The Carbon Tax and Dividend Strategy to Address Climate Change (2010)

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was the agreed upon. The fundamental problem is that fossil fuels are the cheapest form of energy and as long as that is true we are going to continue to use them and even more so the they're not really cheapest but they are cheapest for people to use because they are subsidized by governments and they are not made to pay the price to society. They're not made to pay for the costs of the damage to human health that's caused by the mercury in the arsenic and the aerosols that come from burning fossil fuels or the damage to the environment or the damage that our children and grandchildren will realize as climate changes. So. The solution needs to be a rising price on carbon unless we have that. We're not we're not not going to be able to solve the problem and we shouldn't

pretend that any goals for emissions reduction can solve the problem. A price is not sufficient by itself you need regulations for example on vehicle efficiency and building standards. But you need the carbon price in order to enforce the building standards for example. And the operation of buildings unless the fuel is costly is simply to ignore many people simply ignore the impact of inefficient use of our facilities. And technology development is required but again you need a carbon price in order to incentivize that technology development. So my suggestion is that we need to put a

simple carbon fee at the mine or the port of entry at them. At the coal mine or the wellhead or the port of entry where the fossil fuel comes into the country and that price that fee needs to gradually rise it would be collected from the fossil fuel company and the total amount of money should be distributed to the public on a per capita basis. So every legal resident of the country would get an equal amount. Distributed monthly electronically to their bank account or to their debit card if they don't have a bank account. And for example by the time the carbon fee reaches the equivalent of $1 a gallon on gasoline the collected money in the United States given the amount of coal oil and gas that we use

last year would be six hundred seventy eight billion dollars. If you divide that among the legal residents with half a share for each child up to two children per family it comes to $3000 per person. So for a family of with two or more children it's $1000 a year. Well their energy prices are going to increase also. The 60 percent of the people using the least amount of carbon would actually get more back in the dividend than they get in increased energy prices but the people who have two houses and big cars and fly around the world a lot would pay a lot more in their increased energy cost and they would get back in the dividend. But with this that kind of. A price signal. You would begin. People would begin to take actions because when they recognize that that but carbon fee is going to increase over

time the next time they buy a vehicle they'll get a more efficient one and they will take the steps to reduce their emissions by insulating their home or getting more efficient appliances. And that way to keep their fee and to keep their increased energy cost less than the amount they get in the dividend.

The Carbon Tax and Dividend Strategy to Address Climate Change (2010)

Mitigating the impact of climate change is difficult because many activities central to modern life (such as driving cars, flying planes, and manufacturing and transporting goods) rely on fuel that emits carbon. Historically, many economists have favored a carbon tax—a tax levied on carbon-based fuels that would discourage the production and consumption of coal and oil, thus encouraging the development of alternative fuels. One such scheme was described by pioneering climate scientist Dr. James Hansen on an episode of WGBH Forum Network entitled “After Copenhagen: Real Solutions for Global Climate Change.” Just months after the failure of governments to reach international accord at the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference, Hansen lays out the logic of a carbon tax and advocates for what he calls a “fee and dividend” strategy, in which the proceeds from a carbon tax would be redistributed to the public through an annual dividend for all citizens.

WGBH Forum Network: After Copenhangen | Cambridge Forum (Television station : WGBH, M.A.) | January 28, 2010 This video clip and associated transcript appear from 19:06 - 23:45 in the full record.

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