Federal carbon taxes are needed

The 2012 U.S. presidential and vice-presidential debates are over, and despite rising sea levels, melting ice in the Arctic region and record droughts, there was no mention of climate change.

It was very different four years ago, when both Barack Obama and John McCain promised to put a cap on carbon emissions.

What happened in the meantime?

It’s not that voters do not believe that the climate is warming on account of human activity. Only 30 per cent of Americans still think global warming is a natural phenomenon.

Nor is it that talk about emissions leads to a dreaded conversation about carbon taxes. According to a George Mason University poll, 61 per cent of Americans said they would vote for a candidate who supports a revenue-neutral carbon tax.

No, the real change since 2008 is that people all over the world have learned a lot more about global warming — and with good reason, they are afraid of it. We’d rather not think about it, and so apart from the gutsy Australians, British Columbians and Québécois, we don’t ask our leaders to talk about it.

But not talking about it makes no sense.

We need more politicians willing and able to generate support for a federal carbon tax.

A revenue-neutral carbon tax would help ease the transition to green energy. Fees could be collected at the source (the mine, the well, the port of entry). Some of that money could go directly into the pockets of people who drove their cars less, or switched to renewable energy sources. In the same way, companies converting to wind or solar power would pay lower carbon taxes.

The Americans almost did it with their Save Our Climate Act in 2011, and there are plans to reintroduce it in 2013. But here in Canada, we don’t yet even have a sketch of a bill.