Conference Board Backs Carbon Taxes

The Conference Board of Canada is recommending the prompt introduction of hefty carbon taxes on businesses and individuals alike in order to curb greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. From the Toronto Star:

"The think-tank joined a growing list of research and business groups calling for taxes or other financial policies to reduce emissions from coal, oil, gas and other fossil fuels.

All companies and individuals should pay a tax that stings enough to make them change their behaviour and adopt less-polluting technologies, the report says.

The recommendation includes measures far tougher than what the report calls the federal government's "modest" climate change plan. It also suggests a starting price of about $25 a tonne for emissions – far higher than Ottawa has proposed in its limited scheme – and says the price should keep rising.

For Canada's largest greenhouse gas emitters – mainly in the oil and gas industry, electricity generation and major energy users such as steel, aluminum, chemicals, mining, cement and forest products– the board proposes the tax be accompanied by an emissions cap-and-trade system.

"Canadians pay nothing to spew greenhouse gases, even though the pollution will cause floods, droughts, storm damage, physical and mental health problems and many other "potentially irreversible disruptions," the report says. "Since there is no price on these negative consequences, consumers and producers have no need to factor the cost of emissions into their decision-making."

The challenge, the board says, "is to derive a price ... which consumers and producers would then take into account."