Thursday, October 10, 2019

IMF Proposes Global $75 a Ton Carbon Tax "by 2030"

Today's Washington Post reported "The world needs a massive carbon tax in just 10 years to limit climate change, IMF says" by Chris Mooney and Andrew Freedman.

The first paragraph notes "A global agreement to make fossil fuel burning more expensive is urgent and the most efficient way of fighting climate change, an International Monetary Fund study found on Thursday."  The article added "The Nobel Prize-winning Yale economist William D. Nordhaus has argued that a carbon tax of $300 per ton or even higher might be required." and "'The climate crisis is so dire, and public/popular determination to attack it is suddenly so strong and unquenchable, that even $75/ton by 2030 seems far too moderate a target,' wrote Charles Komanoff, director of the Carbon Tax Center, in an emailed response to the IMF study."

The article cited Paolo Mauro, deputy director of the fiscal affairs department at the IMF: “If you compare the average level of the carbon tax today, which is $2 [a ton], to where we need to be, it’s a quantum leap.”

The gap between so-called "idealism" and serious planning is rapidly narrowing but action is what matters to reduce CO2 emissions before humans lose control of the climate crisis. As I noted before, political realism is the same as planetary suicide.

In a previous post, I wrote The Imitation Game noted "We were at war with the clock." and "Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of [Think Greta Thunberg.] who do the things that no one can imagine."

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