Veröffentlicht als: Bericht der new economics foundation, 2013.

Autoren: Josh Ryan-Collins, Ludwig Schuster und Tony Greenham

Abstract

Modern interest-bearing bank-debt money creates the illusion of exponentially growing wealth and an unceasing demand for economic growth and/or inflation. In return, it has delivered instability and misallocation of investment, and encouraged myopic policy-making. To make the economy work for the planet, and therefore for the long-term interests of humanity, we need to change how money works. We need a feedback loop between nature and the economy. This report examines the potential of energy-related monetary instruments – currencies and accounting frameworks – to provide such feedback. Since energy is as fundamental to the economy as it is to the natural sciences, it is an attractive option upon which to base such feedback.

This report is a first attempt to systemically review the rich and burgeoning field of energy money proposals and projects. We present a new taxonomy of energy money to guide the reader through this work. It charts the functions of money, the important characteristics of energy, and the relationships between the two.