Carbon Tax

Putting a price on carbon is the best solution for climate change.

Academic English 3

21th of January, 2014.

Air pollution has been a part of human life since the first burning of vegetation areas for farming and since the introduction of cattle to produce food a few thousand years ago. However, a large increase in the production of greenhouse gases began with the Industrial Revolution around 300 years ago because human race started to burn fossil fuels to produce goods and services (Stromberg, 2013). Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927), a Swedish scientist, claimed in 1896 that the combustion of fossil fuels may harm the environment by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, causing global warming (Enzler, n.d.). However, it was not until 1980 that scientists and public realized that global warming was a fact (Enzler, n.d.) and needed to be addressed. Since then, politicians and scientists have tried to find solutions to the problems associated with greenhouse gas emissions such as the development of new energy sources (Beinecke, 2013), recycling, using less air conditioning, using less hot water, planting trees, driving less (West, n.d.) and a carbon pricing or carbon tax, which is a levy charge on the production, distribution or usage of fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas or oil, based on the amount of carbon that is emitted. In addition, the tax is intended to make these type of energy more expensive, encouraging businesses, utilities and individuals to reduce consumption and increase energy efficiency (Dowdey, n.d.). Whereas, some of these solutions are practical and easy to achieve the pricing of carbon does not have a significant effect on climate change. Moreover, a carbon tax would have negative effects on economic growth and peoples’ goods and services.

The effect of a carbon tax on economic growth would be negative because any new cost in the process of producing goods and services would directly influence the last price and...