. Aston asks the important questions regarding the technology, economics, and the next steps towards implementation.
GCR
14 May 2021
(Interview)
Dr Claire Nelson discusses with Kim Stanley Robinson the thinking behind his novel on climate change, and his thoughts and reasons for proposing a new currency, that he calls “carbon coin”.
Harvard (HBR)
7 July 2021
(Pocast)
Azeem Azhar interviews Kim Stanley Robinson about “The Ministry For the Future”, and what it would take for institutions, individuals, and emerging technologies to save millions of lives. Covered in the interview are the topics of civil disobedience,
central banks, and climate restoration.
America
15 July 2021
(Article)
Vincent Miller says that ‘The Ministry for the Future’ novel portrays in great detail how economic and financial systems both contribute to the climate crisis and obstruct solutions.
Carbotnic
2 August 2021
(Podcast)
James McWalter interviews Delton Chen to discuss the thinking behind the carbon currency, and how it could be used to fund climate mitigation, ecosystem protection and community wellbeing.
TED
July 2021
(Video)
Coming to us from 60 years in the future, legendary sci-fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson tells the “history” of how humanity ended the climate crisis and restored the damage done to Earth’s biosphere. A rousing vision of how we might unite to overcome the greatest challenge of our time.
Popular Science
1 March 2021
(Website)
Ula Chrobak interviews Delton Chen and Étienne Espagne about the feasibility of the carbon coin proposal that features in “The Ministry for the Future”. The article covers the broad economic issues, and it is the first well-researched article on the topic. It is recommended reading to become familiar with this proposal to issue a carbon currency as a carbon reward.
ISTE NITK
20 March 2021
(YouTube)
Delton Chen gives a presentation on heat stress, the carbon currency, and the carbon pricing matrix to the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India.
A Correction
29 March 2021
(Podcast)
Lev interviews Delton Chen and asks some general questions about the Global Carbon Reward, the carbon currency, and how it could influence the world economy.
Rolling Stone
10 December 2020
What Will the World Look Like in 30 Years?
(Website)
Rolling Stone talks to Kim Stanley Robinson about the role of science in a sci-fi novel, violence as a political tool, and why he thinks it’s time to buy out the oil companies. Toward the end of the article Robinson talks about quantitative easing. “You’re going to have to pay off the oil companies. You’re going to have to pay off the petro states.”
Current Affairs
24 January 2021
The Ministry for the Future, or Do Authors Dream of Electric Jeeps?
(Website)
Samuel Miller McDonald, who is a highly qualified journalist, reviews the “The Ministry For The Future” as if it were an academic paper. McDonald notes that “carbon coin” is a currency issued by the world’s largest central banks to pay companies to not burn carbon. He comments that this is economically infeasible. This is not an accurate description of how the carbon currency will function, as explained here. The carbon currency does not pay fossil fuel companies to keep carbon in the ground.
Mashable
15 February 2021
Fight Carbon. With Coin.
(Website)
Chris Taylor does an interview with Delton Chen, and he frames the article as an open letter to the next century. Note that many people who are born this year are expected to live to 2100 and beyond. Taylor examines what the world might look like in 2100 — and how we can make the best scenario happen.
Gregory Landua
14 NOVEMBER 2020
Planetary Regeneration (Episode 36)
(Podcast)
Greg Landua talks with Dr. Delton Chen for the second time to go a layer deeper into the global carbon reward and Kim Stanley Robinson’s new book, “Ministry for the Future”. (Note: sound quality is variable and poor in places).
Bloomberg Green
22 April 2020
Making the Fed’s Money Printer Go Brrrr for the Planet
(Website)
In this article Kim Stanley Robinson makes the case for carbon quantitative easing (CQE). The article correctly states that CQE will coordinate central banks to create new money for de-carbonisation, however both the novel and the article are inaccurate about the purpose of CQE. The article says “Anything that kept carbon in the ground would earn carbon coins”. This is not how the real-world policy will work, as explained in the Introduction.
Ecoequity
27 October 2020
Kim Stanley Robinson’s “The Ministry for the Future”
(Blog)
Unlike most writers, Tom Athanasiou does write about the carbon coin and Carbon Quantitative Easing (CQE). The origin for CQE is incorrectly stated in the article. CQE originated in this paper. The interview links to other discussions on Bloomberg Green and it mentions Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). CQE is more sophisticated than MMT because CQE is a global monetary policy, whereas MMT is a national monetary policy.
The Guardian
20 November 2020
The Ministry for the Future: how to solve the climate crisis
(Website)
The Guardian does a fairly standard review of “The Ministry of the Future”. They describe the novel as a story about how the next few decades might unfold.
Vox
30 November 2020
The most important book I’ve read this year
(Podcast)
Ezra Klien has a conversation with Kim Stanley Robinson about climate change, capitalism, borders, terrorism, and currency.