Good News

Photograph: Yves Herman/Pool/EPA

The world may be getting warmer, but, for one day at least, it looks as if hell is getting colder. What’s that? A piece of good news from Copenhagen? No, my friend, not one piece, but two! Not only is Europe pledging €2.4bn a year to help developing nations cope with the cost of climate change, but Britain and France have called for the introduction of the Tobin tax to fund it.

“To ensure predictable and additional finance in the medium term to 2020 and beyond, we should make use of innovative financing mechanisms, such as the use of revenues from a global financial transactions tax and the reduction of aviation and maritime emissions and the auctioning of national emissions permits,” Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarcozy said in a joint statement.

It’s a handy way to tie up the twin crises of ecology and economy, compensating the poorest nations on Earth – often first in the firing line when it comes to climate change – for our occidental excesses, whilst reigning in the global financial system. The deniers and conspiracy nuts – including those not-quite-so-lefty-lefties at Harry’s Place (is there any low to which they will not sink?) -  are still wringing their hands with glee at climategate, telling us all to stop worrying, but this is, at its heart, a true redistributive measure that any genuine socialist, no matter where they stand on anthropogenic climate change, should welcome.

America, as usual, is dragging her heels. FOX News’ horsemanure of the apocalypse, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity may delude themselves into thinking Obama is a socialist, but on this side of the pond he’s way behind a conservative Frenchman and a cardboard box.