Instead of allowing low oil prices to encourage consumption, governments could take the opportunity to impose a small, politically acceptable energy or carbon-equivalent tax – an approach advocated by many economists and development specialists, including Jeffrey Sachs, Lawrence Summers, and Kemal Derviş. Such a tax would not only sustain the price signals needed to steer societies onto a more sustainable energy path; it would also provide revenues that could be channeled toward employment creation and long-term green investments, thereby leveraging private capital.