Here’s an article that discusses the concept of a carbon tax. What most people don’t understand about this is that it must apply to all countries equally, or it will have disastrous unintended consequences. Imagine the immediate result of a carbon tax in the U.S.: higher costs to American manufacturers, meaning higher prices for our goods, and thus more goods bought from China, where the carbon footprint associated with manufacturing is far worse than it is here.
This is why my colleague Glenn Doty recommends incentive-based emissions reductions.
This is also what makes the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change both critically important and monstrously difficult. I’m rooting hard for IPCC chairperson Dr. Raj Pachauri (pictured) to succeed. What a fabulous person. I have more hair, but he has far more brains.
My interview with him can be found in “Renewable Energy – Following the Money.”
