Why Carbon Taxes Work
I agree that externalities should be priced in - but I wonder if in practice Governments would end up footing the bill via subsidies.<p>For example, look at what happened in France with the fuel tax rise which lead to the “gilets jaunes” protests.<p>If people need to get to work and heat their homes etc. then putting a tax on all of that will hit them hard while the rich will be relatively unaffected and can continue polluting. A simple flat tax on CO2 emissions, while far easier to implement, would be regressive compared to one that scaled with your personal emissions or something.<p>Such a regressive tax, levied on basic things like energy, fuel etc. that are fundamental to normal life seems incredibly likely to trigger political unrest as we saw in France.