POPE BENEDICT XVI on payment of full Carbon Price (Carbon Debt) via business meeting the full cost of damaging the environment that is the property of everyone, including future generations.
Pope Benedict XVI in his Encyclical Letter "Caritas in Veritate" on climate justice for future generations (2009): “This responsibility is a global one, for it is concerned not just with energy but with the whole of creation, which must not be bequeathed to future generations depleted of its resources. Human beings legitimately exercise a responsible stewardship over nature, in order to protect it, to enjoy its fruits and to cultivate it in new ways, with the assistance of advanced technologies, so that it can worthily accommodate and feed the world's population. On this earth there is room for everyone: here the entire human family must find the resources to live with dignity, through the help of nature itself — God's gift to his children — and through hard work and creativity. At the same time we must recognize our grave duty to hand the earth on to future generations in such a condition that they too can worthily inhabit it and continue to cultivate it. This means being committed to making joint decisions “after pondering responsibly the road to be taken, decisions aimed at strengthening that covenant between human beings and the environment, which should mirror the creative love of God, from whom we come and towards whom we are journeying”[120]. Let us hope that the international community and individual governments will succeed in countering harmful ways of treating the environment. It is likewise incumbent upon the competent authorities to make every effort to ensure that the economic and social costs of using up shared environmental resources are recognized with transparency and fully borne by those who incur them, not by other peoples or future generations: the protection of the environment, of resources and of the climate obliges all international leaders to act jointly and to show a readiness to work in good faith, respecting the law and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of the planet [121]. One of the greatest challenges facing the economy is to achieve the most efficient use — not abuse — of natural resources, based on a realization that the notion of “efficiency” is not value-free” (Section 50,Pope Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter “Caritas in Veritate”, 29 June 2009: http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate.html ).
[Editor's note: climate change economist Dr Chris Hope from 90-Nobel–Laureate University of Cambridge has estimated a damage-related Carbon Price of US$150-$250 per tonne CO2-e (CO2-equivalent) depending on location. Based on a Carbon Price of $100 per tonne CO2-e, the World now has a Carbon Debt (in US dollars) from historical CO2 pollution (mostly from European countries) of $270 trillion that is increasing at $10 trillion each year, and Australia (a world leader in annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution) has a Carbon Debt of $5.6 trillion that is increasing at $300 billion per year (increasing at about $30,000 each year per head for under-30 year old Australians). Based on a Carbon Price of $200 per tonne CO2-e [3], the World now has a Carbon Debt (in US dollars) of $540 trillion that is increasing at $20 trillion each year and Australia has a Carbon Debt of $11 trillion that is increasing at $600 billion per year (increasing at about $60,000 each year per head for under-30 year old Australians) (see Dr Chris Hope, “How high should climate change taxes be?”, Working Paper Series, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, 9.2011: http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/research/workingpapers/wp1109.pdf and “Carbon Debt Carbon Credit”: https://sites.google.com/site/carbondebtcarboncredit/ )].