Carbon taxes may be unsustainable tools as political and price realities begin to sink in — and they aren’t the only policy option at politicians’ disposal.
Eight years ago, Mark Jaccard, a sustainable energy economist at Simon Fraser University, co-authored a paper that warned of the “severe political consequences” that would be faced by a federal government that chose to rely exclusively or primarily on carbon taxes to fuel a climate action strategy.
Recent polling suggests that, while British Columbians support climate action policies, that support decreases the more that those policies cost them. Now that carbon tax increases are getting costly enough to have their intended effect, which is to deter people from using fossil fuels, inflation-fatigued Canadians are starting to revolt against them.
“In a democratic system like Canada, politicians can’t get too far ahead of their voters on issues,” said Barry Penner, chair of the Energy Futures Initiative, a new B.C. energy policy think-tank. “And if the voters decide that various forms of climate action are too expensive or not working properly, it poses a real threat that climate action policies will be unwound.”
“I think governments have to be willing to adjust their timelines and possibly their policies because public support for climate action waxes and wanes.” Should the carbon tax be axed in Canada, it would still be possible to have effective climate action policies, Jaccard said, although he added that politicians vowing to “axe the tax” need to state what other policies they would implement.
“Definitely part of the problem is that they abandoned revenue neutrality,” he said. “If they were truly interested in reducing emissions, while continuing to foster investment and make business viable, they would provide some offsetting tax relief.”
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