What specific policy proposals do you want to address Climate Change?

[Blue3]

What specific policy proposals do you want to address climate change in the United States, for those saying that climate change is an issue that Congress and the President should do more about? And how will those policies "do it" and be enough?

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

- replace all existing emissions schemes and regional emissions taxes with a straight tax on carbon emissions (revenue neutral) per tonne. A global tax would be ideal, but I'm not that naive.

Grid

- complete phase out of coal fired plants, and ban on constructing new ones.
- incrementally higher percentage of renewable based energy, with preference to locally owned solar.
- use natural gas as a crutch till third gen biofuels and energy storage programs become advanced enough to maintain the grid when winds drop.

Energy Efficiency a

- set a new standard for housing. All new houses and property should be designed as carbon-neutral; district heating should be common place in urban areas and there should be subsidised retrofits for older housing stock. Solar panels and green roofs should become ubiquitous.
- set a target to reduce the energy usage of appliances, vehicles etc. and set these in stone in the multilateral trade deals that are all the rage nowadays.

Transport
- the priority should be towards electrification wherever possible.
- In particular, investment is needed to reduce the pollution from freight trucks, container ships and aeroplanes - pan-industry standards are definitely needed ASAP; as well as increased research.
- fresh "cash for clunkers" scheme buying back energy efficient cars.
- investment in trams, rail (I think HSR is a waste of time frankly; unless you get the Elon Musk style magirails), pedestrianisation and bike schemes in urban areas. In rural areas, it's trickier; but dial and ride/carshare programs have their uses.
- urban planners need to collectively be less stupid. I'll leave it at that.

Agriculture

- oh yeah, while we're at it MOST BIOETHANOL PROGRAMS ARE TERRIBLE PLS STOP THEM ASAP.
-  there should be less cattle alive today. Raising the price on beef would be unpopular, but we are consuming ruminants at an unsustainable pace considering their associated emissions.
- pay farmers to capture methane from manure etc. to use as biogas.
- encourage Eastern countries to phase out the waterlogged model for price production. (And possible mandated use of ammonium sulfate to reduce methane emissions). At current research we could quite easily and economically reduce GHG emissions by 25%
- farm equipment subject to same efficiency standards as before.
- only subsidise nitrogen efficient plants,encourage genetic moderation to achieve this goal.
- other long-term goals include autonomous interior farms, hydroponics, faux meat and dairy etc.

Land and Sea Use
- restock oceans by moratorium on trawling and stricter controls of eutrophication, encourage the farming of shellfish
- if anybody advocates iron seeding, throw them into a compost bin.
- encourage landowners to restock their land with forests, and clamp down on illegal deforestation (which would itself be a whole other struggle, but eh)

And yes, it would require civilised multilateral actions with shared acknowledgement that sacrifices will have to be made especially in the first world. In other words: we are probably boned.

[Mr. Smith]

Damn you CrabCake, you beat me to it.

However, I'd be a little nicer on ethanol given the more destructive routes plants end up going (such as unhealthy food additives), at least for a bit.

Also, maybe use the environment a bit more directly to lift energy (Ex: Wave energy on the coasts, geothermal energy in places with lots of geysers, wind energy in mountainous areas)


And find a renewable source(s) with which to make something like plastic. That'd spare a lot of oil.

[Mehmentum]

In addition to renewable energy/energy efficiency etc. we also need to develop ways to deal with the effects of climate change.

We need to transition coastal communities inland and/or make them more flood resistant.  We need to prepare for weather pattern changes (such as droughts in the western US, increase in Hurricanes in Southeast).  Some areas of the world will receive more rainfall, and other's less.  We need to be able to deal with these often unpredictable ramifications of a warming world.

[RFayette]

-Massive expansion of nuclear power
-Significant increase of research into carbon capture programs and geoengineering
-SO2 emissions into atmosphere, dump powdered limestone into ocean to address ocean acidification,
-Work on making power grid more efficient
-Work on adaptation for coastal communities


There are others, but those are the ones I'd look most into.  

[bedstuy]

A pollution/greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system for all stationary sources of pollution.

An increase in the gas tax of 50%, with funding prioritized for transit. 

An infrastructure program on par with the interstate highway system, focused on BRT, light rail, subways, commuter rail and environmental remediation projects. 

A federal fund dedicated towards financing cleaner energy, recycling, retrofitting and energy savings.

[Blue3]

Any more ideas or comments on this?

[Citizen Hats]

Carbon tax carbon tax carbon tax.

Oh, and a carbon tax

The non-carbon pricing points are usually some variation of shiny-object fixation