Al Gore's Nobel speech: Cap CO2 emissions

The Associated Press reports that 2000 president-elect and 2007 Nobel Prize winner Al Gore called for a universal global cap on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and the use of the market in emissions trading to efficiently allocate resources to the most effective opportunities for speedy reduction.

In accepting his Nobel Prize in person, Gore missed a chance to attend the wedding of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) co-founder Larry Page to Lucy Southworth at Necker Island. But Gore's speech included some stirring calls to act: "Despite a growing number of honorable exceptions, too many of the world's leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler's threat: 'They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.'"

What action is Gore taking? This week, he plans to urge the delegates in Bali to ratify a U.N. treaty to reduce global warming and bring it into effect everywhere in the world by the beginning of 2010 -- two years ahead of schedule. He also calls for heads of state to meet every three months until the treaty is completed. He urges a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store CO₂. And he calls for a CO₂ tax that shifts the tax burden from employment to pollution.

Too bad Gore's not a head of state with the power to make this happen.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in Google.