The IPCC report that just…

The IPCC report that just came out concludes that we have only 12 years to dramatically reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to avoid devastating and deadly effects of climate change.

At nearly the same time, two economists won the Nobel Prize for their work showing that putting a price on carbon is the most effective way to reduce our GHGs.

Pollution has damaging and costly consequences. It shouldn’t be free. Imposing a fee for emitting GHGs creates an incentive to shift behaviour towards cleaner choices and motivates industry to create technologies that reduce emissions and improve energy efficiency. Nobody wants to pay more for anything. But moving to lower-GHG emissions now will be less of a burden in the long run. Climate change will have increasingly costly effects unless we curb GHG emissions now.

Relying on regulation alone hasn't proved effective in the past at reducing GHG emissions.

Above all businesses need predictability from government policy. Frequent changes to the cost of polluting makes it impossible for businesses to plan for their medium-and-long-term success. This is exactly the situation in Ontario. With the sudden cancellation of C&T, businesses were left with permits that are now effectively worthless (though likely to be refunded by the government), and uncertainty about whether a federal carbon tax will be imposed.