If Tories want to lead on climate change, they must embrace a price on carbon

By Letter to the Editor on August 27, 2018.

A recent headline read, “World class leader embraces carbon pricing.”

Open debate is healthy for democracy so kudos to Andrew Scheer for this move. I see a soupon of hope in that on top of one priority list is a resolution that the party should recognize the importance of climate change and be a “World Class Leader” in climate change. But then comes the thud. A lower resolution cancels all that by stating that there “should be no federal carbon tax or cap and trade system.”

World class leader with no carbon pricing policy is an oxymoron. Carbon pricing is lauded by most economists to be effective and efficient. In an Aug. 18 article in The Economist regarding carbon pricing, it stated that “taxes raise around twice as much revenue as today’s cap-and-trade schemes, and are roughly 50 per cent better at cutting emissions. A levy of $70 on each tonne of CO2 by 2030 would typically raise between 1 and and 2.5 per cent of GDP in the G20 countries. It would also allow most to meet or even exceed their Paris pledges.

So if the Tories resolve is to lead on the climate file, they must embrace what works best: A price on carbon.