Abstract for an article on the TIMU proposal

This article presents a proposal for transforming the international monetary system, i.e. the . Terra International Monetary Union or TIMU system. TIMU would be an essential part of a comprehensive approach to dealing with the global economic recession and the climate crisis, while also expediting humanity’s transition into sustainable societies, the social, political and ecological relations of which will lead to greater purchasing power and quality of life not only in the global North, but especially in the global South. While reform proposals, such as Joseph Stiglitz’s “global greenback” intend to remove the US dollar as the international monetary standard between nations, the TIMU proposal adds to this the challenge of including the ecological dimension, i.e. carbon debts and credits, into their balance of payments (BOP) by adding a carbon account . The article outlines the three fatal flaws in the present international monetary system, which came into being after the collapse of the Bretton Woods system (August 1971). With the collapse of Bretton Woods architecture, it was no longer possible to convert US currency with gold and the mechanism which automatically adjusted surplus and deficits in the trade balances and capital flows between countries disappeared, leading to excessive credit creation with its boom and busts. While supporting the need for a Bretton Woods II, the article considers how carbon accounting and allocation can be used to create carbon accounts that can be part of the proposed transformed international monetary system. This system would replace the present US$ standard with the integrated Terra (Latin for Earth) standard which would lead to the return of fixed exchange rates as part of the proposed Global Central Bank’s accounting, monitoring and credit creating activities.