For most countries around the world, sourcing energy entirely from wind, solar, geothermal, and hydropower by 2050 would reduce their energy needs and costs, improve air quality, and help slow climate change, according to a study in Environmental Science & Technology.
Our previous progressive government lost its next election over a price on carbon
It’s too easy for right wing politics to cast it as “your electricity prices will go up; fuel will get more expensive; you won’t be able to afford to use your gas heater in winter”
It’s a difficult policy to get, you need a party brave enough to implement it in their first weeks in power so people see it doesn’t hurt by the next election
There’s a really easy solution to this problem: Evenly redistribute the carbon tax income to all citizens. That way, prices might increase, but it you manage to have a low carbon footprint, you will end up net positive.
Although it’s virtually impossible to track on a personal level, so making people actually notice that net gain might prove difficult.
This is theoretically what we do in Germany, but the government kind of forgot about the paying out part.
This didn’t work in Canada. That is the carbon pricing system we have and still the opposing party has made it so unpopular every party has said they will remove the system in the next election.
Despite lots of evidence that the carbon pricing system we have was a net positive for most Canadians, people still are convinced it’s the cause of inflation.