We know we need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in order to act on our climate change challenges and opportunities, we know we can and need to do more and a lot faster than we have been moving in the past. Now the more important question is how best can society do that?
Climate change at its core is a market failure. If we truly accounted for the present and future impacts of climate change into our modern day accounting of products that create greenhouse gas emissions, instead of allowing it to be externalized onto society and future generations we would be able to more accurately understand the costs of our present energy system. But how do we correct for that market failure? Carbon pricing is how we start to do that. Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission has just released a new report outlining the most cost-effective and practical approach to lowering greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. Their recommendation: Every province across Canada should put a price on carbon. Check out their The Way Forward Report. It is well worth a read and highlights the actions and progress taking place across the world (see image below for a map of carbon pricing progress) to address our present energy systems market failure and bring us ever closer to our goal of a future sustainable energy system.
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