Almost daily, we are pummeled by new scientific reports warning that Earth’s climate is heating up at a record-breaking clip. Last week, as we celebrated Earth Day, world leaders gathered to sign the ambitious Paris climate treaty. And some presidential candidates have opened debate about effective climate policy, daring to break the taboo against even mentioning the notion of taxing carbon pollution.
Accelerating climate trends, the bold promise of the Paris agreement and the nascent domestic climate debate must converge on broad, transparent policies that open up long term business opportunities for newer, cleaner energy and efficiency to displace dirty fossil fuels. No single policy can possibly meet that enormous, multi-generational challenge. But we need everyone’s active participation in this monumental transition that will affect every aspect of our lives. The best way to crowd-source climate action is by arming each and every one of us with more truthful energy prices and leaving us charge of making sound investment and purchasing decisions that reflect climate costs. Explicit and rising taxes on carbon pollution are the simplest and most direct way to convey the cost of climate risk through energy markets to every single investor and consumer so each of us can make the choices needed to drive down emissions. And carbon taxes are transparent and flexible enough to work within existing trade agreements to encourage and reinforce similar policies abroad. What’s more, carbon taxes offer tremendous opportunities to make our overall tax system fairer and more efficient by shifting tax burdens off productive activity and onto pollution, while assisting impacted communities and funding more efficient infrastructure.
My aim is to offer:
A timely selection of relevant analysis, writing and discussion about carbon taxes as well as options to reform and simplify other climate and energy polices so they more effectively and transparently price climate costs. I am encouraged by the robust blossoming of climate policy literature in the past decade; I especially applaud and seek to disseminate the spade work: empirical analysis to confirm, quantify and refine theoretical predictions, in effect sharpening the available policy tools.
A forum linking policy analysts, climate activists and policymakers to one another and to a “reference library” of cutting-edge information. I welcome your participation, feedback and support.
CarbonTaxNetwork.org 