Quote:
Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
I'm very interested in any alternative to a carbon tax that would help us meet our international obligations. What would you offer as an alternative?
Carbon taxes work extremely well (with other policies of course), and if done properly with other polkicy supports to shift consumption patterns, then they don't cost the average family much more, sometimes even less. Home heating accounts for a large portion of our emissions, and efficiencies/technologies need to move in the right direction and need policy support to do that.
For your home heating example, a carbon tax would make high efficency furnaces and heat pumps become more cost effective when carbon pricing is implements correctly. Of course there needs to be means testing involved somehow to avoid the poorest having the hardest time adjusting. Canada's current plan is far from perfect, but I think does a decent job of trying to bridge that gap:
https://www.canada.ca/en/services/en...buildings.html |
Due to the carbon tax I didn't heat my garage this last winter. We also bought a little car for our errands instead of the SUV we use when we drive our whole family around. I don't think we're the only ones that made decisions to decrease our consumption. If it wasn't for the carbon tax I wouldn't have made those changes. Maybe it's good, and maybe it's bad, but whatever it is, it is effective.