It’s true that a carbon tax doesn’t have much of a direct effect on an individual’s carbon footprint.
For example, most people can’t afford to stop driving; getting from one place to another as quickly as possible is more a requirement than an option in today’s world. So unless a carbon tax raised the price of gasoline to be close to unaffordable, we are not going to see much change in people’s driving habits.
A case in point is the sin taxes on cigarettes. How many people are still smoking, despite taxes that make a single pack of cigarettes cost a ridiculous amount?
But when your company is pumping out large volumes of pollutants, even a small tax is going to cut into your profits noticeably. And that is really the purpose of a carbon tax regime. Not to drive polluters out of the business, but to get them to realize how much they could save — that is, increase their profits — by introducing cleaner, more efficient processes and technology.
Developing and implementing tech and systems also creates jobs, of course. Rather than losing ground as other countries invest in clean and green, Canada could be a world leader with made in Canada solutions.
Admittedly, this is a gamble. Companies may simply pass the cost increases along to the consumer, and not give a thought for improving their own situation. And it’s a political gamble that no doubt will cost the federal Liberals votes in next year’s election.
But even if you disagree with a carbon tax, the time to start taking action was long ago, and taking a chance on encouraging everyone to step up their game is at least doing something.
We need to start seeing some real solutions to climate change, action that the world has been putting on the back burner for far too long.